



Most HTPC s have more modest components than your average gaming rig, and they’re typically designed to be quiet and to blend in with a home theater. Enthusiasts who go the HTPC route will often keep a dedicated PC in the media room and keep another set up for serious gaming. Velocity Micro is apparently not a fan of that model, because the company just released a monster system called the Raptor Multiplex that’s designed to be a kitchen sink sort of computer with both powerful gaming capabilities and all the home media amenities you’d want.The solid all- black aluminum chassis certainly looks like it means business, and on the inside there’s a Thunderbolt -enabled Asus P8Z77-V Pro motherboard, up to an Intel Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GTX 600 series discrete graphics, and 16GB of DDR3-2133 memory. The storage configuration starts with an Intel 520 Series SSD and ends with a whopping three 2TB HDDs in a RAID 5 configuration. An Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro heatsink with an ultra quiet fan cools the CPU.On the home theater side, the Raptor Multiplex includes the ability to record four simultaneous programs, 1080p HD Blu-ray, HD 9.1-channel audio with S/PDIF out, and the ability to connect to media extenders such as an Xbox 360.We’re a little skeptical that a machine with these specs can run quietly enough to please the HTPC set, but there’s no doubt that the Velocity Micro Raptor Multiplex is a powerful (and very cool-looking) performer. It starts at $1,899 and will ship March 14th.