The living room PC is sounds like a great idea; all of your games, movies, and photos on a giant screen. Execution is another matter, however, and the boutique computer makers who’ve tried to enter this market have often had little luck. Now, a new manufacturer has emerged with a commitment to crack this tough problem: Steiger Dynamics.
Founded two years ago, the company focuses on expensive, premium, super-powered home theater PCs. Knowing that no off-the-shelf enclosure could adequately encase a cutting-edge home theater PC, Steiger Dynamics builds all of its cases from scratch from thick aluminum panels.
Though costly – the case for these high-end PCs is available to system builders, for $800 – this approach gives Steiger Dynamics the opportunity to craft a product tailored to the needs of the living room. The case must have room for powerful hardware, yet the cooling system can emit no more noise than a whisper. To achieve this, the company’s enclosures are designed with space for large, slow-spinning fans and liquid cooling radiators.
The flagship of the company is the Leet, a massive machine that weighs up to 55 pounds and can be equipped with liquid cooling for both the processor and video cards, a front-mounted LCD screen, an overclocked Intel Core i7 processor, two Nvidia Titan video cards, and a TV tuner card. Pricing starts at $1,799 but can soar well above $6,000 with all the options checked.
Steiger Dynamics’ big announcement at this year’s show, however, is the Maven, a smaller HTPC built for enthusiasts with shallow wallets. Starting at $999, this smaller model can be customized with either AMD or Intel processors and ships in a lighter, shorter case.
Some of the Leet’s options, like the LED display, are not available, but the Maven can still be an outlandishly quick powerhouse. The best pre-configured model, the Maven Reference, has a Core i7-4780K six-core processor and GTX 760 graphics card. Further customization can add a second graphics card and up to 12TB of storage, enough to store 1,000 Blu-Ray movies.
The Maven is will be available for purchase in late January.
