Home Theater PCs aren’t necessarily powerful devices per se, but it always helps to have that extra grunt under the hood when you need it. That’s why Chinese HTPC maker Giada has decided to release two HTPCs that bring Ivy Bridge to the HTPC fold. The D2303 and i53 are both extremely small and handy HTPCs that are powered by Intel’s newest generation silicon, Ivy Bridge. The D2303 is a small squat box that’s able to accommodate ahost of Ivy Bridge processors and has NVIDIA’s next generation Kepler GPU for heavier transcoding duties, along with a slot optical drive (DVD or Blu-ray). It also sports USB 3.0 slots for faster data transfer speed, which becomes important when transferring videos to the HDD or optional SSD inside it. They didn’t mention it, but we’re sure the D2303 also sports an HDMI port for HD. Even with all of these features, the D2303 only has a measly 50W power consumption.
Like the D2303, the Giada i53 also uses Intel Ivy Bridge processors to deliver HD content to your home PC. This particular model is a free standing one, and doesn’t have an GPU inside it, instead relying on the built-in graphics of the Ivy Bridge platform for transcoding. Like the i53, you’re also looking at full HD output, USB 3.0 and a measly 30W power consumption, which makes it one of the most eco-friendly HTPC options in the market today. Giada did not give prices for both units during our visit, but we estimate these things will retail for $200 to $350 when they hit the market.