ASRock Vision 3D 252B HTPC Review

Name: ASRock Vision 3D 252B HTPC
Brand: ASRock

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, August 01, 2012, 10:50 AM EDT

ASRocks’ Vision 3D SFF / HTPC machines are available in either black or silver finishes. But all of the Vision 3D-branded systems use the enclosure and have the same complement of ports and connectors. ASRock does, however, also offer the Vision HT and Core HT series mini-PCs, which have different configurations and enclosures.

ASRock Vision 3D 252B: Front and Back

The machine you see here is a black (obviously) ASRock Vision 3D 252B. As you can see, the machine has an understated appearance and ASRock makes no effort to stealth or otherwise hide any connectors. The fact that all of the system’s various connectors are in plain sight at all times may turn off some potential users, but we think the system looks great. The front is home to nothing but a slot for the optical drive and a single row of ports in a clean, uncluttered arrangement.

There’s lots of stuff going on around the back of the machine, but it many situations there will only be three cables connected, power, network, and HDMI, and perhaps a transceiver or two for input devices and a game controller.

The ASRock Vision 3D 252B HTPC offers a host of connectivity options on its front and rear. The front of the machine houses headphone and microphone jacks, two USB 3.0 ports, an optical drive, flash card reader, a drive activity indicator and a lighted (blue) power button. On the back of the machine, users will find an HDMI output, a DVI output, an eSATA port, six more USB ports (4 x 2.0, 2 x 3.0), various audio inputs and outputs, an RJ45 LAN jack, a Kensington lock port, and a power port. About the only thing “missing” here is a Firewire port, but with USB 3.0 and eSATA available, that’s not much of a concern in our opinion.

Tags: Nvidia, Intel, Blu-ray, HTPC, 3D, ASRock

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com