New HTPC

Pauly
Pauly Posts: 4,519
edited February 2010 in The Clubhouse
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103235

With the arrival of my new TV and my old modded XBOX not delivering full HD and other limits, I decided to upgrade. After tons of reading this lil bugger is what i got. With ION and A Dual Core Atom on board, HDMI, SPDIF and tons of other ports its a no brainer for the price. Went and looked at it at the local COMPUSA but it was 359.99+tax. Im surprised at what this thing spits out for the price and size. Cant wait to get it and have it up and running. Will do a upgrade to WIN7 Ultimate 64 and get my HD stream on :)

Pauly
Life without music would♭
Post edited by Pauly on
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  • bigaudiofanatic
    bigaudiofanatic Posts: 4,415
    edited February 2010
    Congrats man I will be building a new HT computer soon.
    HT setup
    Panasonic 50" TH-50PZ80U
    Denon DBP-1610
    Monster HTS 1650
    Carver A400X :cool:
    MIT Exp 3 Speaker Wire
    Kef 104/2
    URC MX-780 Remote
    Sonos Play 1

    Living Room
    63 inch Samsung PN63C800YF
    Polk Surroundbar 3000
    Samsung BD-C7900
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  • Knucklehead
    Knucklehead Posts: 3,602
    edited February 2010
    with more content available on the web i think this will become more popular, I know I would love to have something like that. Enjoy!
    Polk Audio Surround Bar 360
    Mirage PS-12
    LG BDP-550
    Motorola HD FIOS DVR
    Panasonic 42" Plasma
    XBOX 360[/SIZE]

    Office stuff

    Allied 395 receiver
    Pioneer CDP PD-M430
    RT8t's & Wharfedale Diamond II's[/SIZE]

    Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music. ~Ronald Reagan
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    bigaudiofanatic wrote: »
    Congrats man I will be building a new HT computer soon.

    I had the tought of building one, but wanted something small compact and ready right outta the box and powerful. My buddy has pretty much same one in specs but his is Single core and says his runs lil choppy with 1080P. Guess its a known issue for chipset and in works to release update. He paid about the same as i did only a few months ago.

    Pauly
    Life without music would♭
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,726
    edited February 2010
    I know you don't need tons of processing power for an HTPC, but that seems a tad on the light side to me.

    I'm anxious to hear how it works out for you, be sure to let us know what you think once you get it.
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »
    I know you don't need tons of processing power for an HTPC, but that seems a tad on the light side to me.

    I'm anxious to hear how it works out for you, be sure to let us know what you think once you get it.

    This thing is about the size of my wireless router. Didnt want to go big. Was thinking power consumption(65w Hello?), size so it fits on my rack as it will be my Media Player and HTPC. Me and a bunch of buddies are running a Hamachi Network so we stream each others files etc.. From all the reviews it should suit me just fine (I hope). Will post my results when i get it up and running.

    Pauly
    Life without music would♭
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  • concealer404
    concealer404 Posts: 7,440
    edited February 2010
    Is the board expandable to more RAM? I kindof want to build a combo gaming/htpc setup, but this may make things a bit redundant if it's that good.
    I don't read the newsssspaperssss because dey aaaallllllllll...... have ugly print.

    Living Room: B&K Reference 5 S2 / Parasound HCA-1000A / Emotiva XDA-2 / Pioneer BDP-51FD / Paradigm 11se MKiii

    Desk: Schiit Magni 2 Uber / Schiit Modi 2 Uber / ISK HD9999

    Office: Schiit Magni 2 Uber / Schiit Modi 2 Uber / Dynaco SCA-80Q / Paradigm Legend V.3

    HT: Denon AVR-X3400H / Sony UBP-X700 / RT16 / CS350LS / RT7 / SVS PB1000
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    concealer404 wrote: »
    Is the board expandable to more RAM? I kindof want to build a combo gaming/htpc setup, but this may make things a bit redundant if it's that good.

    See i wanted a dedicated Game/Main pc with all my files and one of these for Networking/HTPC/Media Player use. 325.00 Shipped is a no brainer IMHO

    No Memory slots avail, but might be able to add 2 2 gig sticks. Dont think i will need it.

    Pauly
    Life without music would♭
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  • bigaudiofanatic
    bigaudiofanatic Posts: 4,415
    edited February 2010
    Pauly wrote: »
    I had the tought of building one, but wanted something small compact and ready right outta the box and powerful. My buddy has pretty much same one in specs but his is Single core and says his runs lil choppy with 1080P. Guess its a known issue for chipset and in works to release update. He paid about the same as i did only a few months ago.

    Pauly

    Nice I just want one for something to toy with. I can not stream movies threw the internet as our satellite internet will time our. but other than that they are pretty nice to have.

    But today i am enjoying my new macbook pro UGH so sexy.
    HT setup
    Panasonic 50" TH-50PZ80U
    Denon DBP-1610
    Monster HTS 1650
    Carver A400X :cool:
    MIT Exp 3 Speaker Wire
    Kef 104/2
    URC MX-780 Remote
    Sonos Play 1

    Living Room
    63 inch Samsung PN63C800YF
    Polk Surroundbar 3000
    Samsung BD-C7900
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    Got it last week, Wiped it clean and installed a freshy of Win7 Ultimate. (Tons of OEM Crap was on it) Running Hamachi network, got Twonky running via XBMC so can stream all my buddies media. Got a 1tb salve hooked up via eSata with all my media. This thing packs a punch and am very pleased with it hooked up to the new 47" REGZA.

    Here are some updated pics.


    Pauly
    Life without music would♭
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  • Systems
    Systems Posts: 14,873
    edited February 2010
    bigaudiofanatic wrote: »
    Nice I just want one for something to toy with. I can not stream movies threw the internet as our satellite internet will time our. but other than that they are pretty nice to have.

    But today i am enjoying my new macbook pro UGH so sexy.

    Say what Internet Satellite provider are you using? I've had some experience with this over the years. Might have some input for you and maybe a different provider..
    Testing
    Testing
    Testing
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  • Systems
    Systems Posts: 14,873
    edited February 2010
    Pauly wrote: »
    Got it last week, Wiped it clean and installed a freshy of Win7 Ultimate. (Tons of OEM Crap was on it) Running Hamachi network, got Twonky running via XBMC so can stream all my buddies media. Got a 1tb salve hooked up via eSata with all my media. This thing packs a punch and am very pleased with it hooked up to the new 47" REGZA.

    Here are some updated pics.


    Pauly

    Okay, next on the list, a new camera:)
    Testing
    Testing
    Testing
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    Lorthos wrote: »
    Okay, next on the list, a new camera:)

    Sorry, its my Phone. The ex took the camera and never got around getting a new one.

    Pauly
    Life without music would♭
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited February 2010
    I looked at the first pic - nice LCD, wireless mouse and keyboard...cool.

    Next pic - holy crap, that little modem-looking thing on the rack is the computer! That's awesome, man. Great little HTPC.

    Hope it works well for you!
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    audiobliss wrote: »
    I looked at the first pic - nice LCD, wireless mouse and keyboard...cool.

    Next pic - holy crap, that little modem-looking thing on the rack is the computer! That's awesome, man. Great little HTPC.

    Hope it works well for you!

    6 USB's, 1 HDMI 1 Optical and one eSata, the majority of the guts is the video card (ION)

    Its working out well for now. Its quiet as a mouse and only uses up 65w. Very satisfied.
    Life without music would♭
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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited February 2010
    Hows 1080p mkv playback?

    Ive been on the fence about either a) getting something like this, or b) getting WD TV Live
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    JohnLocke88 wrote: »
    Hows 1080p mkv playback?

    Damn good. Runs smooth. Am able to stream 720P mkv's from my buddy, (He has FIOS 35up/down) with no problem. I need to bump my internets up the new RR lightning as the 1080P's buffer too much.
    Life without music would♭
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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited February 2010
    Pauly wrote: »
    Damn good. Runs smooth. Am able to stream 720P mkv's from my buddy, (He has FIOS 35up/down) with no problem. I need to bump my internets up the new RR lightning as the 1080P's buffer too much.

    I'd imagine. Our internets are the basic broadband... buffers on 480p streams most of the time.

    Ugh, computer technology changes so damn fast; I'm out of the loop for four months and everything changes.

    Not to thread jack, but I'm trying to think of pros/cons of this over WD TV Live.

    Guessing the streaming of friends' content was a big selling point for you?
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    JohnLocke88 wrote: »
    Guessing the streaming of friends' content was a big selling point for you?

    Yes and netflix will be going to HD soon as well.....
    Life without music would♭
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  • Sami
    Sami Posts: 4,634
    edited February 2010
    Do you have any BD's converted to MKV you could try for 1080p playback? Does the HDMI pass multichannel PCM or bitstream?

    My main problem with 1080p playback right now is audio, finding the suitable codecs for multichannel high-def soundtracks.
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    Sami wrote: »
    Do you have any BD's converted to MKV you could try for 1080p playback? Does the HDMI pass multichannel PCM or bitstream?

    My main problem with 1080p playback right now is audio, finding the suitable codecs for multichannel high-def soundtracks.

    I'll have to ask my buddy. I dont have any. Im just attempting to stream at the moment. Im not using HDMI, im using Optical from the Acer to the AVR.
    Life without music would♭
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    Better shot. Looks killer in 1080P.

    SunFeb28100444AmericaNew_York2010.jpg
    Life without music would♭
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  • Shizelbs
    Shizelbs Posts: 7,433
    edited February 2010
    Is that an optical out on the front of the case?
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  • Pauly
    Pauly Posts: 4,519
    edited February 2010
    Shizelbs wrote: »
    Is that an optical out on the front of the case?

    Yes. Optical and eStata are up front. 2 USB on top with 4 in back along with HDMI, Power and VGA. Little thing is alot more powerful than i expected. The ION does a very good job on a 47" REGZA

    Pauly
    Life without music would♭
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