Mini HTPC to run XBMC live?

Goolay

Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade my home setup. Here's what I currently have.

42" Plasma
2 Xboxes running XBMC4XBOX (one in the bedroom)
Popcorn Hour for HD video
4TB NAS server
Sony BDP-S350 Blu Ray Player.

I need a small HTPC running XBMC, no need for TV tuners or optical drive.

I'm considering getting the Acer Revo 3700. Would have gotten it from ebuyer.com but as they've stopped shipping to Ireland I'm looking at eBay.

Is this a good price (including shipping)?
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ACER-Aspire-Revo-R3700-320G-4G-RAM-Mini-PC-Free-Dos-/270683235396?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f05fa6444

Will most likely just be installing XBMC Live on it. Will be streaming all media from NAS so don't need large internal HDD etc. Will be selling on my Popcorn Hour also as will be streaming my HD stuff from the NAS.

My budget won't stretch much past €250 but interested in hearing alternatives. Ability to run XBMC and optical audio out are musts.

Would be interested in doing a self-build possibly also if I'd end up with a better product for the same price, what sites do people usually purchase parts from, other than eBuyer?

pug_

Looks like a pretty good price to me anyway, it's got twice the ram and disk space of the ebuyer one too.

It's not quite up to the current ebuyer price of £185, but that's pretty hard to beat.

jasonhn

Im in the same boat really annoying that I cant order the 3700 with linspire of ebuyer

The only gotcha is import tax so add approx 50 euros to that price working out approx 300

"Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding / buying."

jasonhn

How about the Zotac Z-Box Mini PC AMD E350?

on amazon for £181
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004TS2MHI/ref=pd_luc_mri?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

it qualifies for free shipping, with a 2gb memory stick and 250 gb hard drive it comes to approximately £230 so just in or around your 250 euro limit

The only drawback is if your in a hurry the zotac has a 2-3 week dispatch time. btw it has an optical out

http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-zbox-amd-e-350-apu-1-6-ghz-dual-core-barebone-mini-pc-zbox-ad02-u.html

Goolay

Thanks Jason, will definitely look into it.

Alun

Dublin579 wrote: »

I'm considering getting the Acer Revo 3700. Would have gotten it from ebuyer.com but as they've stopped shipping to Ireland I'm looking at eBay.

Where do you get that from? Shipping to 'Eire' is still mentioned here http://www.ebuyer.com/help/delivery

jasonhn

No problem Dublin579, I think myself im going to go with the AMD fusion chip over the atom/ion solutions. The reviews look good from anandtech etc. I was thinking of going the ubuntu route with it so i must find out how well the E-350 is supported under linux.

Alun if you look here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055718825&page=55

you will find the details about ebuyer

Alun

jasonhn wrote: »

Alun if you look here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055718825&page=55

you will find the details about ebuyer

http://forums.ebuyer.com/showthread.php?71163-Ebuyer-stopped-delivery-to-Ireland-why

Hmm, interesting. It's a bit of a bull**** answer though to be honest, as those distance selling VAT rules are nothing new, not unique to the UK, and have been in existence for ages as far as I know. It's probably either just a bit too much paperwork for their accounts / finance dept. or their e-commerce system can't cope with it (i.e. different VAT rates) somehow.

clacks

jasonhn wrote: »

How about the Zotac Z-Box Mini PC AMD E350?

on amazon for £181
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004TS2MHI/ref=pd_luc_mri?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

it qualifies for free shipping, with a 2gb memory stick and 250 gb hard drive it comes to approximately £230 so just in or around your 250 euro limit

The only drawback is if your in a hurry the zotac has a 2-3 week dispatch time. btw it has an optical out

http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-zbox-amd-e-350-apu-1-6-ghz-dual-core-barebone-mini-pc-zbox-ad02-u.html

Would love to get my hands on an AMD 350 based sytem. Anybody know of any nettops with this APU that's available now?

mcgovern

Alun wrote: »

http://forums.ebuyer.com/showthread.php?71163-Ebuyer-stopped-delivery-to-Ireland-why

Hmm, interesting. It's a bit of a bull**** answer though to be honest, as those distance selling VAT rules are nothing new, not unique to the UK, and have been in existence for ages as far as I know. It's probably either just a bit too much paperwork for their accounts / finance dept. or their e-commerce system can't cope with it (i.e. different VAT rates) somehow.

They probably just reached the point when they had to start charging Irish VAT, you only need to charge Irish VAT if you sell a certain amount here.

Alun

mcgovern wrote: »

They probably just reached the point when they had to start charging Irish VAT, you only need to charge Irish VAT if you sell a certain amount here.

Exactly, that's what the distance selling regs have said for ages, nothing new, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to them. Other companies manage to do it, although there's certainly a bit of extra work / admin for them to manage the extra complexity of charging VAT and doing returns in another jurisdiction. I guess it's up to them in the end if they think it's worth the extra hassle.

jasonhn

I can see E350 motherboards for sale, cant find nettops just the zotac which seems out of stock. Would love to buy one myself

dashford

jasonhn wrote: »

No problem Dublin579, I think myself im going to go with the AMD fusion chip over the atom/ion solutions. The reviews look good from anandtech etc. I was thinking of going the ubuntu route with it so i must find out how well the E-350 is supported under linux.

Phoronix has a review of the E-350 under Linux. I'd love to go with a fusion chip but the state of video decoding under Linux still has a long way to go.

jasonhn

Would anyone go for an intel culv over atom or E350?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zotac-Z-Box-Mini-Technology-Warranty/dp/B004DUMMUE/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1302610786&sr=1-6

clacks

If anybody is interested I ordered this through Ebay from a German seller. It's not exactly what I wanted but it's pretty close. Very hard otherwise to find a AMD zacate barebones system. Not too sure what I'm gonna do with 8GB of ram but better looking at it than for it i suppose.
The seller has a number of configs available.

jasonhn

Looks good Clacks, especially with the 8gb of ram let me know how it goes for you. Are you going to put windows on it or go a different route?

clacks

jasonhn wrote: »

Looks good Clacks, especially with the 8gb of ram let me know how it goes for you. Are you going to put windows on it or go a different route?

Yeah I'm gonna stick windows 7 64 bit. I have an ssd drive so it should be nippy enough. I'll let you know how it goes.

jasonhn

sounds good look forward to hearing how it goes

km991148

I bought the CULV/Ion (ND-22) zotac from cclonline. Ordered Tue AM and had id Wed pm for 15£ delivery charge.

change the web addresss to new.cclonline.com (site is in middle of upgrade). I got the last ND-22 but there are other HD capable zotacs there.

http://www.cclonline.com/SearchResult.aspx?q=zbox

NOTE: these prices are without HDD and ram, but asthe OP has NAS - a cheap mechanical drive and 2-4gig ram should be plenty and still around the original 250euro budget

Goolay

OP here, in case anyone was curious, I ended up springing for the Acer Revo from eBay as per the link as it suited my needs. I installed OpenElec/XBMC on it yesterday and it's flying - such an upgrade from my old xbox setup!!

The best news of all was that I wasn't stung with customs

clacks

jasonhn wrote: »

sounds good look forward to hearing how it goes

Well i got the E350 based nettop a few days ago and have to say I'm very pleased with it. Its a micro atx case. Nothing spectaular looks wise, but it does the job. It has played any video format I've thrown at it without breaking a sweat. I have also done some light gaming, out of curiousity more than anything. Up to now I was using a Dell XPS 720. A fine machine but a noisey bugger. This is very quiet.
Anyway its something I'd be happy to leave on all the time to do a bit of light server work too.
Oh and sorry for hijacking this thread. It seems to be a niche subject....

jasonhn

Hi Clacks, thanks for the follow up! sounds like its a nice system and fairly nosiless which is essential!