I am selling my Acer Revo Aspire R3610 - ideas for a replacement? (1 Viewer)

[elsmandino]

Hello,

Having used my Revo to extend mediaportal into my bedroom for the past few years, I have decided that it has had its day. The atom processor is just too laggy for my liking and freezes up for minutes while it finishes the various processes that seem to be running in the background.

My predicament is what to replace it with.

My real requirements are that the replacement has to have gigabit ethernet and handle high-definition video.

My first thought was to look at building a mini-itx machine with a Sandybridge pentium/celeron processor, however, it has been quite a while since I have shopped for any new hardware and I am a little out of touch in terms of what is out there.

What is the current situation with these new android mini-pcs that are suddenly flooding the marketplace - are any of these a viable alternative to a min-PC. I know that Linux is a definite no-no with Mediaportal but can I not run one of the android apps on something like the raspberry pi (or one of the more powerful ones that are coming out)?

I realise that these are going to be a fraction of the power of a Sandby Bridge build but then there is the advantage that they will only be running medialportal client and nothing else (no windows, no virus checks etc.) I will not be surfing the net or anything either, it will be purely used for watching live TV/Recorded TV from Mediaportal.

What I do not want, however, is something that will be as laggy as the Revo.

My only other option, I suppose, is to buy a mediaplayer than can handle .ts files. The major problem with this, then, is that I would lose out on the ability to watch live TV via my server.

I would be really grateful for any advice or to know what other mediaportal users are doing out there.

Many thanks

Alex

 

[msj33]

This would be my choice right now - Cheap 1 box solution:
http://www.zotac.com/index.php?page...8&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=100170&lang=nd

Do NOT go for an AMD E350 or E450 - I have the Zotac AD10 with SSD, and it has a hard time showing 1080P Tv smooth.

If I had the money, I would build a Mini-ITX setup with a I7-3770T Processor and a Streamcom passive cooled HTPC Chassis and a passive Pico PSU.
Please take notice of the T - Means only 45W TDP!

Pretty expensive, but it will perform perfectly

/Morten

 

[porky996t]

Alex,

I have to agree with Morten, above, the ZBox is a great choice.

I currently use two ZBoxes as clients, although they are older models, (the ID41 with an SSD in each) and they both run great with MP, and even manage full HD TV streaming over the network too. They are small enough to mount behind the TV and mine are almost silent. Thus, the ID82 would be vastly superior.

Go on... you know you want to

 

[rspierenburg]

The Zbox do look very cool, however as with every proprietary media pc these days it is almost impossible to upgrade/fix components within. I too had the Revo and it seemed to work well for me for everything but HD Live TV. I've since packed it away and bought an Intel I3-540 and it runs everything I need. And if the time comes that I need to upgrade there is still potential to do so, unlike the Revo or Zbox.

 

[elsmandino]

Hello,

So am I right in thinking that a proper PC is probably the only viable option here - i.e. no media players and no small Raspberry Pi-esque type mini PCs?

Rspierenburg - may I ask what the exact problem you had with your Revo and Live HD TV?

My Revo has no problem playing any video, it is just getting there that is sooooo slow. Even with an ethernet connection, it takes a long time to load up the TV guide and then channel changes can be a bit of a slog.

Those ID82's do look great, but they do seem to be pretty expensive for the job they are doing - i.e. I am simply going to be using mine for watching TV in the bedroom.

Do you think the best of both worlds would be to perhaps build my own mini-itx PC for the job. Once that was a more modest build than suggested above but would nevertheless play HD video ok - I already have 4GB of RAM spare and you can pick up some pretty cheap parts for the rest:

Motherboard - http://www.ebuyer.com/349713-msi-h6...-6-channel-audio-matx-motherboard-h61i-e35-b3-
CPU - http://www.ebuyer.com/264713-intel-...b-l3-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623g620
SSD - http://www.ebuyer.com/390144-ocz-60gb-vertex-plus-r2-ssd-vtxplr2-25sat2-60g
Case/PSU - http://www.ebuyer.com/247132-cit-s003b-black-slim-micro-atx-or-mini-itx-case-300w-psu-cscits003b
Windows 7 - About £65.00

Total - about £230.00

I am sure that I could shop around for some better deals - I know that I have definitely seen a better case than that that is mountable, but surely this computer would be much more responsive thatn my current Atom-based client wouldn't it?

 

[rspierenburg]

The problem I had was that it I couldn't find a codec pack that would run 1080i without MAJOR stuttering. But I agree, now that I have my new HTPC I realise how slow the Revo was to load and change screens etc.

That price you quote is pretty sweet for a custom pc including software.

Rob

 

[elsmandino]

Thanks - it is good to know that a better CPU does improve things. I would hate to buy something fast only for things to remain the same as before.

The one thing that I really need is a more suitable case than that suggested - the isk110 looks promising. Does anyone have any experience of this?

 

[elsmandino]

Hello,

Further to my earlier posts above, I wiped my my Revo in peparation to sell it and am currently using my laptop as a temporary measure - Samsung R580, which runs Windows 7 64-bit with 4GB RAM, OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB SSD, Intel Core i3-330M CPU and Nvidia GeForce GT 310M graphics.

I never thought a client PC would be so much better and really shows up the Atom's lack of power.

However - it is difficult to know how much of the additional specs from my laptop are being used to make MP run so much more snappily.

I suspect that the Revo was so slow that specs rather more modest than my current laptop would run just as well.

Does anyone have any rough idea what the minimum specs are for a MP client to run at its best?

Thanks

Alex

 

[mhoogenbosch]

I would definately go for a Streacom case, very small an verrrrry good looking.

Now i own a Asrock Vision3D, bought it just for the looks. These Streacom cases look nearly the same.