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Elaine Benes
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1416
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:41 pm Post subject: Asrock ION 330 Nettop, anyone tried this tiny HTPC ?? |
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I found this tiny HTPC candidate, uses the Nvidia ION configuration, just wondering if anyone has tried it ?
It looks terrifically promising, but a bit expensive:
http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=ION%20330
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Elaine Benes
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1416
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| Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:30 am Post subject: |
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Well, I'm talking to myself, but I'm going to buy one of these if I can sell a few things to raise the money for one. I can get it locally for $399. which includes a 320GB drive and 2GB of memory. I already have a slim BD drive, so it will be a fairly priced media PC which can play back BD discs or rips...
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huggy
Joined: 02 Aug 2008
Posts: 927
Location: Melbourne,Australia
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| Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:54 am Post subject: |
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Oh this looks good and would suit my needs in the living room perfectly,I've been in the market for a media player but this may do the job.I can't get local pricing on it just yet however.
Thanks for this.
Dave
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 2:34 am Post subject: |
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That is a nice looking unit but I'm old fashion and like a box with a little more room. I would use Windows 7 RC 32 Bit and not mess around with Vista unless you can get a free upgrade to Windows 7 with the Vista license. I just put together a $400 Blu-ray HTPC using Window 7 RC. It was the easiest HTPC I have ever built. Once assembled I was watching Blu-ray's inside Windows Media Center within an hour. The trial Version of PowerDVD 9 plays blu-rays inside WMC flawless. Media Center seems to be rock solid and worked great with my HD-HomeRun.
Mike
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Doing HD since the last century!
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Elaine Benes
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1416
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| Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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| MikeEby wrote: | That is a nice looking unit but I'm old fashion and like a box with a little more room.
Mike |
I used to be the same way, but recently I've been building them smaller and smaller and liking them more and more. I'm thinking of replacing a couple of larger builds I have with one of these. Its so nice to have the option of putting it anywhere, traditional sized computers need a LOT more space...
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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How is the heat for these things? I would love to place one of these behind my wall mounted TV and just route an ethernet cable to the HTPC and short distances of HDMI from the box to the TV. Then I can get rid of my little HTPC cabinet that generates a lot of heat and noise.
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Elaine Benes
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1416
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TheVerge
Joined: 19 Jul 2009
Posts: 928
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:53 am Post subject: |
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| greg_mitch wrote: | | How is the heat for these things? I would love to place one of these behind my wall mounted TV and just route an ethernet cable to the HTPC and short distances of HDMI from the box to the TV. Then I can get rid of my little HTPC cabinet that generates a lot of heat and noise. |
Very low, you can passively cool ions in the right case. Almost no heat.
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daves123
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
Posts: 126
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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I was looking at these as well. The review I read tested it with windows7. I would be running vista, and would want to be sure that this thing can handle 1080p in vista media center.
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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What in Vista MC will put out 1080p? There is no built-in BR or HD DVD support that I know of.
I suppose you could count MKV's with the mymovie plugin.
HDTV tuners are 1080i.
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daves123
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
Posts: 126
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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I meant running as the o/s. Since vista is a little more power hungry than the other choices. Not really sure about windows7 though.
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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| daves123 wrote: | | I meant running as the o/s. Since vista is a little more power hungry than the other choices. Not really sure about windows7 though. |
I see. At this point...any new computer in my house is gonna be W7.
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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| greg_mitch wrote: | | daves123 wrote: | | I meant running as the o/s. Since vista is a little more power hungry than the other choices. Not really sure about windows7 though. |
I see. At this point...any new computer in my house is gonna be W7. |
If you can figure out what version to buy. 
Mike
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Doing HD since the last century!
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 5:49 pm Post subject: |
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Damn you! That looks awesome for my living room HTPC!
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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| greg_mitch wrote: |
Damn you! That looks awesome for my living room HTPC! |
hehe...I bought one of those cases for an embedded project at work. It isn't too bad, perhaps we should do a powerbuy on the case?
I used this motherboard.
http://www.intel.com/Assets/Image/prodlarge/D945GSEJT_lg.jpg
Wouldn't be any good for an HTPC the sound and video is crap. I did throw a 1080p .MKV on it, works as a great server. But only has 2 sata ports so you would have to use USB-SATA adapters or external USB drives for more than 2 HDD's. Still haven't ruled it out...I think you said a NAS had bad data throughput, so this would work, just have to get the powersaver thing down.
Mike
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Doing HD since the last century!
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