I think the usual price on this is 199 (though I'm not sure if that comes with keyboard/mouse). If you get some decent BCB on that, you're not really saving that much by buying the refurb, especially if you want to use as an HTPC and use a remote. Plus, with Windows XP, there's no Media Center. But given all that--I am still tempted.
iceplusplus said: Can't run Windows 7 so it is practically obsolete right out of the box. No way this could be an HTPC. Windows Media Center taxes dual core machines.Wrong, wrong, and wrong (depends on the source media). It does run Windows 7, although more memory would be better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa7e4f8V20A Many people use these as HTPCs too. Unaccelerated 720p/1080 video will be a problem, but there are players that support hardware acceleration using supported (& in-spec) codecs.
Does anybody know about wireless keboard and touchpad included in the Keyboard (not seperate). Then it makes real HTPC. I have seen couple on eBay they are morethan 50-60 bucks.
iceplusplus said: Can't run Windows 7 so it is practically obsolete right out of the box. No way this could be an HTPC. Windows Media Center taxes dual core machines.
Oh, how wrong you are. Can run Windows 7 like a dream. As has been mentioned, is an ideal platform for XBMC. Easily handles 1080p video with it's Nvidia Ion chipset. I bought one of these a while back installed XMBC on it in all of about 12 minutes, and now I have a inexpensive, small, sleek looking, silent, low power HTPC. I felt it was a bargain at $199, at this price it's a steal.
TiteArse said: What would I need to add to this to be able to record over-the-air (OTA) tv shows? And what program would I use to give it TiVo like qualities?
ThanksNero LiquidTV is TiVo for the PC, if you want TiVo. You can get the USB HD tuner, remote and 1 year of TiVo service for $45 shipped on Amazon marketplace. Even if you don't want TiVo after a year, the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q & remote alone are worth it and can be used in other (free) programs. Some of the features like transcoding for portable devices will be excruciatingly slow on the Atom 230.
And before someone mentions it, yes you could have bought one several months ago for $30 or $35 from Nero when that deal was available.
Before buying this, I would check to see who will be doing the warranty replacements/repairs. If it is the same company from the above deal, Revonate/Seneca Data, I would avoid this deal. I had bad experiences with this refurbisher and will paste my comment about those experiences from the thread above:
Just an FYI for anyone who might consider buying from this seller, Revonate/Seneca Data, in the future: they were the company that "refurbished" the Gateway 11.6" netbook I bought from Buy.com just before Christmas and I would never buy any refurbished product from them again and the whole experience has turned me off on refurbished products. My first netbook had power supply issues and would randomly shut down, even when plugged in or the battery was fully charged. I sent it back in and the return process took several weeks. When I called and politely asked if there was anything that could be done to expedite the process so I could get a replacement before leaving on a vacation (which was one of the reasons I bought the netbook in the first place, to have a much more portable computer for traveling than my regular laptop), the CSR was a horse's *ss about it and of course they shipped it back to me the day after I left on vacation. Then, when I tried logging in to my e-mail account on the replacement netbook, I found it was not taking my password and discovered the reason was that several keys were typing the wrong characters and at least one did not work at all. When I e-mailed them to request that they agree to pay the return shipping on the unit (since it is clearly their fault for not testing it adequately to determine it is non-functional), they did not respond. I think their "refurbishing" process entails plugging the unit in to see if it powers up and has basic operation and if so, simply assume that it was returned out of buyer's regret, without verifying if it actually had a problem.
EDIT: I see a couple of people have given this post red ratings and when I PM'ed one, he said my unique experiences with a different item were not relevant. I think these people, in their hurry to be viewd by others as no-nonsense IT experts and all-around "kewl" guys, are overlooking the fact that we're not talking about new products being sold by the same company, we're talking about used products, some of which may be essentially new, some of which are defective, being refurbished by the same company. My experiences would not be relevant if I had received one defective refurbished computer from Revonate/Seneca Data, but two defective refurbished products suggests that they have a QC problem (i.e. may only be plugging in computers to see if they power up without thoroughly testing them). By posting my experiences, maybe someone else while join in with their experiences and provide us with a better pool of information than my admittedly limited information.
pxc said: TiteArse said: What would I need to add to this to be able to record over-the-air (OTA) tv shows? And what program would I use to give it TiVo like qualities?
ThanksNero LiquidTV is TiVo for the PC, if you want TiVo. You can get the USB HD tuner, remote and 1 year of TiVo service for $45 shipped on Amazon marketplace. Even if you don't want TiVo after a year, the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q & remote alone are worth it and can be used in other (free) programs. Some of the features like transcoding for portable devices will be excruciatingly slow on the Atom 230.
And before someone mentions it, yes you could have bought one several months ago for $30 or $35 from Nero when that deal was available.
Nero TV has been awful, nothing like TiVo. They have even stopped supporting it on the Web site. That said, the tuner is great and works well with MS Media Center products and/or WinTV and/or Freevo. etc. If you can get the remote working, it's a nice bonus.
*Sales* of LiquidTV were discontinued at the end of 2009. The product is still supported online and by phone. There are updates to the software available and it's worked OK for me. I don't know how you can say it's nothing like TiVo. The interface is very similar and the remote is identical to the set top TiVo remote. LiquidTV is a steal at $45 shipped.
Before buying this, I would check to see who will be doing the warranty replacements/repairs. If it is the same company from the above deal, Revonate/Seneca Data, I would avoid this deal.I thought about this too. According to the product page, Seneca is handling the three month warranty on this item. But CC is offering a 30 day return guarantee. I can't tell when the 30 day period begins (after purchase, after ship or after delivery?). Can anyone comment on how well CC/Tiger handles 30 day returns?
twinclouds said: I want to use it as a low power server. Has anyone ever tested it's idle power consumption? Appreciate any input. Thanks.This was posted on a Newegg review of the same model:
Dark-Star Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg 1/30/2010 10:39:06 PM What a great little PC!
Pros: Very small form factor, extremely low power consumption (4W idle, 21W full load - $7.77 a year estimated operational cost per year!!!), 6 USB (not 5 like some reviewers say), HDMI, 1080p video support (tested using latest NVIDIA drivers running Star Trek – First Contact), Supports up to 4GB's of RAM (not 2GB's like some reviewers say) Functional HDMI audio (no issues what so ever once you download the ION HDMI Audio Drivers from NVIDIA)
pxc said: twinclouds said: I want to use it as a low power server. Has anyone ever tested it's idle power consumption? Appreciate any input. Thanks.This was posted on a Newegg review of the same model:
Dark-Star Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg 1/30/2010 10:39:06 PM What a great little PC!
Pros: Very small form factor, extremely low power consumption (4W idle, 21W full load - $7.77 a year estimated operational cost per year!!!), 6 USB (not 5 like some reviewers say), HDMI, 1080p video support (tested using latest NVIDIA drivers running Star Trek – First Contact), Supports up to 4GB's of RAM (not 2GB's like some reviewers say) Functional HDMI audio (no issues what so ever once you download the ION HDMI Audio Drivers from NVIDIA)
Thanks for your reply. It's interesting that it was claimed that the unit would be 4W idle. I really doubt that can be achieved. In any case, it should not be too bad. I ordered one anyway and will see what the idle power really is. I will be happy if it is less than 10 Watts idle. Let's see.
twinclouds said: Thanks for your reply. It's interesting that it was claimed that the unit would be 4W idle. I really doubt that can be achieved. In any case, it should not be too bad. I ordered one anyway and will see what the idle power really is. I will be happy if it is less than 10 Watts idle. Let's see.Yeah, I'm not sure that's accurate. I have measured my Dell Mini 9 and it draws around 6W from the wall at idle, but it has an LCD, 2W TDP CPU and a SSD. 4W still sounds low for the Revo, but not impossible. I would have guessed 6-8W at idle from the wall.
My MSI-U100 10" netbook consumes 9W from wall. I would guess this one will be more. I will test once I receives it. Good to hear that your Dell Mini 9" only consumes 6W. It will be a good reference point.
klingon888
New Member
posted: Feb. 15, 2010 @ 9:25p
Doing a google on "acer revo power consumption" returns reviews showing 21W idle and 29W in use.
harpgtrguy
New Member
posted: Feb. 15, 2010 @ 10:17p
pxc said: TiteArse said: What would I need to add to this to be able to record over-the-air (OTA) tv shows? And what program would I use to give it TiVo like qualities?
ThanksNero LiquidTV is TiVo for the PC, if you want TiVo. You can get the USB HD tuner, remote and 1 year of TiVo service for $45 shipped on Amazon marketplace. Even if you don't want TiVo after a year, the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q & remote alone are worth it and can be used in other (free) programs. Some of the features like transcoding for portable devices will be excruciatingly slow on the Atom 230.
And before someone mentions it, yes you could have bought one several months ago for $30 or $35 from Nero when that deal was available.
klingon888 said: Doing a google on "acer revo power consumption" returns reviews showing 21W idle and 29W in use. Well you can see the numbers all over the places. For example in http://www.acetylcholine.com/node/58301 it was claimed that his (her?) AR1600 consume 14W idle. I also saw articles saying that Intel Atom 330 board consumes 40W but mine is about 24W. I will really know once I got the unit. Stay tuned.
cheapa55
Senior Member
posted: Feb. 15, 2010 @ 10:51p
harpgtrguy said: pxc said: TiteArse said: What would I need to add to this to be able to record over-the-air (OTA) tv shows? And what program would I use to give it TiVo like qualities?
ThanksNero LiquidTV is TiVo for the PC, if you want TiVo. You can get the USB HD tuner, remote and 1 year of TiVo service for $45 shipped on Amazon marketplace. Even if you don't want TiVo after a year, the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q & remote alone are worth it and can be used in other (free) programs. Some of the features like transcoding for portable devices will be excruciatingly slow on the Atom 230.
And before someone mentions it, yes you could have bought one several months ago for $30 or $35 from Nero when that deal was available.
Is this the Nero Liquid TV you're talking about? http://www.Amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B001EM5XVO/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1266296284&sr=8-1&condition=new
There's another deal I saw for a USB device that does hardware based encoding somewhere for $45. I think it was by ATI.
harpgtrguy said: $45 on Amazon marketplace? Where? I don't see it.I still see it. Hint: first locate Nero Liquid TV on Amazon using the tricky Nero Liquid TV keywords. Then click the marketplace offerings under the fulfilled by Amazon price. I'd love to hear where you got lost.
According to my Kill-a-watt, mine idles at 16 watts (+ USB mouse/keyboard/speakers). Maybe shave off a watt if I unplug the USB speakers.
I attached some Speedfan temperatures. At default settings, it's "quiet-ish" but at the 65% fan speed that I currently have it on, it is most certainly not but since there's so much background noise where I'm volunteering that I can't hear it.
Thanks OP! Green for you. Plan to use this as a HTPC. So, looking for a USB ATSC+QAM Tuner - K-World @ Newegg for $32 shipped ? I also wonder if this would handle a BD-Rom connected through the eSATA...
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