Well, I bought the AD10 barebone, not for me but for my parents.
Since this is the first time I set up a HTPC, I cannot tell how well it fares compared to rival products.
Overall I am satisfied with the AD10. And my parents, too. It looks nice and it does what it's supposed to do.
General performance:
I've installed a 5400rpm Samsung HDD, which was maybe not the wisest choise. You don't want to install AV software with this kind of HDD.
But I'm not gonna buy a faster HDD this year.
Some of the more fancy skins are definitly pushing the APU, i.e. the default skin runs noticeably smoother than Aeon.
As OS I use Win7-32. 2.7GB RAM out of 4GB is used by the OS, CCC claims the remaining 1.3GB is being used for graphics.
Since my parents are not gamers, I didn't bother to check gaming performance. Well, and gaming performance is the reason why I am not gonna buy a second AD10 for my own living room.
About video playback:
We're using
this TV with the AD10.
Only at the first second of a 1080p mkv there is a minor framedrop (12 frames was the maximum so far). Since this occurs only at the first second, and it's not noticeable anyway, it's a none-issue for me. Beside that minor issue, video image quality is perfect.
XBMC set to real full screen, Vsync on, DXVA enabled and that's it. Works like a charme.
All settings in CCC are at default.
About sound:
Sorry, not much I can tell about. No fancy 5.1 system in the living room. The Sony TV generates the sound, meaning HDMI 2.0.
One small thing regarding the sound effects that some skins produce while navigating in the menues. Sometimes the first "beep/wush" that should be heared is swallowed, if you know what I mean. I don't know if it's hardware or XBMC related.
About Bluetooth:
The integrated Bluetooth device doesn't work after soft reboots (yellow exclamation mark). Since I do not need Bluetooth, I didn't investigate this matter any further and deactivated BT in the device manager. My guess is a driver update might help.
About IR/remote: (copy/paste from a previous post)
The AD10 comes with an external IR USB-dongle
(this one) and a built-in IR-receiver on the front.
In order get the build-in receiver to function you need to activate the device in the BIOS first, and then install the ITECIR driver that is included on the driver disc.
In the device manager you'll now find the Microsoft eHome receiver driver. CreateTestConfig.reg helps a lot with tweaking the {745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da}-Key in the registry.
But due to weak reach and small angle reception this built-in IR-receiver is not adequate for a middle sized+ living room.
The external IR USB-dongle has far better reception, so that's the way to go if you are sitting 4+ meters away from the AD10.
If both IR receivers are simultaneously up and running, it's like as if you have two remotes attached to your system, meaning one button push registers as two button pushs, so you definitly want to disable or cover the build-in IR.
But the external IR dongle is only a "generic" HID and not eHome driver compatible as it seems. Meaning I was unable to customize the buttons via registry. Meaning it's useless for me in conjunction with XBMC.
I've ordered a new
receiver/remote and I am currently waiting for the shipment to arrive.