[Dougie Fresh]

I don't know why you do all this complaining when they do a barebones machine with nothing in it.

I made it clear it was my personal preference for how I'd want it configured. If that's complaining to you, that's your problem.

[Chris P Bacon]

Prior to buying this I was considering an Android STB in Europe the Pivos Xios is the same price or dearer than the barebones unit I purchased.

The primary use it is going to be put to is streaming the likes of Filmon at SD.

The DVB-T I see as a bonus, maybe in the future I will upgrade it to DVB-T2 but not any time soon I would guess.

Sure I realise that many would prefer if it had an nVidia graphics as standard (is it possible to swap it out?) but the fact is that I am never going to spend €250 much less €400 on a HTPC and for my needs this machine serves my purposes perfectly.

It cost me €115 delivered, RAM will cost me another €20 and I have a €15 Win8 upgrade that I will probably stick on a HDD salvaged from an old laptop I have.

The way I see it is that I would have been hard pressed to build a unit myself for this sort of money and at least I now have something that does the job I need and has a manufacturers warranty.

[bluray]

This is "Xtreamer Ultra2" is a better machine for Linux. It is better eqips/spec (GT520M, 32GB SSD, Bluetooth, etc) for Linux, and XBMC/Linux is pre-installed.....

MC001-XBMC-(EU) is €199 incl 19% vat and shipping. Xtreamer Ultra2 is €394 shipped and im not even sure if that includes VAT. If it doesnt include VAT, then its €470

€199 vs €394/470. Do you even think before posting?

Wow...I gave you another perspective and another option, and you don't have to buy it.....maybe, somebody other than you might be interesting in Xtreamer.....

I din't say it is cheaper either.....

[Memes11]

I am using one at home and the AMD driver support is bullshit, it might be not at the top under Linux but do not forget that OpenELEC is very lightweight distro, no overload from OS...

Anyway, I run it at home and I have a particular movie in 1080p that I can not run under Ubuntu, Barelly watchable with Windows (different software tried) and perfectly smooth under OpenELEC with just 15% CPU load average.

[PatrickVogeli]

I think it's a very good price! However, for me it has some downsides:

-AMD graphics. They have improved, but they are still miles behind Nvidia in linux support... No HD audio support isn't that important for me, but the fact they only support 2 REAL channels? No support for multichannel LPCM, WTF?
-The tunner.. this adds to the price but for quite a lot of people is pointless. For example, at home I only have DVB-C! Also the fact it's not supporting HD streams.. we are in 2013!
-Last but not least: it seems like the unit cannot be layed flat.. it has to be positioned vertical. This alone is a complete deal breaker for me.
-The price.. it could be cheaper! Most of us don't need the DVD Drive and why the 1TB? I think a 1TB drive is ridiculous, as it's quite small to store data, yet the drive itself is pricey. IMHO, no DVD drive and an SSD would haven been a better choice

And yes, it's funny to see how this thread is opened because of the great price (ok, even if I don't like the configuration, the price is cheap) suggesting machines which cost double this price. For 300€ you could also build a machine much faster and better, but that wasn't the point in this thread

[Chris P Bacon]

-The price.. it could be cheaper! Most of us don't need the DVD Drive and why the 1TB? I think a 1TB drive is ridiculous, as it's quite small to store data, yet the drive itself is pricey. IMHO, no DVD drive and an SSD would haven been a better choice

Fully agree on that Patrick, that's why I bought the barebones for just €99.95+€15 delivery (€5 if your in Germany) and will configure it the way I want. To begin with that means €20 for RAM (what I had already wasn't compatible so I have to wait another few days for delivery) and €4 for a USB stick for OpenElec. I will probably pick up an SSD when I find one on a good special offer and use the €15 Win8 upgrade I have. It will still be cheaper than the Limited Edition model.

And yes, it's funny to see how this thread is opened because of the great price (ok, even if I don't like the configuration, the price is cheap) suggesting machines which cost double this price. For 300€ you could also build a machine much faster and better, but that wasn't the point in this thread

LOL obviously some people have trouble in understanding the thread title "Fanless low cost HTPC" by suggesting alternatives which are neither fanless or low cost.

[calibos]

I ordered 4 of these barebones MC001-N units at the discounted amazon price of €99. (Shipping only increased to €21 from €15 btw)

They were announced in Nov 2011. Price graphs on amazon show the price bouncing up and down over the last year. The previous lowest price was about €140 for a period in 2012 and the most recent high was about €250 November last.

I researched the negatives of these. I rip everything and re- encode to h264 or xvid so lack of hardware acceleration for mpeg2/4 at the moment is not an issue for me. (thats why the Tuner card is only a DVB-t because the MC001 couldnt smoothly decode HDTV mpeg2/4 streams anyway) I can't tell much of a difference between HD audio and regular DD/DTS 5.1 and don't have a capable receiver anyway.

The heat problems are only an issue for Windows users trying to use it to re-encode or something. CPU works harder generating more heat. Need a HDD and DVD which add to the heat load in the unit. Filling in all the empty slots probably reduces the effectiveness of the chimney effect that the unit uses to help passively cool it.

However for me running openelec off a USB stick with all content stored on a NAS means no moving parts, and a heat load that never troubles the passive cooling setup.

In fact for people like me booting openelec off a usb stick with no installed drives, it is probably possible to use the MC001 on its side despite what the literature says about only using it standing up. I've already read a post from someone saying that he tried his this way and the temps for the CPU and GPU still stayed under 60c even under load.

It also means that about €20 extra for ram and USB stick was all that was needed to be able to use the barebones unit for the purpose I intended.

I simply can't believe my luck. I managed to get a device that my Harmony worked with right out of the box, that does everything I need it to do, to do it well, that looks good, is silent, can run most skins well all for the same price as the compromised current Android units in the same €99 price bracket.

Do the downsides of this unit mean its right for most people? Of course not, maybe it's only right for a handful of people, but boy is it right for me at that price.

Maybe not so much at the high price point of €250 or even the Openelec/Arctic partnership introductory price of €199. ie. why pay €100 more for a HDD and DVD I don't need for Openelec when all my content is off board anyway.

In short, for some, the deal that was the basis of this thread was manna from heaven.

Whether or not the partnership price of €199 is a good deal given the compromises of the unit for a lot of people is a question for another thread. Thrilled when I heard about the partnership though for selfish reasons, it meant the efforts to release a hardware specific build for the MC001 were accelerated. It'll be ready in a few days apparently. So what was a perfect device for me just got even better as I now get to take advantage of a specific device build which will get me the famous openelec boot times I wasn't expecting to ever get.

Personally, I feel like the cat that got the cream.

[Stuart_75]

I'm currently looking at one of these boxes or a Acer Revo L70. Does the Arctic barebones unit come with a remote or not?

Is the Revo L70 a much better unit performance wise? Decisions, discisions........

[Dougie Fresh]

I'm currently looking at one of these boxes or a Acer Revo L70. Does the Arctic barebones unit come with a remote or not?

Is the Revo L70 a much better unit performance wise? Decisions, discisions........

Sorry, discusions of alternatives is forbidden in this thread. If it's not under 99 euro or fanless, keep it to yourself and stop complaining .

[Chris P Bacon]

Does the Arctic barebones unit come with a remote or not?

The €99.95 barebones unit does not include a remote they charge €12.95 for the Arctic branded one but I think you can get the same remote with different branding on ebay for around €5.

The limited edition OpenElec version has a remote included.

[Stuart_75]

Does the Arctic barebones unit come with a remote or not?

The €99.95 barebones unit does not include a remote they charge €12.95 for the Arctic branded one but I think you can get the same remote with different branding on ebay for around €5.

The limited edition OpenElec version has a remote included.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Now for the performance compared to a Revo L70 using Openelec and using Win7? Im guessing there might not be much in in using Openelec but with Win7 I'd assume the L70 might be the better bet?

Cheers!

[Bobmunkhouse]

Hi all if I buy this from Amazon.de would I just need to get a UK Micky mouse power lead for power block? Would TV tuner and everything else be fine?

Also this will play full 1080p and Iplayer HD yeah?

[Chris P Bacon]

Does the Arctic barebones unit come with a remote or not?

The €99.95 barebones unit does not include a remote they charge €12.95 for the Arctic branded one but I think you can get the same remote with different branding on ebay for around €5.

The limited edition OpenElec version has a remote included.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Now for the performance compared to a Revo L70 using Openelec and using Win7? Im guessing there might not be much in in using Openelec but with Win7 I'd assume the L70 might be the better bet?

Cheers!

How do the benchmarks compare?

Arctic also do a version with Win7 preinstalled so all the drivers are on their website so you shouldn't have any problems like that.

[voochi]

Hi all if I buy this from Amazon.de would I just need to get a UK Micky mouse power lead for power block?

I just use it as is. The two prongs fit into a UK socket just fine. Switching to a 3 pin cord from the PSU to the wall won't achieve anything since there's no ground coming from the PSU anyway.

[Dougie Fresh]

Hi all if I buy this from Amazon.de would I just need to get a UK Micky mouse power lead for power block? Would TV tuner and everything else be fine?

Also this will play full 1080p and Iplayer HD yeah?

I've been trying to figure out the iPlayer/4OD support too. I see people having problem with Flash acceleration but then read about a new player not based on Flash. I'd love to know the answer to this. Without GPU acceleration, HD streaming on an Atom system is not going to happen but if GPU acceleration does work the AMD GPU would be fine.

Do the iPlayer / 4OD players support GPU acceleration? Are they Flash based?