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ARCTIC MC001 Fanless low cost HTPC
#1
This unit has been discussed in a variety of other threads but I thought with recent developments it deserved a thread of it's own.

OpenELEC have just announced that they have a new partner Arctic a company probably best know for their cooling products.

As a result Arctic are now taking orders for a Limited Edition Media Centre with XBMC 12 (OpenELEC 3.0) pre-installed.

Image

The limited edition will cost €199 inc.VAT & shipping in the EU and $229 in the US

The specs for the limited editon model are as follows:

CPU Dual Core Intel Atom D525 (1.8GHz)
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5430, 512MB GDDR3
Chipset Intel NM10
Memory (RAM) 2GB DDR3 1333MHz
Storage 1TB 5400RPM 2.5" HDD, extendable by USB HDD
OS XMBC 12, OpenELEC 3.0
Supported Streaming Protocols AirPlay, UPnP/DLNA
Language English, German, Spanish, French, Czech, Portuguese(brasil), Portuguese(Portugal), Hungarian, Italian, Swedish, Polish, Slovak, Russian, Dutch, Bulgarian, Danish, Romanian, Ukrainian, Norwegian, Arabic, Hebrew, Croatian, Japanese, Chinese(simplified), Chinese(traditional Hong-Kong), Chinese (traditional Taiwan)
ODD DVD-RW 24x
Wireless IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
LAN 10/100/1000 Ethernet
TV tuner DVB-T or ATSC(*)
Audio
On-board analog stereo high-definition audio (ALC892)
7.1- Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio (HDMI) (*)
Optical Digital S/PDIF audio output

Back Panel
3.5mm audio I/O jack x 6 (7.1 OUT x 4, LINE IN x 1, Mic x 1)
SPDIF port/optical x 1
VGA port x 1
HDTV interface x 1 (HDTV cable included)
Ethernet RJ45 port x 1
USB 2.0 port x 5
DC power jack x 1

Front Panel
IR receiver x 1
USB 3.0 port x 2
3.5mm stereo I/O jack x 2 (Headphone, Mic)
4-in-1 memory card reader x 1

Power supply 19V DC 60W
Format MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, WMA, MP4, WMV, AVI, MKV, RM/RMVB, DiVX, H264, ALAC, FLAC, OGG
IR Remote Control ARCTIC MCR2
Volume 1.5 L
Dimensions (Product)
w/o stand: 143 L x 40 W x 266 H mm
w/ stand: 161 L x 65 W x 275 H mm

Dimensions (Packaging) 205 L x 130 W x 329 H mm
Limited Warranty 2 years
Gross Weight 3.1 kg
(*) not supported in OpenELEC

This unit is also available as a barebones from Amazon.de for €99.95 + shipping.
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#2
I must say, that looks really awesome, I love the form factor, and that it has a DVD player built in. Very tempting for a bedroom
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#3
Since posting this, I just got delivery of the barebones unit I ordered from Amazon a few days ago, will strip down an old laptop I have for some parts this evening and hopefully get it up and running OpenElec this evening.

Very happy with the appearance of it.

I have a Win8 licence but undecided if I will use it on this. The only reason would be to have Netflix on it as well.
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#4
(2013-02-06, 15:03)Chris P Bacon Wrote: Since posting this, I just got delivery of the barebones unit I ordered from Amazon a few days ago, will strip down an old laptop I have for some parts this evening and hopefully get it up and running OpenElec this evening.

Very happy with the appearance of it.

I have a Win8 licence but undecided if I will use it on this. The only reason would be to have Netflix on it as well.

How does the ATI graphics cope with de-interlacing and HD audio bitstreaming in Linux (and thus OpenElec) vs Windows? Last I checked nVidia was a better fit for Linux still in these areas?

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#5
The ATSC tuner isn't supported by OpenELEC and AMD drivers suck at deinterlacing and don't do HD Audio.
There are better options for OpenELEC.
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#6
(2013-02-06, 15:35)lem000 Wrote: The ATSC tuner isn't supported by OpenELEC and AMD drivers suck at deinterlacing and don't do HD Audio.
There are better options for OpenELEC.

Pity. And the tuner in the EU is DVB-T not DVB-T2 (so only receives the SD broadcasts in the UK, Sweden etc. and not the T2 HD transmissions) It's at a very good price barebones (€99 inc VAT on Amazon without and optical drive, €119 with DVD-RW) but I guess would have to run Windows 7 to make use of it... If only it had an nVidia GPU...

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#7
I got one for a spare room, can't really argue with €99. Shoved in €8 worth of ram and an old 2.5" drive and im up and running.
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#8
2GB and a 1TB drive. 4GB and an SSD would be better, especially if it's just a client. Atom D525 is an interesting choice too since that's the last generation Atom.

If you're looking for a Atom/Nvidia barebones alternative to Zotac I posted about one here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1323559
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#9
(2013-02-06, 16:56)Dougie Fresh Wrote: 2GB and a 1TB drive. 4GB and an SSD would be better, especially if it's just a client. Atom D525 is an interesting choice too since that's the last generation Atom.

OpenElec does not need 4GB ram and doesnt benefit much from a SSD apart from a few seconds quicker boot.

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#10
(2013-02-06, 17:18)voochi Wrote:
(2013-02-06, 16:56)Dougie Fresh Wrote: 2GB and a 1TB drive. 4GB and an SSD would be better, especially if it's just a client. Atom D525 is an interesting choice too since that's the last generation Atom.

OpenElec does not need 4GB ram and doesnt benefit much from a SSD apart from a few seconds quicker boot.

An SSD is also going to benefit in quiet and heat inside a small case. It will also improve the speed of the interface such as loading thumbnails/covers/artwork to display, not just boot time. But, if you don't notice a speed difference it's fine. I notice it. I would prefer not to have mechanical drives in my client PCs. As for 4GB given the price differential between a 2GB and 4GB stick, when there's a single SO-DIMM slot I'd rather have the 4GB so later if I change the OS I don't have to completely replace it.

These are just my preferences. They are not intended to be an indictment or recommendation

FWIW, I use a 16GB USB stick for OpenELEC. Benefit: it cost $7.
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#11
(2013-02-06, 17:37)Dougie Fresh Wrote: An SSD is also going to benefit in quiet and heat inside a small case.

2.5" HDDs run very quiet. The HDD in this unit is on the underside of the mobo. So heat is pretty much irrelevant.

Quote:It will also improve the speed of the interface such as loading thumbnails/covers/artwork to display, not just boot time.

Not really. Ive run OpenElec on lots of low powered Atom machines, and compared to a 2.5" HDD, a SSD doesnt benefit much beyond boot time. For fanart/poster loading the bottleneck is usually the Atom processor.

Quote:As for 4GB given the price differential between a 2GB and 4GB stick, when there's a single SO-DIMM slot I'd rather have the 4GB so later if I change the OS I don't have to completely replace it.

When you're building a low-cost HTPC you don't think like that. Every €10 you save helps to keep the price down, and 2GB ram still allows you to throw in another 2GB in the future to have 4GB total.

Anyway what are you going to do on a slow Atom nettop that requires 8GB ?

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

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#12
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.....
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#13
(2013-02-06, 18:55)bluray Wrote: 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?
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#14
I think the point being made is that it isn't quite the bargain it may seem as it doesn't suit OpenELEC perfectly.
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#15
(2013-02-06, 19:43)lem000 Wrote: I think the point being made is that it isn't quite the bargain it may seem as it doesn't suit OpenELEC perfectly.

Unless you can suggest an alternative barebones with similar spec for €99 then of course its a bargain. Or a pre-configured machine for €199 shipped within Europe.
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ARCTIC MC001 Fanless low cost HTPC5