[DocG]

There is also this apparently http://www.amazon.com/HP-G8Y70UA-ABA-Chr...00KD5RUPA/

Really like the white. Just ordered one of the above units to test out (do we need a separate thread for the HP Chromebox?), together with 1 x Asus Chromebox M004U. Too bad it'll probably be two weeks until the two units get here, but I'm looking forward to playing around with these.

Ok, that was much quicker than anticipated. I just got my two units!

Really like the white. Just ordered one of the above units to test out (do we need a separate thread for the HP Chromebox?), together with 1 x Asus Chromebox M004U. Too bad it'll probably be two weeks until the two units get here, but I'm looking forward to playing around with these.

I don't think we need a separate thread unless issues are discovered that are unique to the HP ChromeBox. The latest Coreboot/SeaBIOS updates should work on the HP model as well, I'll just need to update my script to handle it. But I'd prefer to have someone test for me first, so PM me once you have it and are ready to give it a go

Going to spend some time with those first, and run through the process with my Asus. Once I've successfully done my Asus, I'll PM you about the HP box. Really like the look of that HP box. And to think that I wasn't sure whether I'd get any Chromebox, now I've got two, with two more on the way.

[noggin]

For those of us in the UK - HP are now showing the 4GB Celeron Chromebox on their site as are Insight. Neither appear to be in stock yet - but the fact they are showing it at all is good.

What's not so good news is the price... £195 ex-VAT or £235 inc-VAT. That's a standard $=£ conversion. Sure the UK PSU may be more expensive as it will be produced in lower volumes (though a Cloverleaf model with UK cable would solve that...)

[DocG]

What's not so good news is the price... £195 ex-VAT or £235 inc-VAT. That's a standard $=£ conversion. Sure the UK PSU may be more expensive as it will be produced in lower volumes (though a Cloverleaf model with UK cable would solve that...)

While the Asus Chromebox has its own unique PSU for specific regions, the HP Chromebox does not. It comes with a standard HP-branded PSU with a Cloverleaf connector, and naturally, it's switching. All you need for a different region is a different cable, i.e. your regional power plug to cloverleaf, and you can get those for quite cheap.

That UK price is shocking. I believe the 2GB model from HP will be the same here as the Asus base model, which is A$299 RRP. That's around US$280. Luckily, we in Australia have no tax on imports with a value below A$1000, so I ended up paying roughly A$220 for each unit shipped from the US.

Ok, let's go into the other major differences, aside from the PSU.

First of all, looks...



As you can see, the HP is a tad smaller. The maximum width and depth are the same, but the Asus is a tad higher. The HP also has rounded edges, which makes it look quite a bit smaller again.

Personally, I do like the HP better, it feels nicer, but I guess that all comes down to taste.

The only other major difference is that the HP model has only one memory slot, while the Asus has two.

After some testing, I'm very impressed with both devices. High bitrate 1080P Hi10P with nothing but the occasional frame skip at the beginning. That's got to be the cheapest fully functional Hi10P player around, and unless I'll come across issues during use, it'll be my number one choice of XBMC player to recommend. Well, that's until some nutters start making 4K Hi10P.

All in all, I'm very happy with those two units! Glad I got them.

Thanks again to Matt for one awesome script!

[noggin]

DocG - do the HP and Asus share the same power input connector on the system unit?

[DocG]

DocG - do the HP and Asus share the same power input connector on the system unit?

No. Different size connector, the HP connector is smaller. Not sure of the exact size. The power brick is 19.5V 3.33A.

[thePCisDead]

So just to confirm, you had no issues using Matt's script on the HP 4gb device?

[LazerBlue]

Whoops wrong place.

[Matt Devo]

So just to confirm, you had no issues using Matt's script on the HP 4gb device?

So far only the dual boot setup has been confirmed, and he's using a test version of the script I modified to work with the HP Chromebox as well as the Asus. But I expect the standalone setup to work correctly as well - just need someone to test before I push the changes for public use

[DocG]

What Matt said.

One other point of difference, the Asus does come with a VESA mount, the HP does not. Nor does it seem to be easily mountable. If you plan on mounting your Chromebox to the back of your TV, the Asus should be your choice.

I can also confirm that the Pulse-Eight USB CEC Adapter works with the Chromebox. Just tested it on my LG TV.

[thePCisDead]

So just to confirm, you had no issues using Matt's script on the HP 4gb device?

So far only the dual boot setup has been confirmed, and he's using a test version of the script I modified to work with the HP Chromebox as well as the Asus. But I expect the standalone setup to work correctly as well - just need someone to test before I push the changes for public use

Thank you for the update and developmet support. I'm psyched for my new device.

[alchemyst]

Looking for clarification on 2GB vs. 4GB memory talk... if I only want OpenELEC (no dual-boot), is 4GB still recommended due to high CPU usage issue? Thanks.

nope, with the updated Coreboot firmware on the standalone setups, 2GB runs perfectly fine. Others with 2GB can confirm as well.

Hi Matt - it's been a while since I originally flashed my Chromebox to standalone OpenElec. How can I tell what version of the coreboot fw I have? And how can I go about flashing the newer one (if there is one)?

With all the (excellent) work you've done on making the process super simple, I couldnt figure out how to do this one particular thing...

Edit: Just reading a little further - is that Option 4 in the E-Z script (Update Legacy BIOS)? If so, does running that command work in isolation i.e. not affect my standalone OE set up?

Edit 2: Bah - my comprehension/reading skills are atrocious today... it's clearly the below. But to double confirm - it doesnt affect my current standalone installation if I did the below?

------------------------------------------------------------------
Standalone Setup / Coreboot Firmware Install
------------------------------------------------------------------

[Image: cbox-menu-coreboot.png]

This option will allow you to replace the stock firmware with a custom build of Coreboot. This custom firmware fixes many issues with the stock firmware and significantly reduces the boot time, but is not ChromeOS compatible. (You can, however, run the open-source variant ChromiumOS. Downloads are available at http://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/)

You will be given the option to backup the current/stock firmware to an external USB drive; it is highly recommended that you do this in the event you wish to revert the ChromeBox to stock / run ChromeOS (the recovery button won't help you anymore), and since there is always a small risk anytime you flash/update the firmware.

After completing this step, you can install any off-the-shelf linux distro (Ubuntu, OpenELEC, etc) via USB, no custom installers are needed.

Upon reboot, if any USB/SD devices are connected, you will have 5s to press [ESC] to display the boot menu; otherwise it will boot the internal hard drive directly.

[DocG]

Looking for clarification on 2GB vs. 4GB memory talk... if I only want OpenELEC (no dual-boot), is 4GB still recommended due to high CPU usage issue? Thanks.

nope, with the updated Coreboot firmware on the standalone setups, 2GB runs perfectly fine. Others with 2GB can confirm as well.

I have to ask, what issues are there exactly with a dual boot setup and only 2GB?

[YellowDog]

I'm experiencing some freezing with XBMC. Twice while playing videos the screen froze, but I still had audio playback. Two other time this happened while navigating about XBMC. The Bluetooth remote stops working each time and, I couldn't get Yatse to work either. Each time I was able to SSH into the Chromebox. I looked in /var/log but didn't see any error messages. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Matt Devo]

Hi Matt - it's been a while since I originally flashed my Chromebox to standalone OpenElec. How can I tell what version of the coreboot fw I have? And how can I go about flashing the newer one (if there is one)?

With all the (excellent) work you've done on making the process super simple, I couldnt figure out how to do this one particular thing...

Edit: Just reading a little further - is that Option 4 in the E-Z script (Update Legacy BIOS)? If so, does running that command work in isolation i.e. not affect my standalone OE set up?

Edit 2: Bah - my comprehension/reading skills are atrocious today... it's clearly the below. But to double confirm - it doesnt affect my current standalone installation if I did the below?

You can tell what version firmware you are running by the datestamp in the SeaBIOS version string. 20140620 is the latest (as of this post), though I believe the datestamp on it still shows 20140613 as I didn't rebuild SeaBIOS with it that time.

Updating the Coreboot firmware will not change anything except the firmware itself, so any existing setup (standalone or dual boot) will be unaffected.

But yes, you just re-run option 5 to update. I'll edit things to make that more clear with the next update.

I have to ask, what issues are there exactly with a dual boot setup and only 2GB?

Due to an issue with the stock firmware, there's continuous high CPU usage with one core on certain distros/kernels when there's only a single channel of memory in use. So it's not really a 2GB vs 4GB issue, it's single vs dual channel memory.

I'm experiencing some freezing with XBMC. Twice while playing videos the screen froze, but I still had audio playback. Two other time this happened while navigating about XBMC. The Bluetooth remote stops working each time and, I couldn't get Yatse to work either. Each time I was able to SSH into the Chromebox. I looked in /var/log but didn't see any error messages. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Are you using hardware acceleration? If so, it's recommended to disable it for now until Intel fixes a couple of bugs. Otherwise, I'd recommend enabling debug logging and trying to reproduce the error. Logs are saved by OpenELEC in /storage/logs.

[DocG]

Due to an issue with the stock firmware, there's continuous high CPU usage with one core on certain distros/kernels when there's only a single channel of memory in use. So it's not really a 2GB vs 4GB issue, it's single vs dual channel memory.

Ahh, ok, just for certain distros. Guess my particular setup is fine with just one RAM stick.