This post is absurdly and unnecessarily long. There is a summary at the bottom for those who don't want to read all of this.
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: *a very long first post*
Dang bro, did someone strike a nerve? I see you registered just to post this long rant lol.
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: you guys keep posting or mentioning either barebones boxes priced at close to 200$ which honestly (do the math close to 200 and add parts .. you want these guys to give it away for free?) or boxes that are extremely ugly and look nothing like it.
Here is the Prometheus Box in question:
http://www.getxbmc.com/product/xbmc-home-theater-pc/
Here is a "similar" looking device that nickr posted:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2013-best...15197.html
Look at them both for 5 minutes and then try to tell me that the $200 (after shipping) machine that nickr posted isn't exactly same as the Prometheus Box that costs $150 more.
Trick question! They're not exactly the same. The one that nickr posted has double the RAM and storage of the Prometheus Box. The only major difference is that the one nickr posted doesn't come with Wi-Fi, but it can be added for a whopping $8, bringing your grand total to $208. Still a lot less than $350, and with better specs to boot. So maybe the extra $142 is for them installing OpenELEC for you? Does that sound like a good value to you?
Let's say you wanted to build one yourself. A mini-ITX motherboard with an NM70 chipset/1037U processor costs $70. 2GB of DDR3 RAM can be had for $30. A Corsair 430 watt PSU costs $40 or less. An 8 GB USB drive costs $10 or less. Whatever case you go with can range from $40-$100, depending on what you're looking for. Either way, it isn't going to cost you $350 to get the same hardware as the Prometheus Box. If you need Wifi, maybe you can add another $20 or $30, but a wired connection is really the way to go. Let's say your total is about $200, or even $250. If it takes you even 2 hours (which is being quite generous) to get everything put together, is that extra $100-$150 spent on a Prometheus Box worth less than your 2 hours of time?
Links:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813138393
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820148221
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811204043
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817139026
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6833180078
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...12K1078659
Let's say you go with an NUC. The BayTrail NUC costs $140. 2 GB of compatible RAM will run you $20-$30. An 8 GB USB drive will cost $10. Setting it up shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. Your total is $180. Is the Prometheus Box still a better value at almost double the price? Keep in mind that you'd be missing out on the built-in IR functionality that the NUC has.
Links:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856102062
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820239853
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...12K1078659
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: Also from what I see these our wholesalers on these sites and often require a minimum order of more then one box
First of all...than*
Secondly, the link that nickr posted looks like you can just purchase one at a time. It doesn't set a minimum order quantity, and the default quantity is one piece. Even if the bulk price was $175, the individual price wouldn't double to $350!
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: It's not fair and very obvious that there are a lot of targets on Hackermil seems at every turn anything he does gets KILLLLLED! by everyone else but HUGELYYYYY accepted by the real end users
Like I said earlier, no one is hating or killing anything. I had never even heard of Hackermil until I read this thread, so it's not like I had an agenda against him or anything. I'm just trying to inform people about what they're getting for their money. Capitalism allows consumers to make choices about what they purchased, and even after reading this thread, there are some people that will still pay $350 for this box. That's fine. But at the same time, I just want to make sure that someone doesn't purchase a Prometheus Box because they think it's a special device because someone made a new thread about it. It's a run of the mill device that has a price much higher than it's worth (at least by my estimation). Is that wrong or unethical? No not at all, it just may not be a good value for the person buying it.
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: not everyone is a geek like us not everyone WANTS to research for hours and spend months trying to work wholesale deals to probably not even end up with the same overall product and experience.
Well I've just done all the research for anyone who was too lazy to do it themselves or was confused on what to get. All the links and information are on this forum, other forums, and especially on YouTube. If you didn't know what to buy before, you'll know after reading this post. And as far as the "product" and experience, I'd say that the "experience" with XBMC will be mostly the same from hardware to hardware. The only difference you'll ever feel is when you try to play high bitrate media that lower end hardware can't handle. If you're trying to play high bitrate media, you shouldn't be buying a $350 Prometheus Box that has low end parts in it. You'd need to upgrade to something with at least an i3 to improve your experience.
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: For example Xunity.Tv @Kizzer says its the "BEST OUT THERE" ok lets link that one out also http://m.alibaba.com/product/1485539204/...V_Box.html
60$ lol for this box what are they selling it for ? 250!!!!! $ are you kidding me? now THAT box comes complete for sure .. junky remote (same used for little black box) the melee or whatever it is .. less then 10 bucks in china at
wholesale and yea impressive coding but coding is free
This is pretty random and unrelated to the thread. I'm not sure who Kizzer is or why he's important, but I'd say he's actually right to some degree. For only $60, that could possibly be the best device in its price range. It's certainly not the best option overall, but it's probably decent for the price. If they're selling it for $250, it's not much different than what Hackermil is doing.
If coding for XBMC is free on Android, do you mean to imply that there should be a cost for the PC version?
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: now you mean to tell me seeing Hackermil charge 350 for a box that goes for 150!!! with NOTHING IN IT! control alone is another 40 thats 200 right there alone lol + the rest of the parts you find that upsurd? so what would you have him charge then ?
lol@ "upsurd." It's "absurd."
Scroll up. The link illiac4 posted shows that the empty box only costs $130.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/X-26-2G-R...69668.html
That's a link showing very similar hardware going for $100. The main differences I see are that the cheaper one doesn't have a card reader and WiFi, but that's not worth the extra $30 price difference IMO. The Prometheus Box page doesn't list a card reader in the specs, so it's possible that it comes with the cheaper $100 hardware.
Hackermil added 2 GB of RAM and an 8 GB SSD. I'm not joking when I say that my phone from 2012 has 2 GB of RAM and more than 8 GB of storage. At wholesale prices, those two components might have added $20-$40 to the cost of the hardware. The cost of that random off-brand keyboard can't be more than $20 or $30, for which you could get a much nicer Logitech K400r. So, let's say that the box costs $200 altogether. What are you getting for the extra $150? You're paying $150 for XBMC (which is free!) to be pre-installed, in spite of many easy ways to install it yourself. If the box costs $200 (and I bet it costs less than that), I don't think he should charge more than $225. At least that's what I'd be willing to pay for the service of pre-installing free software, if I were to ever become so lazy.
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: i am very! intrested more then anything else to hear that with all the work that goes into putting something like that together would be very entertaining to me to hear what it is you think they should be charging lol .. even crazier is thinking that is more upsurd then these over prices android boxes? which are basically mobiles (we all know whats inside) that cost 60! bucks and sell for 250 and from what i see on their website they have cheesy salesman tendencies also by striking a 299! price and making it 250 .. 299! woah but now you can get it for 250 lol reminds me of all those late night info ads just pure shit man its a 60$ box guys no wondr they can afford to give out so many for free in contests lol... Hacker is upfront about evwerything never shys away from questions and always answers truthfully HTPCs are not for everyone and im sure that team is fully aware of this
I didn't say anything about Android boxes and don't see how they are relevant, but just like the Prometheus Box, anyone buying an Android box for $200 or more is not getting nearly enough for their money. I'm not sure what the logic is behind the pricing, but if you're not Hackermil, I'm not sure that you should try to explain or justify his actions. You're saying that the people selling Android XBMC boxes are charging too much when they sell a $60 unit for $250, yet you say it's acceptable for Hackermil to sell $200 hardware for $350. What's the difference? For all we know, Hackermil probably saw that people were buying $250 Android boxes and figured that they might also buy $350 PCs as well.
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: HTPcs were ALWAYS pricey lol before Hackermil and will always be pricey AFTER these kits are expensive period So to say that his specific one is too much is ridiculous considering it ALREADY! looks way better then most on the market with its sleek design but more importantly its brand new! lol nobody has even reviewed it or shown its performance and you guys are already shooting it down.
First of all, overall price is not the issue here, value is. I'm not saying that $350 is too much for a HTPC, I'm saying that $350 is too much for THAT HTPC because it consists of low end parts that cost less than $200 to buy at a consumer level.
Secondly, we don't have to wait for a review because it has the same parts in it that people have already been using for a long time. If HP and Compaq sell laptop computers that have the same parts in them, do people sit around expecting similar hardware to have different performance? No.
Third, it's not "brand new." Hackermil didn't design this box himself, he bought it off aliexpress. All he's doing is reselling those bulk priced units you were complaining about. You're just paying a higher price (almost double) to buy it from Hackermil than from aliexpress themselves.
As I stated in my first post in this thread, the only difference you might notice is how you set it up initially. Once you get into XBMC, it's going to work the same as any other XBMC device, for the most part.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813138393
Read the first review on that board by Patrick L. He's using it as a HTPC, and that motherboard has the same NM70 chipset and 1037U processor as the Prometheus Box. There, now you have a review on how well the hardware works in XBMC. The only other thing left to review is the build quality and reliability, but that's not related to XBMC at all. More importantly, since Hackermil or whoever is selling this box didn't make the hardware themselves, it's not like you can even attribute the build quality (or lack thereof) to the company you bought it from!
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: Personally I see a trend here .. everything he does gets shot down by the people that do not like him .... but praised by the people that do. now you tell me what do you think proves more to the outsider looking in .. All this against him by people who dont really like him anyway I know @Kizzer for sure doesnt as ive seen him attacking on twitter OR the INSANEEEEEEEEEE!!!! amount of POSITIVE feedback from anyone that has used his services or bought something from him or spoken to him or has been in contact with him lol . Its a no brainer. Yes obviously Im biased towards hacker but doesnt make any of this less true.
Unfortunately, your bias does make a lot of what you say less true. For starters, half of your post was rambling about Hackermil being hated on, when he was barely even mentioned in the thread lol. Like I said, I didn't even know anything about Hackermil, I've only been talking about the Prometheus Box itself. Secondly, you appear uninformed about computer hardware and what it should cost for HTPC builds. Third, you grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure is atrocious. Finally, no one mentioned anything about Kizzer or Twitter or any other silly internet drama. All these things put together give you the appearance of someone who just doesn't know what they're talking about.
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: the product is actually good and worth the money lol just my 2 cents
I'm curious, did he send you a sample to test? Have you used one personally? Earlier you said to wait for a review, and now you're already saying it's a good product that's worth the money. Can you link us to the review that you wrote?
(2014-06-03, 13:33)XbmcTrans Wrote: oh yea get your xunity.tv here http://m.alibaba.com/product/1485539204/...V_Box.html lol
if you need some outer casing connects let me know its the same box folks
And then you throw in the shameless plug/spam for good measure. SMH!
Summary: No offense to XbmcTrans, but I don't think he knows what he's talking about at all. The Prometheus Box is just overpriced, and there's not much else to say about its price. For $350, you can get yourself much better hardware, or get the same or similar hardware for much less money. It's just a mini-PC purchased wholesale from Aliexpress or some other Chinese wholesaler with XBMC installed. Is it a bad HTPC to buy? No, on the contrary, it's probably going to work quite well for most people. At the same time, a lot of those people who would purchase such a box can save themselves a lot of money by reading up a little bit on what they're getting and what it's worth.
Sure some people don't want to build their own PC or do the research to set things up themselves, but I'd highly recommend it so you don't end up wasting money.
/thread