[KFirth31]

Hello everyone,

I have used XBMC pretty extensively on my roommates old computer, but now that I moved to a new location I need to set up my own media center. I have looked over the boards at all of the options, and the two that stick out the most are the Revo R1600 and AR3610. Although they are both highly lauded, I keep reading about the next generation Ion machines coming out and was curious as to whether you guys think it is worth waiting or not (I can't find any info on Acers version or the possible release dates).

I would appreciate any input on the issue (I may even be completely off base by thinking the Acer would be the best option). Please let me know what you guys think!

Thanks

[Ogi010]

Unfortunately I don't know enough to make a recommendation here, but I have heard that the Zbox IONs (next gen ion platform) from Zotac will retail for $239, and they should be selling at the end of the month.

[teaguecl]

Unfortunately I don't know enough to make a recommendation here, but I have heard that the Zbox IONs (next gen ion platform) from Zotac will retail for $239, and they should be selling at the end of the month.

That's $239 without a hard drive or RAM.

With regards to the "buy ion now, or wait for the next gen ion" question - it depends The difference between the two is twofold:
1. The CPU is not a whole lot more powerful (if at all), but it does consume less power. This means less heat.
2. The GPU supports VDPAU feature set C, which means acceleration for divx and xvid.

It is rumored that some of the new ion systems will be completely fanless - though this has yet to be confirmed as far as I know. My advice would be to buy now only if these two features (VDPAU FS C, possible fanless) are unimportant to you. If you think you want those, then wait - though you will pay a premium buying at the start of the product cycle.

[KFirth31]

Hmm if the new generation Ion nettops are going to be exponentially more expensive, I might just go with something from the current generation. Next, I was under the impression that both the 1600 and 3610 could handle 1080p XVID well, is that not the case?

Also, do you guys think it's worth it to go for the 3610 over the 1600? I'm not really worried about the money, but just curious what kind of performance gains I will get from going with the higher end model.

Thanks

[dan1son]

You get basically twice the CPU power with the dualcore version. This only applies to multi-threaded apps... but most stuff is these days. You will likely see an increase in performance for XBMCs UI, but I find the R1600 to be more than adequate unless you use the less optimized skins that don't do as much background loading of thumbnails/artwork. I doubt you'll see any improvement in playback since it's all handled nicely by the GPU anyway. Web browsing and any other normal computer stuff will probably run noticeably faster. I don't do that much so it doesn't bother me.

I'm perfectly content with my R1600 running XBMC in Ubuntu. It'll play VC-1 and H.264 1080p with ease. I haven't really seen any HD DIVX or XVID stuff anyway.

[magnetik]

It is rumored that some of the new ion systems will be completely fanless - though this has yet to be confirmed as far as I know.

True this - but the Shuttle XS35 is confirmed to be fanless.

[KFirth31]

After thinking about it a little more, I'm learning towards the 3610 since I will most likely being using XBMC under Windows 7. However, I remember reading some threads stating that it was having some issues with Flash 10.1 awhile back, is anyone aware if those issues have been resolved or not?

[PANiCnz]

After thinking about it a little more, I'm learning towards the 3610 since I will most likely being using XBMC under Windows 7. However, I remember reading some threads stating that it was having some issues with Flash 10.1 awhile back, is anyone aware if those issues have been resolved or not?

If money isn't too much of a concern get the dual core version. There isn't a huge benefit of waiting for ION2, the new Atoms are only marginally faster and there aren't huge differences between the ION processors (they're pretty much based on the same core).

[poofyhairguy]

After thinking about it a little more, I'm learning towards the 3610 since I will most likely being using XBMC under Windows 7. However, I remember reading some threads stating that it was having some issues with Flash 10.1 awhile back, is anyone aware if those issues have been resolved or not?

Yeah, for Windows you will want the extra core...