[Necromancyr]

Yes, but the Revo is silent and has well-documented solutions.

Yup - that was part of my point. It's not THAT much less...

(Add in Win7, and your basically the same cost...although the Acer doesn't come with an install CD...oddly enough.)

[Hannes The Hun]

I found the picture of the kingston PCB, source: anandtech

[Riffmaker]

Blah! Sold out! I really wanted one at that price(even if it had to be white)

Maybe with Ion2 boards coming out maybe next month these things will go even further down in price.

[steve1977]

we've had some threads about this baby in the forums already, and I have one sitting on my TV shelf. be aware that the fan is somewhat loud and kicks in quite often, esp. when using windows or when you are in the XBMC menu. it's not really annoying and when watching a GPU-supported video file it's mostly quite. I can only test 5.1 channel output via HDMI.

we hope that foxconn give us a better fan control in the next BIOS version. until now, no manual selection known. speedfan (windows) is even crashing when trying to detect the controller chip.

apart from that, works like a charm. added 2GB RAM and intel 40gig SSD. logitech harmony is at HP MCE receiver (which is nearly bigger then the whole system...)

Having exactly the same setting as you and am quite happy with it. 2 questions:

1) Fan issue - this is indeed super annoying. Have you heard rumours that this really becomes fixable through a bios update. Please keep all of us posted if anything comes out.

2) SSD Drive - I have taken out the harddisk and instead run it from a USB stick. 8GB is sufficient for me as my media is on a server anyways. Would a SSD drive improve the speed of the GUI interface and/or will it reduce the fan spinning? What other advantages over my USB drive solution?


Cheers!

[Hannes The Hun]

Would a SSD drive improve the speed of the GUI interface and/or will it reduce the fan spinning?

yes, and most definitely no
I just installed the SSD because I'm dualbooting into win7 therefore need more space and because of the comparatively slow atom CPU win7 runs much smoother when using an SSD.
apart from that there's no real advantage, maybe a little faster boot times and no noisy scratching that we wouldn't hear anyways because the fan is too loud

when I look at my temperature readings under full load and mostly idle, there's definitely much potential in a better BIOS fan control. it seems to me this thing has 3 settings: off, medium, and full throttle. from what I see so far is that the fan mostly stays in full throttle while medium really should be more than enough for a good operating temperature.

[steve1977]

yes, and most definitely no
I just installed the SSD because I'm dualbooting into win7 therefore need more space and because of the comparatively slow atom CPU win7 runs much smoother when using an SSD.
apart from that there's no real advantage, maybe a little faster boot times and no noisy scratching that we wouldn't hear anyways because the fan is too loud

I am using a USB stick to run it from, so there is no scratching at all. Does this change your assessment on speed or fan?

when I look at my temperature readings under full load and mostly idle, there's definitely much potential in a better BIOS fan control. it seems to me this thing has 3 settings: off, medium, and full throttle. from what I see so far is that the fan mostly stays in full throttle while medium really should be more than enough for a good operating temperature.

makes sense. Would be great if you can post here once/if a bios update comes out?! Thanks!

[Necromancyr]

yes, and most definitely no
.

If I'm reading what you write right, you're suggesting that a SSD vs a normal HDD won't alter the fan spinning. While it might be the case, it's not really giving the full picture.

To be clear, if the fan is going to ever shut off or go to the lower speed setting, it's much more likely to do it with a SSD than a regular drive. The SSD does not generate any heat, whereas the normal drive (even a 5400) will be generating heat. So, you're going to overcome that 'fan activating' threshold much easier with a standard drive vs. a SSD.

Having no drive whatsoever in the case improves the airflow through the case dramatically, based on user reports, which helps with the cases heat issues.

My gut reaction based off the fact that it's fine with the lid off is to massively mod the cover - cut a fan sized hole (90 or 120mm if it's even that big) then put a fan grate over the hole for aesthetics. It will look decent, will have much more air movement, and could stop the fan from activating.

[waldo22]

Back in stock. Same coupon code.

-Wes

[Hannes The Hun]

The SSD does not generate any heat, whereas the normal drive (even a 5400) will be generating heat.

that's a misconsumption a lot of people make. in fact, when you look at the thorough SSD reviews of e.g. benchmarkreviews.com, these babies in fact generate some heat due to the flash chips and the controller.

[Necromancyr]

Broke down and got one with a HDD and 2gb of ram for 240... used like 3 coupon codes and a combo to get that price but...seems really good considering it DOES have optical SPDIF.

[xformulax]

someone PLEASE tell me you've got XBMC Live running diskless with wifi support! i dont have much hair left but i'm about to pull it all out!

[Hannes The Hun]

seems really good considering it DOES have optical SPDIF.

it does have a mini SPDIF out which needs an adapter but I'm not sure it is able to do TOSLINK

@xformulax: I don't see why this shouldn't be possible, just throw xbmc live onto an SD card and install the backports-modules to get the atheros wlan recognized.

[xformulax]

thanks hannes... my biggest issue is not having access to wired network either, so i can't use apt.

i tried searching on packages.ubuntu.com, but it's very unintuitive. i'm also a linux noob so i'm not sure i could install them after downloading to a usb stick on my win box and transferring them over

[Necromancyr]

it does have a mini SPDIF out which needs an adapter but I'm not sure it is able to do TOSLINK

Based on what I've read after searching a bit the jack is basically a normal headphone/lineout jack combined with a mini-TOSLINK.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/produc...1&format=2

I didn't even know those damn things existed - I was figuring it was doing SPDIF out over a single channel on a stereo minijack.

[xformulax]

Based on what I've read after searching a bit the jack is basically a normal headphone/lineout jack combined with a mini-TOSLINK.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/produc...1&format=2

I didn't even know those damn things existed - I was figuring it was doing SPDIF out over a single channel on a stereo minijack.

a laptop i had a LONG time ago had this, i also believe my first iRiver mp3cd player had it, and maybe one of my minidisc portables.