Acer Revo (was Re:NCIX grand opening sale)

[Ijaaz A. Ullah]

Last winter, I purchased:

Zotac IONITX-C MINI-ITX Intel Atom N230 MCP7A-ION DDR2 GBLAN Video
Audio 90W PSU Motherboard
MINI-BOX M350 Universal MINI-ITX Computer Case Black 1X2.5INT Works
with Pico PSU - Black
Kingston ValueRAM KVR667D2N5/2G PC2-5300 2GB 1X2GB DDR2-667 240PIN DIMM Memory

worked out to about $250 before tax

I stuck in a 4gb usb stick that I had lying around and I now use this
as a front end in my bedroom (driving a 720p LCD via HDMI without any
problems).

This box has no moving parts and is totally silent.

I was hoping that I could get a similar Acer (trading off the nicer
form factor for noise level) at the same price.

A Zotac MAG (http://ncix.com/products/?sku=46919) or R1600 sounds like
the way to go (I believe you need 2gb for VDPAU), the hard part is
finding one now.


On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 1:55 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> | From: Ijaaz A. Ullah <ijaaz-UwkSZrAjFfdkDLQDXwjzI9BPR1lH4CV8 at public.gmane.org>
>
> | The price on that acer is amazing! I was just looking at ordering one of
> | those for a new myth fronted.  Wonder what the price is now..
>
> You can look it up online; $429.99:
>  <http://ncix.com/products/?sku=46269&vpn=PT.SCX02.029&manufacture=Acer>
> The same thing is also $394.99 at NCIX (but it says that the price
> ends last Friday!?! but it lets me add it to the cart):
>  <http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=46269&promoid=1088>
> or use "open box" button for $365.49.
> Canada computers has some at $399.99:
>  <http://www1.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?item_id=026932>
> See also:
>  <http://forums.redflagdeals.com/neverending-acer-revo-ar3610-thread-4gb-199-99-ncix-doorcrasher-hot-845770/>
>
> A very similar model (smaller disk, less RAM) is only $329:
>  <http://ncix.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=acer+revo>
>
> I don't immediately see that NCIX offers the r1600 at the moment.
>
> I did buy an Acer Revo R1600 from NCIX on the last day before HST
> ($200).  That one (our second) we use mounted on the back of a 19" LCD
> monitor (it comes with a cradle for attaching to the VESA mountpoints;
> some monitors allow this but others use that to attach their stand).
>
> We use another Acer Revo r1600 as a MythTV front-end.  We actually use XMBC
> because it can talk to my two backends that are running different revs
> of Myth.  The r1600 might be a better choice than the r3610:
>
> + significantly cheaper normally
>
> - 1G of RAM is a bit light these days, but OK.  I added 1G since I had
>  a cheap stick laying about
>
> + comes without MS Windows
>
> + comes with FreeDOS!
>
> - comes without Linux, even though it is advertised as "Linux boot"
>
> + no trouble running Ubuntu.  Except for the wireless which needs a
>  tiny obscure kludge.
>
> - smaller disk (who cares; if you need lots of space for videos, use eSata
>  to add bulk storage)
>
> - slightly crippled ION LE processor.  No affect on Linux, as far as I
>  know.  In MS Windows, I understand that there is a hack to avoid the
>  crippling of Direct X 10.
>
> + might run cooler since the r1600 has a single core Atom rather than
>  two.  I intend to measure that.
>
> - some tasks might run more slowly due to the single core Atom, but
>  probably not front-end tasks.  If you care about CPU performance,
>  Atom isn't great anyway.
>
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
>
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists