Arctic MC001-N HTPC (XBMC & OpenElec Compatible) Barebones - $99 Shipped

Quote from VanillaXtract : Can you please link the parts to build a $200 i3 system?

No, I can't. I thought it would be obvious that when I say build a Celeron or i3 system for ~$200, that I was referring to a Celeron system. Certainly an i3 is going to cost more. However, for HTPC purposes, a Celeron is just fine and absolutely annihilates the Atom.

So anyhow, here's 3 minutes worth of time on Newegg;

$216.72 shipped - $10 MIR = $206.72

If you have a Micro Center nearby, you can move into an i3-3225 for $25.01 more.

Price went up to $119 on ebay and $99 on the site OP posted

Quote from LordAthens : No, I can't. I thought it would be obvious that when I say build a Celeron or i3 system for ~$200, that I was referring to a Celeron system. Certainly an i3 is going to cost more. However, for HTPC purposes, a Celeron is just fine and absolutely annihilates the Atom. So anyhow, here's 3 minutes worth of time on Newegg; Code: Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price 1 XION XON-720P mATX/ ITX Slim Desktop Case, USB 3.0, 5 in 1 Card-reader, 300W PSU, White_Retail XION XON-720P mATX/ ITX Slim Desktop Case, USB 3.0, 5 in 1 Card-reader, 300W PSU, White_Retail Item #: N82E16811208056 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $10.00 Mail-in Rebate $39.99 1 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT Item #: N82E16820231253 Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy $24.99 1 ECS H61H2-MV LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard ECS H61H2-MV LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard Item #: N82E16813135343 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $45.99 1 Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge 2.4GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G530 Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge 2.4GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G530 Item #: N82E16819116409 Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy $48.99 1 ADATA Premier Pro SP600 ASP600S3-32GM-C 2.5 ADATA Premier Pro SP600 ASP600S3-32GM-C 2.5" 32GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Item #: N82E16820211717 Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy $216.72 shipped - $10 MIR = $206.72 If you have a Micro Center nearby, you can move into an i3-3225 for $25.01 more.

This barebones with a 60GB SSD and the 4GB memory comes to about $177. I am unsure what the celeron will buy you. They both stream 1080p. Although since the atom system has ATI graphics, it can bitstream audio whereas the celeron system can't. Or am I wrong?

Quote from VanillaXtract : This barebones with a 60GB SSD and the 4GB memory comes to about $177. I am unsure what the celeron will buy you. They both stream 1080p. Although since the atom system has ATI graphics, it can bitstream audio whereas the celeron system can't. Or am I wrong?

The Celeron can certainly bitstream with no issue.

The Celeron buys you over three times the processing horsepower, six times with the lowest end Ivy i3. This comes in handy when you have a large XBMC library. When scrolling through my movies in my library, it takes seconds for it to pull the movie info, cover image, fanart, etc. Seconds is ridiculous, especially since my 2 year old pics the movie based on the cover art, not the name. It also allows you to open it up as a "real" HTPC instead of just a "XBMC streaming box". Running WMC on an Atom is just about pointless. I know, I've tried. It's just entirely to sluggish. Maybe you also want your HTPC to function as your home NAS. With a software RAID setup (be it ZFS, Windows, unRAID, etc) that is pretty much out of the question for a multi-tasking box. Crashplan loves memory and CPU cycles. Netflix HD, YouTube HD, Hulu? Slideshows for the most part. My fiance gave up on Farmville on the Atom the first time she tried doing it, within 10 minutes.

Don't get me wrong, if there is a great deal on a prebuilt machine I'm all about the TU. My beef is with Atom processors. They're significantly underpowered for most of today's usage, especially for current multimedia web usage. Checking email, solitaire and some word processing? Sure. But seriously, even low end laptops with AMD APU's (which are still more powerful than Atom's) can struggle on Facebook if you have more than a few tabs open. With things like the RaspberryPi available now, for a third of even this decent deal and it can do what most people are going to do with this machine, why bother with the Atom? At this point, it has a very niche market.

I liked my Atom when I got it, it's great for what I wanted it for originally, which was XBMC. But since then, I've wanted to do more. I want my library to load, quickly. I want to move all of my media disk's from my more power hungry 1st gen i7 workstation to a HTPC/NAS combo for some decent power savings. Now I'll actually be able to sleep or hibernate my workstation. I want to go to a full WMC setup with a cable card tuner so that I can finally get rid of my FIOS DVR's and worthless Tivo. Monthly fee savings alone will pay for my i3 box in 5 months. The i3 box will also serve as a distributed encoding client when I'm encoding BD to x264 on my i7 workstation.

An Atom box just can't do that and we're only talking a $30 savings, $55 if you want to get into a i3.

My 2c.

Quote from nxsfan : What you are asking makes no sense. It's like saying you tried Windows, 4 months ago and it buffered in the evening. What buffered? It certainly won't be local playback (i.e. from an attached HD). It could be networked content if you were using wireless and the local neighborhood got congested in the evening, but I doubt it and that would have nothing to do with XBMC. So we are probably looking at a streaming service provider of some sort. It's very difficult to guess what service you were streaming but almost all the streaming service plugins available to XBMC allow you to modify the bitrate so as to avoid buffering in low bandwidth situations, but this still has nothing to do with XBMC.

I am talking about the navi extreme portal. It buffers during peak time even now, maybe because the networks are busy. How do you modify the bitrate ? also is there another portal like navi extreme (for the same stuff ) ?

Quote from botham : I am talking about the navi extreme portal. It buffers during peak time even now, maybe because the networks are busy. How do you modify the bitrate ? also is there another portal like navi extreme (for the same stuff ) ?

That has nothing to do with XBMC as it does your internet provider. Get a bigger pipe.

Quote from LordAthens : The Celeron can certainly bitstream with no issue. The Celeron buys you over three times the processing horsepower, six times with the lowest end Ivy i3. This comes in handy when you have a large XBMC library. When scrolling through my movies in my library, it takes seconds for it to pull the movie info, cover image, fanart, etc. Seconds is ridiculous, especially since my 2 year old pics the movie based on the cover art, not the name. It also allows you to open it up as a "real" HTPC instead of just a "XBMC streaming box". Running WMC on an Atom is just about pointless. I know, I've tried. It's just entirely to sluggish. Maybe you also want your HTPC to function as your home NAS. With a software RAID setup (be it ZFS, Windows, unRAID, etc) that is pretty much out of the question for a multi-tasking box. Crashplan loves memory and CPU cycles. Netflix HD, YouTube HD, Hulu? Slideshows for the most part. My fiance gave up on Farmville on the Atom the first time she tried doing it, within 10 minutes. Don't get me wrong, if there is a great deal on a prebuilt machine I'm all about the TU. My beef is with Atom processors. They're significantly underpowered for most of today's usage, especially for current multimedia web usage. Checking email, solitaire and some word processing? Sure. But seriously, even low end laptops with AMD APU's (which are still more powerful than Atom's) can struggle on Facebook if you have more than a few tabs open. With things like the RaspberryPi available now, for a third of even this decent deal and it can do what most people are going to do with this machine, why bother with the Atom? At this point, it has a very niche market. I liked my Atom when I got it, it's great for what I wanted it for originally, which was XBMC. But since then, I've wanted to do more. I want my library to load, quickly. I want to move all of my media disk's from my more power hungry 1st gen i7 workstation to a HTPC/NAS combo for some decent power savings. Now I'll actually be able to sleep or hibernate my workstation. I want to go to a full WMC setup with a cable card tuner so that I can finally get rid of my FIOS DVR's and worthless Tivo. Monthly fee savings alone will pay for my i3 box in 5 months. The i3 box will also serve as a distributed encoding client when I'm encoding BD to x264 on my i7 workstation. An Atom box just can't do that and we're only talking a $30 savings, $55 if you want to get into a i3. My 2c.

What are you using for your distributed encoding? Pm if youd like. Thanks.

Quote from thetman : What are you using for your distributed encoding? Pm if youd like. Thanks.

RipBot264. Download info, distributed setup (a mild pain in the ass to setup, it's not documented well, at all), etc. [doom9.org]

Quote from LordAthens : I won't TD it, but it's not a good deal, considering you're likely get rid of it when the slow Atom infuriates you. I have an Atom based HTPC. It's ok for running XBMC, but with a large library, even that can be slow. You can forget using WMC on it for live TV or PVR usage. And Netflix / YouTube in HD comes across as a slide show. If you want something strictly for XBMC, get a RasberryPI. If you want a real HTPC, get a Ivy Bridge Celeron or i3. I'm sure there will be those coming in saying they love their Atom based HTPC. They're in denial. I was one of them. Again, ok for XBMC, but at that point, you can get 3 RasberryPI's for the price of one of these and they do the same thing.

As I mentioned earlier, I purchased a pair of Lenovo IdeaCentre Q180 (from the Outlet, for ~$130 each). These units are being used exclusively to stream video. I'm just a casual TV watcher; nearly all the programing I watch is available to stream at no cost but not through units such as Ruku. I don't have the highest tech level, but even I was surprised at how slow the Atom is in some regards. But I'm extremely pleased with the quality of the streams on my 50" ... yes, there's some occassional minor "flickering" at 1080 (not "slide show" as you characterized it) but few websites I watch offer 1080, and I'm concerned about the impact of 1080 on my monthly data allotment anyway.

So yes, I agree that if you're a videophile, the Atom's not the solution for you. But if you're a casual TV watcher like me, who's using a HTPC as a cable replacement to reduce costs, than it's a great solution.

Quote from comp1demon : ... I have a Giada N3 now that played back 720p just fine and 1080P as well, but once I enable HD or Master audio it bogs down, also BLU RAY RIPS don't work on my N3 - SO I am wondering how powerful this is for MY OWN needs. The PC I have now is a 1.6Ghz Atom 330 this is an Atom 525 1.8ghz i believe. Also this has the ATI 5430 my N3 as a first generation ION. SO if tech gurus have an answer for me would be most appreciated.

NVIDIA's Ion Platform: Performance Preview by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/3/2009 9:01 AM EST Link [anandtech.com]

Quote : ... GeForce 9400M addresses the problem using its PureVideo HD engine, providing support for full hardware decode acceleration of all three of the aforementioned codecs (MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264). In other words, you should be able to watch Blu-ray movies on an Ion based PC. ...I tried enabling both cores on the Atom processor (NVIDIA shipped the Ion reference with a dual-core Atom 330, but with one core disabled) to see if that could alleviate the CPU utilization concerns. Unfortunately I seemed to have run into an NVIDIA or Cyberlink software issue because I couldn’t get smooth Blu-ray playback on Ion with both cores enabled on the Atom 330.

Ok I am brand new and in need of assistance. So if this needs to be moved to another thread then just let me know. I am on the fence with the MC001-XBMC, well actually I was ready to purchase today until reading this. At $229 it seems like a great deal but then again I dont know much. I am looking to cut cable if possible. I have a PS3 that I have been using to stream movies and what not to my TV. Also I will buy the PS4 as soon as it is available (hopefully dec, come on Sony). So do I even need to be looking at any of this? I was trying to get away from having to use my desktop to stream to Ps3 but Idk what I want. Someone help, or tell me to buy it now, or that it would be useless given the PS3 . Thanks.

ajsoprano,
What are your hesitations? I purchased a pair of HTPC for the exclusive purpose of cutting cable. I'm using mine to stream video off the internet; there's a tremendous amount of free content & by logging into my parent's DirecTV account, I can access quite a bit of premium content as well (e.g. CNN, etc.) Mine uses the Atom D2700, which is slightly faster than the processer in the MC001-XBMC. So far, I'm pleased with my decision. Streaming at 720, the quality is excellent. At 1080, it's very good. There are some exceptions ... The Daily Show is somewhat shaky, but the Colbert Report is excellent. Given they're the same source, I'm not sure why.

If you're a casual TV watcher like me, who looses watches TV a few hours each day, I think you'll be pleased. If you're a videophile, it may not be the solution you're looking for.

Thank you for the response. No hesitation, just want to make the right decision and not spend money I dont need to. What HTPC are you using? I guess my real question is do I need one with the PS3? I stream Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu on my Ps3. Also download Plex to stream my movies to the ps3 as well. It works very nicely, will a HTPC be better? I am itching to spend some money I think.

Anyone received theirs yet? Thoughts on performance and build quality etc?