Jetway Mini-Top Atom Dual-Core 525 Intel NM10 NVIDIA ION2 with WiFi /Remote Control DDR3 Mini Barebone

Pros: Small
Inexpensive
Included remote works pretty well
Boot time is pretty quick at least with an ssd

Cons: Drivers are terrible
System freezes CONSTANTLY!!!
Unable to handle blu-ray rips

Other Thoughts: About a year ago, I was in the market for an HTPC. I was looking at a few different builds, but a friend told me I should consider a net-top because I didn't need a whole lot of processing power, only enough to play HD video. He specifically recommended this PC because of the price and included remote. Before I purchased this PC, I read the reviews and saw several complaints about the computer being a little slow. I understood that I would not be blowing the doors off any benchmark tests given the fact that it is just a dual core atom. I only wanted it for an HTPC and as long as it could handle 1080p, I would be okay with it. I figured the blue screens were from people that didn't know what they were doing and I would install an SSD to keep the speed up as much as possible and go with it. After almost a year of ownership, I can tell you that if I knew then what I know now, I would not have purchased this computer. The drivers are no good, at least for Windows 7. This thing freezes constantly. Most of the time it isn't even able to blue screen, just a complete freeze up. As far as the overall speed of the system, I am pleased with it considering it is only a dual core atom. Boot time with the ssd is quick, which is a plus because I have to do it so often. It seems to handle most video playback well. Blu-ray rips are too much for it to handle. I would be okay with the inability of the system to handle bluray rips given it's limited processing ability, but the instability of the system is just unacceptable. I am working on AMD APU build now for a proper HTPC which is what I would recommend to someone considering this system for an HTPC, and what I would have done to begin with had I known then what I know now. In fairness I have not tried it with a Linux based OS. It may work, better, but I would be surprised.

Pros: - value priced when comparing features vs the competition

Cons: - poor quality control
- overheating issues
- very slow RMA service

Other Thoughts: Going back a couple years I've bought more than 30 of these for a few offices I support. Over time many (about 12 now) have developed overheating problems. I sent three back for RMA service at different times, and each one took well over a month for replacement (just about 45 days) That's just wayyyyy tooooo long! I have many of these now that are out of warranty and no longer usable because of overheating issues.

End result is that at the two year mark, half of these units will no longer usable. 30+ is a good sample size to say that they are a lemon and Jetway in general produces inferior products. (had several H61's as well)

I'm taking Jetway off my buy list...

Pros: I was hooked by the low price and spent alot of time optimizing Ubuntu/Nvidia/XBMC. After first day of tweaking, it worked well. Hw accelerated video playback for H.264 but not DiVX/XVID. I had some HD stuff that would not playout smooth, but most stuff did playout.

Cons: No working NetFlix or Hulu on Linux. Like others, mine brokedown due to overheating after a year. I poped the lid and ran it open to squeeze an extra few weeks of use out it. I could not recommend this to anyone because it will fail due to overheating. Its just the design of it. You will see when you open it.

Other Thoughts: I trashed this, and got an iMac i5. Installed XBMC and I am done and done. I know iMac cost more, but it just works out better for me in the long run.

Pros: Installed ubuntu with plex and apache. Ran for about a year without issues. streaming hd video to remote clients worked almost flawlessly.

Cons: Either runs loud or hot. Was not expecting heat issues from an atom processor. Ran fine for about a year and now suffers from crashing. Blame probably rests with the case/fans

Other Thoughts: Installed an ssd.

Pros: Still works fine with Win7 64-bit, good performance with MS Office, excellent HD streaming video over home server, Netflix HD streaming issue FIXED

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: My major frustration with this little system had little to do with its actual performance--Microsoft had not implemented Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) integration with their Silverlight software, which meant that Netflix's HD output did not work with this computer.
Microsoft corrected this in late April '12, so now Netflix streams in HD just fine.
After a year of regular use, I remain very pleased with this little box.

Pros: Bought 2 of them, with SSD and 8GB RAM. Using one as HTPC for my parents, the other I use it for LAMP server. Watching 1080p movies fine.

Cons: None so far.

Pros: Easy wireless. plenty of usb ports including one usb3/esata port. Quiet. Can play 1080p on two monitors simultaneously. Mounts to back of monitor. Great Plex/Boxee/Xbmc media server or front end setup. Also the cheapest way to get a hackintosh. I use this as my desktop torrent box and media server/frontend (Plex) and am not disappointed, never been blown away other than when I ran simultaneous 1080p videos on both screens to test it but definitely satisfied. If you're looking for a mini-pc, this is it.

Cons: No bluetooth. Remote is mostly worthless, I just use the xbmc and iTunes remote on my iPod touch. Fan has one setting, but I can only hear it if nothing is playing.

Other Thoughts: I'm not a PC gamer and I don't think this would be impressive for anything other than retro emulation. It runs Diablo III at ~48fps on low settings full screen. Still working on getting both displays to run at same time in OSX (an os problem not the hardware). If you want all your ports on the same side, the xtreamer ultra is identical hardware with all ports on the back.

Pros: Easily streams Blu-Ray content (wirelessly) from home server; runs Office quickly, easy install of Windows 7 64-bit, good complement of drivers on website. Like the remote and size, and the ability to mount on the back of an LCD monitor.

Cons: Wish it had more USB ports; wish Microsoft and Netflix would implement GPU support for Netflix streaming; wish it was a wee bit quieter--sometimes the fan spins up pretty loudly for such a small computer, especially since it's more likely to be close to the user's ears than a desktop/tower would be.

Other Thoughts: This was easy to install HD drive and memory into, and once a USB DVD drive was attached and bios set for the USB drive, the OS was easy to install also. Runs Windows 7 just fine, including all the touch-screen apps when a touch-screen monitor is connected. Could make a competent all-in-one for general or even HTPC use--although it's neither powerful nor expandable enough to satisfy a gaming user.

Pros: Worked well with Windows 7 Media Center and Hauppauge cable card tuner. Remote is a plus over other mini systems, but get a Logitech Harmony and Media Center IR receiver anyway. 1080i over HDMI works fine for me. Gigabit Ethernet works well.

Cons: Died after 10 months. Got RMA from Jetway but costs $10 for "handling" and I pay shipping to CA. Before dying, I had intermittent crashes in video driver. Switching from 1080p to 1080i output appeared to cure that, although it may have been heat related. Only recently figured out that glass door on cabinet needs to stay open for better heat dissipation. No USB 3 and SATA port does not appear power external GoFlex drive with SATA upgrade cable.

Other Thoughts: The fan never quit on me as reported by someone else. Mine hangs at Initializing USB Controllers. Jetway is only charging me $10 for RMA handling as opposed to $25 somebody else reported. Yes it sucks to pay anything, but better than buying a new $200 system. Maybe it would have lived longer with better airflow...

Pros: Plays 1080p video smoothly, many USB ports, versatile AV output options (see cons), low powered. I use this as a HTPC as well as a subsonic server. It's been on almost 100% of the time for many months now and has been reliable once I sorted out some issues (see cons)

Overall, I'm happy with it. It does what I wanted it to, and

Cons: This is supposed to be a low power machine, so I'm not docking an egg for the processor performance (it's about what it should be). I had 2 small issues. First, the wireless-N card is limited to 65 Mbps because it's single stream, single band, and from what I can tell, does not have wideband support. Since this is supposed to be a network server, this was a problem because it was the bottleneck in my home network. I'd recommend just turning off the wifi card and using GigE, which runs great. The other issue is with the HDMI driver. I had HDMI hooked up to my AV receiver which went to the TV. It worked fine normally, but when the AV equipment was off, the computer would enter a strange sleep state and would not wake up. I finally figured out it was the HDMI driver and since switched to VGA video and optical audio out (unfortunately just stereo... no surround). Fortunately there was a workaround, but it could have rendered it useless as a HTPC.

Other Thoughts: The D525 is a solid processor for smaller tasks, and not great for video. This is where the ION2 picks up the slack... but it has to be supported by software. VLC doesn't work well for any HD video (since the processor can't support it without stuttering). XBMC, however, has excellent hardware acceleration and runs any HD video beautifully on this machine.

Only other minor drawback is that the eSATA card does not have a port multiplier... so (as far as I can tell) you can't use an eSATA enclosure in JBOD mode (please someone correct me if I'm wrong about that), but honestly I'd probably just use a RAID configuration anyway, which others have done successfully.