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Crispin G.

Crispin G.

Joined on 02/29/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

Stylish

Zotac MAGHD-ND01-U Atom Dual-Core 330 NVIDIA ION graphics with 2GB RAM, 160G HDD All-in-One Mini PC
Zotac MAGHD-ND01-U Atom Dual-Core 330 NVIDIA ION graphics with 2GB RAM, 160G HDD All-in-One Mini PC

Pros: Slick design, small form factor, low energy consumption, great for office / home office

Cons: Runs relatively hot, fan noise (like a laptop), waiting on my mail in rebate since October...

Overall Review: I replaced the disk with an SSD and installed Ubuntu. My wife uses it in her home office, and is very happy (some credit of waf goes to the design). I do have a single core as myth frontend in the living room, which does not need a fan (no noise), and does an amazing job in HD. I opted for the dual corre because the wife usually has a lot of apps running at the same time.

All I needed was the receiver

AVS Gear HA-IR01SV Infrared Certified MCE VISTA Remote Control
AVS Gear HA-IR01SV Infrared Certified MCE VISTA Remote Control

Pros: works, has USB IR receiver

Cons: price

Fanless & External Power Supply

Athenatech A1001BB.60 Black Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 60w Adaptor Power Supply
Athenatech A1001BB.60 Black Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 60w Adaptor Power Supply

Pros: Fan is included but not needed, small, enough openings for ventilations, sturdy metal.

Cons: still pricey for the metal

Overall Review: I use this for a Mythbuntu frontend with a Atom&Ion board, perfect fit

not bad for the price

OCZ Vertex Series 2.5" 30GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-1VTX30GXXX
OCZ Vertex Series 2.5" 30GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-1VTX30GXXX

Pros: fast, but not as fast as advertised. Out of the box I get about 130MB/s reading in Ubuntu.

Cons: no USB built in. Mail in rebate instead of instant.

Overall Review: Compared to conventional drive, this is definitely an improvement. However, I do own a 128GB Apogee I got for less $/MB, which has SATA as well as USB (very convenient), and has similar average transfer rates. Since the Apogee would get 5 eggs, this one can only get 4.

Revision: OK for a myth frontend

ZOTAC IONITX-B-E Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz NVIDIA ION Mini ITX ION Platform Motherboard/CPU Combo
ZOTAC IONITX-B-E Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz NVIDIA ION Mini ITX ION Platform Motherboard/CPU Combo

Pros: I have to revise one statement from my earlier reviews: It does supports sleep/resume from S3

Cons: none

Overall Review: Make sure you address the problem between keyboard and chair firs.

10/23/2009

OK for a myth frontend

ZOTAC IONITX-B-E Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz NVIDIA ION Mini ITX ION Platform Motherboard/CPU Combo
ZOTAC IONITX-B-E Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz NVIDIA ION Mini ITX ION Platform Motherboard/CPU Combo

Pros: small, cool, HDMI & VGA, GB LAN, ION & ATOM, decent price I use this as a mythtv frontend, plays 1080i nicely as well as any other format, Everything worked right out of the box. When I watch 1080i using VDPAU, processor is at less than 25%, watching lower res is at 10% or less! Does not need FAN at all.

Cons: Has only 20 PIN power, no space next to it, so you must have a 20+4 or an adapter for power supply. One big drawback is, that board revision 01 does not support wake from S3 with USB, since USB is not powered in this revision. Newer revision should be fine.

Overall Review: get a neat little case for it.

10/20/2009