One of the best HTPC options out there?

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lNomNoml

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#183891 2-Nov-2015 19:10

Saw this today, seems very good, especially for a HTPC role, thoughts?

ASRock BeeBox Mini PC with Intel N3050 Dual Core, 2GB DDR3L, 32GB SSD, Wireless ac, 2 X HDMI, 1 X DisplayPort, USB Type-c, remote controller,Windows 10 with Bing, White

and

ASRock BeeBox Mini PC with Intel N3150 Quad Core, 2GB DDR3L, 32GB SSD, Wireless ac, 2 X HDMI, 1 X DisplayPort, USB Type-c, remote controller,Windows 10 with Bing, Black

JimmyH

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#1419206 2-Nov-2015 19:45

Maybe. It depends on what you want to do.

As a media player it looks good.

As a HTPC, probably not. The key reason being that while it has a 32GB SSD (which is great) it appears to have no provision for installing a regular hard drive. Without which it is pretty much useless for recording. Which, in my opinion, is core functionality for a HTPC.

lNomNoml

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#1419214 2-Nov-2015 19:53

JimmyH: Maybe. It depends on what you want to do.

As a media player it looks good.

As a HTPC, probably not. The key reason being that while it has a 32GB SSD (which is great) it appears to have no provision for installing a regular hard drive. Without which it is pretty much useless for recording. Which, in my opinion, is core functionality for a HTPC.

You can install a 2.5" drive extra, also you can always connect 2 or 3 external hard drives via the USB 3.0 ports.

Lias

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#1419222 2-Nov-2015 20:03

JimmyH: Without which it is pretty much useless for recording. Which, in my opinion, is core functionality for a HTPC.

Different strokes I guess, the last time any of my HTPC's had a TV Tuner, you could still crack UHF sky with them :-)

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

littleheaven

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#1421416 5-Nov-2015 09:41

If you want to use it for streaming, online or from a local server, then it should work great. I'd go for the quad core. It would be interesting to hear if they are noisy when running (I don't think it's fanless?). I'd probably upgrade the RAM (the quad-core can support 16GB, which is probably overkill but 4GB would be better than the 2GB installed).

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

JimmyH

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#1429868 17-Nov-2015 19:19

Actually, I think after reading a few reviews I'm going to retract my earlier opinion.

The fact that you can install a 2.5" hard drive, which I initially missed means that as a basic HTPC it probably does the business quite well.

Since I already have both a USB TV tuner (Hauppauge), a USB HD capture box (Hauppauge HD PVR), and a wireless keyboard lying around, I think this will probably do all I need. Which is to run Kodi, do the the odd HD capture, and potentially record/stream some TV.

So, with my planned HTPC build eternally on the never never, due to lack of time and motivation, I have decided to take the plunge, and ordered one in the PBTech Cyber Monday sale. I chose the N3150 over the N3000, and consider that $360 for a pre-built HTPC with HDMI out and an SSD and Windows included seems a pretty good bargain. All I need to do is pick up a 2.5" drive, which doesn't need to be huge and they are pretty cheap.

I can sense a bit of Christmas tinkering coming on. A big thanks to lNomNoml for drawing this to my attention.

lNomNoml

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#1430572 18-Nov-2015 18:40

JimmyH: Actually, I think after reading a few reviews I'm going to retract my earlier opinion.

The fact that you can install a 2.5" hard drive, which I initially missed means that as a basic HTPC it probably does the business quite well.

Since I already have both a USB TV tuner (Hauppauge), a USB HD capture box (Hauppauge HD PVR), and a wireless keyboard lying around, I think this will probably do all I need. Which is to run Kodi, do the the odd HD capture, and potentially record/stream some TV.

So, with my planned HTPC build eternally on the never never, due to lack of time and motivation, I have decided to take the plunge, and ordered one in the PBTech Cyber Monday sale. I chose the N3150 over the N3000, and consider that $360 for a pre-built HTPC with HDMI out and an SSD and Windows included seems a pretty good bargain. All I need to do is pick up a 2.5" drive, which doesn't need to be huge and they are pretty cheap.

I can sense a bit of Christmas tinkering coming on. A big thanks to lNomNoml for drawing this to my attention.

Awesome, let us know how it goes now ya hear.

Dyson

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BuckoNZ

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#1436821 28-Nov-2015 12:36

Actually, I just purcahsed one of these:
http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=MBDASR9105&name=ASRock-BeeBox-Mini-PC-with-Intel-N3150-Quad-Core-2

I replaced the single 2GB of RAM with 2x 4 GB RAM for dual channel performance.

Although it plays files from my NAS box perfectly fine, I can't get it to stream shows from Neon TV very well - the audio is fine but the video is "stuttery". I'm thinking about taking it back and upgrading to something that has an i5 processor in it.

BuckoNZ

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#1437107 29-Nov-2015 08:40

Turns out Neon TV video streams better via IE11 than it does Firefox.

JimmyH

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#1437317 29-Nov-2015 17:39

It's arrived. I have been crazy-busy, so haven't done anything more than open the box. I suspect installing and configuring will be put off until I have some time over Christmas.

But, initial impression, for a full windows PC, wow it's *tiny*

littleheaven

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#1437571 30-Nov-2015 09:26

JimmyH: It's arrived. I have been crazy-busy, so haven't done anything more than open the box. I suspect installing and configuring will be put off until I have some time over Christmas.

But, initial impression, for a full windows PC, wow it's *tiny*

Yes, I felt the same way about the Minix when I got it - how could a full Windows PC be so small? It's not much larger than my 3rd gen Apple TV. And it only cost $220. It's kind of astonishing when I think back to my first PC 15 years ago, which was $5,000, huge by comparison, and nowhere near as well specced. Technology is moving so fast.

When you've had a chance to sort it out, let us know your impressions.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

BuckoNZ

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#1439558 2-Dec-2015 21:26

After adding a 128gb mSATA drive and performing a fresh install of Windows 10 (in addition to the 2x 4GB RAM I installed earlier), I've got my Beebox running pretty well. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.