Hardware Acer Aspire Revo Review

http://reviews.imp3.net/philips/sa2825/16_s.jpg
looks like my mp3 player :S

 

What do you guys consider a playable framerate?
Cause I keep reading reviews on the Ion and the reviewer always says it's an unplayable framerate, but I never know what their standard is.

Cause I got used to playing games on my Laptop with a GMA in it I consider anything better than 10FPS playable.
I have a feeling what you consider playable is more in the area of 20+FPS.

 

Play.com ships them to Portugal I believe (even if I would prefer a local store due to warranty issues).

I think 30fps+ is what most reviews consider "playable"

 

Seconded. With this and a VESA mount to hide it behind a flat-panel TV, and a USB Media Center remote, this'd be the perfect HDTV frontend.

Add something like MythTV in the backend, with a healthy RAID of cheap TB discs and you've got the perfect HDTV system, that can be easily and simply expanded throughout the house.

Want to add another TV? HDTV + Revo and you're set.

 

Pros: It's tiny and quiet, can play HD material, can technically play games, doesn't have an optical drive.
Cons: Playing HD material may require prayer and some animal sacrifices, can't really play games, kinda pricey, doesn't have an optical drive.

It looks like something that could work as an HTPC, but I don't think it has the horsepower to actually run a good front end like XBMC*, and lack of an optical drive might be another stake depending on the HTPCs overall purpose.

I like the concept, but I don't think that this really has a true niche. Not powerful enough for a SFF rig, doesn't really have enough power to perform as a HTPC rig (unless you're sticking with HD content, then YMMV), and you can't use it for gaming with any real expectations.

A bit more power under the hood for the processor would have made this a bit more attractive.

*-Or, unless I've missed something, XBMC can utilize the graphics card for video playback.

 

Why would not having an optical drive be a pro?

 

Yeah, just noticed that...I blame the caffeine and the encoding marathon I was working on.

 

Install a lite OS like Xubuntu and it would be a great low powered internet surfer for guest. I have it on my Ion.

 

I consider it a "pro" - especially in a light SFF machine. Reduced footprint, reduced power consumption, fewer moving parts (and thus fewer failure points)... My Mini 9 doesn't have an optical drive (even a slimline drive would be half the size of the whole machine!), but that's no limitation to installing OS's or software. It can be a bit of a PITA to set up Windows to install from USB, but it can be done.

In a HTPC I would say that an optical drive is a must - I want to be able to stick in a DVD/Blu-Ray disc and just have it work; I don't want to mess around with ISOs, ripping to MKV and such... The review seems to indicate that this machine doesn't have what it takes to be an effective HTPC; however I would have liked to see a review, or at least a comparison, of the machine running an XP install and the latest Win7 RC (I know there's no native HD yet, but it does perform better on low-power machines).

The Ion platform definitely has promise, but I think this machine falls slightly short of the mark...

 

you can get the asrock 330 on ebay for the same money http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110404370615&category=179&refid=store and its a dual core atom, thats where my money would go, any chance of bit-tech doing a comparison?

 

Wow, thanks! I still have to check posting conditions but this will probably be the one.

EDIT:

So this means I can't purchase the Revo there, but thanks for the efford!

 

XBMC for linux can utilize VDPAU so 1080p is very doable

1080p on Revo

 

We'll be definitely looking at the Revo and ION again when Win7 hits. We're really hopeful that Window's integrates DXVA well enough for it to be worth considering again.

 

Actually, people have ,managed to get XBMC with the Aeon Stark add-on, see here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYGP...-owners-thread-6.html&feature=player_embedded

Heres an owners thread where its discussed
http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-pcs/999568-acer-aspire-revo-owners-thread.html

 

Optical Performance and You

I'm a touch spoiled with my HTPC. I managed to find a refurb'ed Mac Mini extremely cheap and loaded Plex onto it. I haven't used the optical drive in it other than to reload the OS due to a hardware failure, and it works well.

My third computer is a 1.5TB NAS running RAID 5 over six 320GB drives which means any new purchases get the 'megui' treatment and thrown back onto the server (really need to upgrade those drives now that I think about it).

At one time I had two HTPC's up and running, but for some very, very odd reason I kept encountering severe screen tearing on the second one (running Ubuntu/XBMC) and after many hours of tweaking the xorg.conf file, it had just become too much of a headache.

I agree with it being short of the mark. There is potential for this to become great, but I really think that there is a need for not just a good integrated graphics card, but a decent processor as well.

 

the ION just needs a faster/better processor not that overhyped overated atom nothing processor from that ripoff company...

 

Like a Via Nano, or even better, a dual-core Via Nano.

 

I think there's some BS in this article!
Who in the world, in their right mind, will load an Atom computer with Windows Vista?
It is Vista that is the resource hog!
At this moment there's no better OS for these devices than Windows XP! Windows 7 comes second, only because of it's slightly larger footprint, and being a significant step up from their base Windows Vista.
A step up because 7 is more optimized to work with these lower powered computers.

In fact an Atom processor would have been the technology to run Windows 98 on, but not being supported anymore, WinXP is your best shot on these!
It will more than play back 720p and even 1080p fluently.

About the Linux,
It would be only normal that you can download the basic linux for free (linux on which the original linux is based), and get the drivers from the site.
In best case scenario they should host their Linux OS installation fully on their support section.

 

People who wanted to use this as a HTPC, VMC with mediabrowser and MyTV plugins is what i would use a system like this for. Going to wait for ION2 i think though, im just not convinced Atom is the right choice for a HTPC.

 

This device is good enough for file/print/web server, and Hardware firewall.
Good enough for 24/7 webspace and perhaps even a small terminal to check mails, basic webpages, or other basic stuff what nearly 99% of the people do online.
It's good enough for the kids, who can play old DOS games on it. It emulates DOS (DOSBOX) good enough and stutter free for nearly all games. It also functions fine as a Gameboy emulator, or similar older gaming consoles all the way up to PS2, Sega Saturn, PSP (homebrew stuff too) and NeoGeo.
I would not know if it is strong enough to emulate N64,XBOX, or so; definitely not PS3.
It also plays back most kids and educational games fine.
It also plays back Prince of Persia 2, and Phantasy Star Universe pretty fine upto 1024x768 (what the max resolution for these games is anyways). Most 3d sims and tycoons it plays back very well too!
Open games like bosswars, cardgames, Doom 2 or below, Quake 3 or below, Half-Life 2 and below, Halo, Aquanox 2 or below, all worms games (from EA), Age of Conan might even work; as long as you stay within the resolutions, or trade detail quality for resolution you might get away with 1280x800 reso on medium or lower details.

So as a small terminal for the living room it would function fine!

One can always buy am external blueray disk (on USB) if one wants to convert it to a home theater, but then there's no HD audio out. Just the stereo jacks.

Youtube, HD video's with high bitrate encoding (tested upto 10Mbps) also goes fine. Any HD content above 10Mbps, or modern gaming probably need a better system.