[Ashmanuk]

Originally Posted by willp2003

I've had my Q180 for a couple of weeks now, and really liking it. Running XBMC (new to it) on Win 7, and it seems to play everything ok. Waiting for a IR receiver to arrive so I can try and use my Harmony 525 with it.
Need some more funds then I can buy a readynas to store everything on. Not using the wifi on mine so can't comment on that.
Currently trying to get all my tv shows and music artwork to show up correctly.
Had a couple of instances where the unit fans would stay on after shut down, but I think that was due to me turning off my wifi keyboard before it had shut down.

Very good to know as I have now ordered mine I don't why you guys are so hit up on Wi-Fi ?? surly it would be better to be hard wired, I use HomePlug and I love it never had any drop outs.

I've ordered a 120gig SSD drive as I will be running Win 7 with XBMC Plus a 4gig stick of memory.

Are you guys ripping Blu-Rays ? If so what software do you use.

[DavidT]

Originally Posted by Ashmanuk

Very good to know as I have now ordered mine I don't why you guys are so hit up on Wi-Fi ?? surly it would be better to be hard wired, I use HomePlug and I love it never had any drop outs.

I've ordered a 120gig SSD drive as I will be running Win 7 with XBMC Plus a 4gig stick of memory.

Are you guys ripping Blu-Rays ? If so what software do you use.

120gb ssd is overkill if you are only running W7 and XBMC. I have a 60gb ssd doing the same thing and it is only using about 28gb.

David

[Ashmanuk]

Originally Posted by DavidT

120gb ssd is overkill if you are only running W7 and XBMC. I have a 60gb ssd doing the same thing and it is only using about 28gb.

David

Yes I agree it is overkill but it was a good price and I might put onto my games PC later.

What is the size of a fresh install on Win7 ? Also any good web sites showing what things I can delete or shut off in Win7

[bryanchicken]

Originally Posted by Ashmanuk

Yes I agree it is overkill but it was a good price and I might put onto my games PC later.

What is the size of a fresh install on Win7 ? Also any good web sites showing what things I can delete or shut off in Win7

If you turn off hibernation and the pagefile (or move to another disk) then the install is about 12gb.
With those, it depends how much RAM you have.

I've got Win7 + XBMC installed on my gaming PC and i only have a 30gb SSD. Loadsa room left

[Ashmanuk]

Originally Posted by bryanchicken

If you turn off hibernation and the pagefile (or move to another disk) then the install is about 12gb.
With those, it depends how much RAM you have.

I've got Win7 + XBMC installed on my gaming PC and i only have a 30gb SSD. Loadsa room left

Wow ok that's very good but what about Microsoft updates and so on ? And thanks for that info in page file etc

[bryanchicken]

Originally Posted by Ashmanuk

Wow ok that's very good but what about Microsoft updates and so on ? And thanks for that info in page file etc

Not sure to be honest. It shouldn't increase the size by too much as they're updates rather than new functionality (mostly). I wouldn't partition less than 30gb if it's not necessary.
It does tend to grow over time even without updates I've found.
Depends how much sw you want to install too.

[kinn]

Really tempted to pick up one of these but the bare bones unit isn't available anywhere!

And how's the noise levels like with this?

Thanks.

[Ashmanuk]

Originally Posted by kinn

Really tempted to pick up one of these but the bare bones unit isn't available anywhere!

And how's the noise levels like with this?

Thanks.

I've read else where that it's very quite in operation and regarding bare bones I don't think you can buy it that way, I bought the 2gig version with 320gb hard drive but I knew I wanted to fit an SSD and a 4gb stick of memory it worked out cheaper.

Well saying that it would have been even cheaper buying a bare bones unit

[gasto26]

I ve got mine for about 2 weeks and have dedicated many hours to fine tune it. Unfortunately, I am now considering returning it.

1. Videos don't look that good (my 5 year old WD TV HD produces much better video quality with no setup required). There is no wow factor and Q180 does not seem to upscale standard def material.
2. 1080p playback is choppy (no such issue with WDTV HD)
3. Online video streaming is very choppy (my 2 year old vaio produces much better picture when streaming NFL online).
4. Fan is not very noisy but clearly noticeable and starts to be heard with CPU at only 20%.
5. Had to uninstall and re-install most drivers a couple times due to some incompatibility which would cause CPU to be always at 30% when idle.
6. Q180 cannot output audio via HDMI and Optical at the same time (contrary to WDTV) so I have to manually change the Audio device when I want to output sound to my AV Receiver via optical.

I bought this to replace the WDTV and laptop in order to centralize all my media but the Q180 is definitely inferior to them in each domain. I really wanted to love it hence the time spent on it but it would really be a waste of money to keep it considering it does not satisfy my two main requirements (HD vid & NFL stream).

If you plan to stick to SD & 720p videos then fine. But in that case you could even find a cheaper alternative (dedicated media player).

[Ashmanuk]

Originally Posted by gasto26

I ve got mine for about 2 weeks and have dedicated many hours to fine tune it. Unfortunately, I am now considering returning it.

1. Videos don't look that good (my 5 year old WD TV HD produces much better video quality with no setup required). There is no wow factor and Q180 does not seem to upscale standard def material.
2. 1080p playback is choppy (no such issue with WDTV HD)
3. Online video streaming is very choppy (my 2 year old vaio produces much better picture when streaming NFL online).
4. Fan is not very noisy but clearly noticeable and starts to be heard with CPU at only 20%.
5. Had to uninstall and re-install most drivers a couple times due to some incompatibility which would cause CPU to be always at 30% when idle.
6. Q180 cannot output audio via HDMI and Optical at the same time (contrary to WDTV) so I have to manually change the Audio device when I want to output sound to my AV Receiver via optical.

I bought this to replace the WDTV and laptop in order to centralize all my media but the Q180 is definitely inferior to them in each domain. I really wanted to love it hence the time spent on it but it would really be a waste of money to keep it considering it does not satisfy my two main requirements (HD vid & NFL stream).

If you plan to stick to SD & 720p videos then fine. But in that case you could even find a cheaper alternative (dedicated media player).

I think I've seen you on another forum in the states ? Such a shame you did not get on with it did you have lots of problems with the Catalyst drivers ? You've had so much problems that to me it sounds like a hardware problem ?? Lots of heat high load.

[gasto26]

Originally Posted by Ashmanuk

I think I've seen you on another forum in the states ? Such a shame you did not get on with it did you have lots of problems with the Catalyst drivers ? You've had so much problems that to me it sounds like a hardware problem ?? Lots of heat high load.

I indeed posted on different forums. Computer issues know no boundaries.

I haven't completely given up yet. I still have two weeks before I can no longer return it.

I had many small problems which I was able to solve most of them by searching online. Most were solved by simple configuration.

However the por video quality while watching 1080p mkvs and Flash videos is a deal breaker for me.

Unless, someone can guide me to fine tune this, I won't keep it.

I don't understand why it is so hard for a PC to play videos that a 5 year old media player can handle so easily without any configuration needed.

[Ashmanuk]

I'm not a pc expert so sorry I can not help you but on my world google search 90% + had 1080p working well ? It does seem to be hardware, on one forum forgot where they said to turn off a video enhancement widget off within Catalyst which stopped a lot of people's problems in 1080p content.

Also are you running your Q180 through an AV receiver ? could be a problem how both TV and Receiver are trying to re-scale the image??

Well my one comes in next Tuesday so once up and running I will let all know how I get on, I hope it does work out ok as I like the form factor.

[slybunda]

just an update, when i installed the ati display drive i did not install the catalyst control center app since it slows down the whole computer inc boot times.

any display quality issues with the q180 is going to be software based issues. my testing shows that the hardware is capable, im still working on the operating system some more, continually stripping out un needed stuff and making the build smaller on drive space.

youtube 1080p works fine as does 1080p mkv playback. youtube issues could be flash related. overall its a very nice nettop, probably the smallest there is and it does pack a fair bit of speed.

i have opened my one up again and this time removed the cpu cooler. its a single heatpipe job with the 1 heatpipe being in contact with both the atom cpu and the radeon gpu. i removed the thermal pad crap and used arctic cooling mx4 on it and reseated the cooler. temps are about 2c cooler but the fan noise is reduced.

since fan is temp controlled, the cpu temps will not drop much if at all, the fan will simply spin slower to compensate for the improved thermal contact between cpu/gpu and heatsink.

next step is to take openelec and modify it. i think openelec is going to be the best solution since its the fastest to boot and use and takes up next to nothing in drive space. im going to modify the openelec build to stick in some drivers for more diverse hardware, such as my new wifi card etc, and then see if i can run this on a compact flash or sdcard with a adapter to sata interface.

[slybunda]

hmm ati's crappy linux driver support is giving me issues with getting hardware acceleration working properly in openelec. ati's windows drivers are not that solid but still better than thier linux counterparts. looks like i will have to stick to using windows for now.

[pmorris710]

Originally Posted by gasto26

I indeed posted on different forums. Computer issues know no boundaries.

I haven't completely given up yet. I still have two weeks before I can no longer return it.

I had many small problems which I was able to solve most of them by searching online. Most were solved by simple configuration.

However the por video quality while watching 1080p mkvs and Flash videos is a deal breaker for me.

Unless, someone can guide me to fine tune this, I won't keep it.

I don't understand why it is so hard for a PC to play videos that a 5 year old media player can handle so easily without any configuration needed.

Have you tried disabling the "enhancement" settings in the Catalyst control? I disabled mosquito noise reduction specifically, which eliminated my avchd playback stuttering and skipping. But I also unchecked a couple of the others for good measure. A nice tv has it's own enhancements anyway if you really need them.

[bryanchicken]

Originally Posted by slybunda

hmm ati's crappy linux driver support is giving me issues with getting hardware acceleration working properly in openelec. ati's windows drivers are not that solid but still better than thier linux counterparts. looks like i will have to stick to using windows for now.

Did you download an ati build? Openelec ati drivers should be fine

[retrogameman]

Can anyone confirm if you get the remote keyboard with the q180 on ebuyer for £310.They show the keyboard on the picture which would make you assume it's included.

[willp2003]

You don't get one as standard. I bought a Rii mini keyboard from amazon to use on mine.
Edit. Not sure about on the higher priced bundles. The pictures suggest you do, but it's not listed.

[Kemi_Kal]

Originally Posted by retrogameman

Can anyone confirm if you get the remote keyboard with the q180 on ebuyer for £310.They show the keyboard on the picture which would make you assume it's included.

Yes you get the keyboard / mouse with £310 package, it's the one I had but from Amazon when it was going for £280.

retrogameman, judging by your nickname your into retro /emulation gaming. The main reason I returned the Q180 is that it struggled with emulation of mame if HLSL filters or the HQx were enabled, same was the case with other console emulators such as znes, snes9x, kega fusion etc... if you enable a video filter it slowed emulation down to a crawl. This could be something to to do with the Atom CPU. I know this is not a gaming rig but basic retro game emulation was important for me as I wanted to set one up for the kids play room.

It might be fine for video play back if that's all your looking for.

[slybunda]

i got mine with a wired keyboard and mouse, although i got it for £140ish from ebuyer when they had the offer on.

[drumm23]

I was deciding between the q180, rl70 or a pulsebox ..... and have just gone for the Q180.
Need it to run XBMC and feed a hifi DAC from a USB port. Will let you know how I get on with it!

[Ashmanuk]

I got mine up and running windows 7 32bit SSD drive and 4gb of memory.

I've put XBMC on and I'm using my I-pad as the the mouse keyboard which works really well, I had to download a HD XBMC pack to get sound from HDMI as I had lots of problems getting sound from HDMI but seems stable at the mo.

Sound going into a AV Receiver through HDMI seems very good better than I thought it would be and I have set the sound device on the Q180 to WASAPI HDMI OUTPUT
XBMC looks so cool just hope it works out in the long run I don't want to be keep tweaking I just want to enjoy my content, what do you to boot straight into XBMC ??

[drumm23]

Where did you source one with the SSD drive?

[Ashmanuk]

Originally Posted by drumm23

Where did you source one with the SSD drive?

No I added the SSD to it, I opened it up pulled out drive and fitted new SSD.

I have to say this Q180 through HDMI (WASAPI HDMI in XBMC) output into my processor sounds bloody amazing :-0 I did not expect it to sound so good.

[fantasyvn]

Hi Ashmanuk, could you tell me how you connect the Q180 to the AV receiver via HDMI? I mean, I read that the Q180 only has one HDMI, which will be used to connect to TV. So how can you connect it to AV receiver?

My sincere thanks,

[dr no]

Originally Posted by fantasyvn

Hi Ashmanuk, could you tell me how you connect the Q180 to the AV receiver via HDMI? I mean, I read that the Q180 only has one HDMI, which will be used to connect to TV. So how can you connect it to AV receiver?

My sincere thanks,

Excusing the butting in, there is only two ways he is doing that. Normally he would connect the receiver to the TV thereby his receiver is a hub to many sources. Or he is using a splitter to the TV at the same time although this is less likely.

[Ashmanuk]

Originally Posted by fantasyvn

Hi Ashmanuk, could you tell me how you connect the Q180 to the AV receiver via HDMI? I mean, I read that the Q180 only has one HDMI, which will be used to connect to TV. So how can you connect it to AV receiver?

My sincere thanks,

Hi fantastvn,

My AV receiver has a HDMI output to the TV and my Q180 connects a HDMI input on that receiver.

Just had a session tonight before kids go to bed I am shocked at how good it is for sound quality, for the last few days I have just been playing FLAC 2 channel music and I did wounder if what I am hearing for stereo will be the same for films ! Well it is there is just so much more detail than I had with my old Xtreamer Mk1 and XBMC just looks the dogs B&@%*+

Edit: correct dr no

[fantasyvn]

Hi, thanks a lot for your explanation.

[slybunda]

the q180 has a decent gpu on it. its twice as powerful as ion2, and even the brazos igpus are 80shader varients. q180 has 160 shader gpu and it really does fly through the xbmc menus.

those of you that decide to open this thing up do what i did, reseat the cooler, remove the stock crappy thermal pad and use proper thermal paste. i used arctic cooling mx4. temps wont go any lower but fan speed is lower, since your getting better conductivity to the heatsink the fan spins slower to maintain the temps.

also dunno if iv mentioned this before the fan used is made by DELTA electronics. so its a damn good quality fan and should last the lifetime of the unit. i may mod it some more since i can fit additional heatsinks onto the exposed internal heatpipe. although that may lower cpu and gpu temps but it may increase internal case temps.

those using a SSD try and get the newer 7mm varients. the lower height will allow for better airflow throughout the chassis.

[Ashmanuk]

Originally Posted by slybunda

the q180 has a decent gpu on it. its twice as powerful as ion2, and even the brazos igpus are 80shader varients. q180 has 160 shader gpu and it really does fly through the xbmc menus.

those of you that decide to open this thing up do what i did, reseat the cooler, remove the stock crappy thermal pad and use proper thermal paste. i used arctic cooling mx4. temps wont go any lower but fan speed is lower, since your getting better conductivity to the heatsink the fan spins slower to maintain the temps.

also dunno if iv mentioned this before the fan used is made by DELTA electronics. so its a damn good quality fan and should last the lifetime of the unit. i may mod it some more since i can fit additional heatsinks onto the exposed internal heatpipe. although that may lower cpu and gpu temps but it may increase internal case temps.

those using a SSD try and get the newer 7mm varients. the lower height will allow for better airflow throughout the chassis.

Thanks slybunda I remember you say you was going to add thermal compound, I will need to do this as well.

As for running XBMC this is my first dedicated machine as I have always played around with it on a laptop but I am so so impressed with the Q180 I do not get any lag what so ever though I have my Synology next to it connected by a CAT5 cable so I am not bothered about the wireless part.

So what's your favoured skin ??