Acer Aspire Revo is a great MacMini alternative

speakfreak

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Hi All

Just a quick plug for this low visibility gem! I just bought one to use as a music server- it's fantastic! It has HDMI out, Optical Out, is really tiny, and is really really quiet. And it can stream full 1080p. All for 330Pounds. I've used it as a replacement for my mac mini which now goes into the study as a backup. Only thing it has no optical drive.

And no I don't work for Acer. (Actually I work for their competition!).

Specs here:

•Acer Aspire Revo R3610 Desktop PC Atom (330) 1.6GHz 4096MB 500GB LAN WLAN Windows 7 Home Premium (Integrated Graphics) + Wired Keyboard and Mouse•Chipset : nVidia ION•CPU Bus Speed : 533 MHz•CPU Family : Intel Atom•CPU Speed : 1.6 GHz•Depth : 18.0 cm•Description : NOTE: Monitor NOT Included•Electrical Power Available : 65 W•eSATA Port : 1 x eSATA•Form Factor : Desktop Unit•Hard Disk Interface : Serial ATA•Hard Disk Size : 500 GB•Hard Disk Type : Serial ATA•HDMI Port : 1 x HDMI•Headphone Ports : 1 x Hi Definition Headphone Port•Height : 18.0 cm•Integrated Network : Yes•Integrated Sound : Yes•Integrated VGA : Yes•Integrated WLAN : Yes•Keyboard : Keyboard•L2 Cache : 1 MB•Memory Size : 4096 MB•Memory Type : SDRAM Microphone In Port : 1 x Microphone In•Model Name : R3610•Network Card : Gigabit•Network Card Data Link Protocol : Ethernet•Network Card Speeds : 10/100/1000 Mbps•Network Interface Options : Integrated•Number of Hard Disks : 1•Operating System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium•Package : Micro-FCBGA•PCI Express Slot : 1 x Mini PCI Express Slots•Pointing Device : Mouse•Processor Number : 330•Processors (Max) : 1 (1)•RJ-45 Ports : 1 x RJ-45•S/PDIF Port : 1 x S/PDIF (Optical)•Software Included : Microsoft Office 2007 Trial with Microsoft Works 8.5 • Oberon GameZone • eSobi • McAfee Internet Security Suite 2009 (Trial) • Adobe Reader • Acer Arcade Deluxe • Acer eRecovery Management • MyWinLocker • Nero 9 Essentials•Sound Card : 7.1 High Definition Audio•Sound Card Interface : Integrated•Total Hard Disk Size : 500 GB•USB Ports : 6 x USB 2.0•VGA Port : 1 x 15-pin D-sub•Video Card : Integrated into Chipset•Width : 3.0 cm•Wired Network : Yes•Wireless LAN : IEEE 802.11b/g/n•Wireless Network : Yes
 
Would this be a good alternative to a NAS and is the performance suitable for streaming HD video on a network to XBMC and for running Squeeze Box Server?
 
Would this be a good alternative to a NAS and is the performance suitable for streaming HD video on a network to XBMC and for running Squeeze Box Server?

Yes it would be an alternative to a NAS. As for streaming HD Video I'm not sure of the processing power needed but bearing in mind this could be done a few years ago on the PCs around then the dual core processor in the revo is powerful enough. i.e. Its not mega fast by today's standards but it is by yesterday's! As for squeezebox server- no problem.

So yes, yes and yes :)
 
Further reading suggests that I can install Linux with XBMC and then have no need to stream HD video files but instead play them on the TV directly from the R3610. All I need do now is ensure that I can run squeezebox server at the same time within Linux.
 
I did some more reading this afternoon and have now ordered the Revo R3610 250GB version with 2GB RAM for £245. I very nearly bought the cheaper R3600 but decided that the dual core processor, SPDIF output, increased HDD size and 1000Mbps network port were worth the additional £100.
 
good stuff. Let me (us) know if you are as impressed as I am once you've played around with it...
 
My Revo R3610 arrived yesterday. I was not home till late last night so only had a short time for setup and testing. I was very impressed by everything I tested, XBMC works perfectly and HD files were great when routed via MPC-HC.

Performance was sluggish to begin with when launching Windows 7 apps and menus but after removing all of the Acer bloatware, inc McAfee, everything is now much more responsive.

I'll install Squeezebox Server but I can't test it yet as I do not receive my Boom and Radio until Christmas Day :(
 
You can test it as the server software comes with a 'simulator' I think its called softsqueeze, or squeezeplay or something like that. It should play through your soundcard on the PC, and it will behave pretty much like a hardware unit.

Not at home just now, and am lurking away the friday afternoon at work....so I'm not sure if the server software still comes with the simulator or if its a separate download. Get the software from the logitech/squeeze site, its free anyways.

This way you can get all your music indexed, favourite radio stations stored, plugins lined up, playlists built, and preferences set, so all you have to do on chistmas morning is unwrap your goodies from Santa, plug em in, get them talking to your network, and rejoice.....
 
A friend of mine has an Acer atom powered notebook.
Have to say that out of the bag it ran like an absolute dog. We quickly pinned that down to the 12GB SSD hard drive, which had simply terrible read rates. In the end we stuffed a 500GB external USB drive on it and once the app was loaded, it ran like a dream.

Really made me wonder why anyone buys more expensive NAS units when you can have one of these for a similar price and along the way get something that can be used on the move to surf the net and similar.
 
It is worth keeping an eye out on the refurb bit of the KRCS site as I picked up an as new Mac Mini for £299 with warranty still on it a couple of weeks back, pretty chuffed as I was about to buy one of these Revos until I saw that.
 

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