Reddit reviews ZOTAC ZBOX Intel Atom D525 1.8 GHz Dual Core Barebone Mini-PC ZBOX-ID41-U
We found 7 Reddit comments about ZOTAC ZBOX Intel Atom D525 1.8 GHz Dual Core Barebone Mini-PC ZBOX-ID41-U. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
NVIDIA ION GPU (with 512MB DDR3 memory), Intel Atom D525 CPU (1.8 GHz, dual-core), Intel NM10 Express chipset1 2.5-inch SATA 3.0 Gb/s hard drive connection, 2 204-pin DDR3-800 SO-DIMM slotsHDMI (1080p with 8-channel audio), Dual-link DVI, HDCP compliant, VGA (with DVI-to VGA adapter), NVIDIA nView multi-display technologyNVIDIA PureVideo HD technology, NVIDIA CUDA technology, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 acceleration, DirectX 10.1eSATA, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 10/100/1000 Ethernet (RJ45), Digital S/PDIF output, Power connectorCompatible, DirectCompute ready, OpenGL 3.2 compatible, OpenGL compatible, Integrated 802.11n WiFiHeadphone/Audio out jack, Microphone jack, 6-in-1 Memory card reader (MMC/SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro/xD), 1 USB 2.0 port
ZOTAC ZBOX-ID41-U (used)
Crucial 64 GB SSD (used)
[Crucial 4GB DDR3 Memory] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KB21KA/ref=oh_details_o02_s01_i00)
Seagate 1TB External HD
Total Money Spent: $357.48
Using my laptop in another room to rip blu rays straight on to this external HD over wireless network, also to do the compression. Works great!
Ouya is an Android device, and while XBMC is on Android, it's not very good. It's not terribly well optimized, and hardware video decoding is still very much in its infancy (and in most cases, non-existent). And MANY plugins are completely broken.
OP: If you're willing to spend a bit of extra money, you may want to consider a Zotac ZBOX. You'll get much more power out of it.
http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Intel-Barebone-Mini-PC-ZBOX-ID41-U/dp/B004WO8O9Y
So here's the one I'm looking at - does "barebones" just mean "bring your own OS?" or is it missing hardware other than the hard drive?
The PS/2 issue is simple enough to fix with a converter, they are cheap and readily available. VGA to HDMI requires an expensive, clunky, finicky converter box, so that ain't happening. With that in mind, move away from the NUCs. If you can find a cheap alternative that supports DVI, conversion to both HDMI or VGA, I believe, is cheap and easy. Something like this has a DVI and an HDMI, tho I don't know the brand too well. Or how well linux support is for a random ass'd ARM based system. Or MSI has a celeron unit with a VGA port. Figure out a per system budget, and look around, and check reviews, and google for issues with the model you go with ;) Quite a few minis have DVI.
I've got this one and it plays back anything I throw at it. As long as the graphics card is doing the work, it's no problem.
Do you think something like this might do about the same job?
http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Intel-Barebone-Mini-PC-ZBOX-ID41-U/dp/B004WO8O9Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346397245&sr=8-1&keywords=zotac
This is the most affordable option, but I don't know if it has ABC's iView. If there are specific things you're looking for that Roku, GoogleTV and AppleTV don't have channels for, you can buy a small HTPC (example) and use it just for streaming. Often you can mount it to your TV and find a remote that lets you do whatever you want.