This is EXTREMELY cool stuff! Wonder how many years it will be until something like this with a 2+TB SSD and 32GB RAM is considered no big deal.
We live in magically cool times when it comes to computer tech.
Joe
Kaido I've read some reports of problems with the NIC when recording over digital cable and CableCard. Essentially, the NIC works at 100Mbps, but at 1Gbps, the video in Windows Media Center pixelates really badly. Have you encountered this? Any way to test with your setup (doesn't have to be recording over CableCard, just curious if there's an issue at 1Gbps)? TIA.
Also, no USB3.0 is sad, but not a deal breaker. The next gen of this thing is going to be beast though I bet.
*** UPDATE ***
I've found a fix. Using a Plugable gigabit USB ethernet adapter, the pixelization is gone. I can record three CableCard streams plus two ATSC streams concurrently, all perfectly.
I'm going to run with this for a while. If there's no problems, I'll segregate the HDHomerun traffic on the USB adapter, and connect to a NAS on the Intel NIC via iSCSI for WMC storage.
I'm leaving this at two stars. Intel should do better. Their NIC is pretty clearly a problem.
After running the Windows 8 rating test we went to download and install the benchmarks. Doing this puts a fairly nice load across all the components of the system as you are downloading, extracting files and installing files all at the same time. The only problem is that the system would keep locking up. While downloading 3DMark11 and unzipping Cinebench R11.5 the system locked up, but didn't crash. We had task manager open to see what happened and it was very odd. The CPU usage went down to 0%, but the mSATA SSD was 100% active even though the transfer rate was 0%. The Intel 520 Series 180GB mSATA SSD was too hot to touch, so we thought the system was overheating. We went into the BIOS cranked the fan up to 100% and left the top off the case. Sure enough the system was still hard locking and unable to download large files (100MB+) without locking up. Not a heat issue.
We then installed some benchmarks from a USB key and tried running them and the system would still lock up. For example we couldn't even run CrystalDiskMark without locking up. We swapped out memory kits and even did a clean install of Windows 7 and the issue was still present. After eliminating heat, the operating system and the memory kits the options of what could be wrong was quickly shrinking. The only component in the system that could be removed and not needed was the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 wireless card. With the card removed the system was found to be rock solid and could run benchmarks. What? Yup, the wireless card isn't playing nice.
Any links or leads on a USB-IR do-hickey that works with a Harmony remote? I would really like to try this out for a XBMC build for a friend...
This is such a cool little piece of hardware. It makes me want to part out my water cooled 7970, 2550k, "htpc" and replace it with this.
It's original purpose was a second pc for friends to game, but having a real job severely limits that purpose, so it is complete over kill and a waste of money.
One thing I'm curious about is how well this thing handles SVP. I might have to wait until Haswell to see a low power htpc handle that properly.
Any links or leads on a USB-IR do-hickey that works with a Harmony remote? I would really like to try this out for a XBMC build for a friend...
Yeah, I have piles of HTPC stuff sitting around - Patriot Box Office, Tivo, Antec NSK2400 with a Micro-ATX, casemod with a Mini-ITX, blah blah blah. This could be "the solution" for me...I use a WDTV Live Streaming, which is great, but I do miss light gaming (love me some emulators), so I can throw XBMC + Hyperspin on here, plus a couple wireless Xbox 360 remotes, and be in business!
my question is: all the intel literature for the tbolt version touts 2 headers on the mobo--a front panel header and a usb header. but, at least on my mobo, the FP header is stuffed but the USB header is printed but not stuffed. do i have a mutant (doubt it!) or do you have any insight as to whether intel changed the spec after issuing documentation?
I just checked with my non-TB version and the internal USB header is not stuffed, which is odd as it's shown as stuffed in at least some of the literature.
Ben
stuffed = headers mounted vs solder points?
I've been using the dual-hdmi version for a bit over a week now as one of my htpcs. Been very happy with it. Dang thing is tiny.
I may not have watched live tv from my cablecard hdhomerun prime yet. I will and test if it gets any pixelation or other issues. While streaming blu ray rips and previously recorded shows from my home server and streaming netflix, it has had no issues.
I just checked with my non-TB version and the internal USB header is not stuffed, which is odd as it's shown as stuffed in at least some of the literature.
Ben
so does this completely dust the refurb mac mini? Can you hackintosh this to run osx too? Just curious on the value compared to a refurb mac mini
Any resolve on a wireless card? I want to order one of these for my mother. She will use her cell phone as a hot spot for internet and I need a solid wireless solution.
you want an atheros AR9285, which also goes by the designation of AR5B95. make sure it's a half-height card, so you can use the full-height slot in the NUC for an SSD.
here's one on ebay right now
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atheros-AR5...US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item19d35baa10
I saw that in a couple reviews, but haven't seen it myself (yet). The original problem seems to be due to the Intel Wifi/BT chip they recommend...it causes network slowdowns & network lockups during large data transfers on the Thunderbolt model, including over Ethernet - but when the Wifi card was removed, Ethernet went back to normal (they think it's heat-related). I went with a third-party Wifi chip anyway due to Mac compatibility. I'll do some more testing & report back if I encounter any hiccups.
On the HTPC review with the pixelation, that may be due to either the Wifi chip or to a lack of driver support for their current operating system...tough to tell without more detailed information. So far it's handling everything I throw at it, but I don't have any tuners available for testing, so I can't comment much on that. I'd be interested to know more...
And definitely, an i5 model with USB 3.0 would open a lot of doors...that'd make a killer server with some 4TB external drives! And they're 22nm chips now, so I wouldn't say an i7 would be out of the question for maybe a 4th-gen CPU.