Anybody have an inside scoop on the XTreamer Ultra?

http://xtreamer.net/ultra/

This looks very nice and want some of your thoughts on performance based on parts...

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DIY WHS
AMD Athlon II X2 240
2Gb RAM
13 TB, mixed drives
400+ DVDs and 80 BD ripped using MakeMKV

~My beautiful wife is always asking me if I love my computers more than her...I don't understand it!

Been having a discussion on AVSForum regarding the past week.

Initial thoughts I am not overly impressed with the fact that they chose to go with an Atom/Ion2, which is on its way out. The one interesting point, which to be honest I am not sure how they will pull off, they are stating that full hd audio bitstreaming will be available. The Ion does not support HD Audio. However, it appears that is also a Realtek ALC892 audio chip they are using. From reading around this does support HD Audio but I cannot confirm for any sort of credible source. More importantly I have no idea how even if this chip does support HD Audio how it would be integrated into the Ultra.

Ultimately this is nothing more then an HTPC running slightly outdated hardware. For me it will come down to a few things:

- HD Audio support claims substantiated
- How well the Ultra integrates their Xtreamer O/S alongside Boxee/XBMC/etc on the linux/Ubuntu side

Basically the Ultra is just an HTPC. Hopefully more details will arrive in the near future if/when reviewers get their hands on it.

Speaking of Xtreamer, I should have my review posted for the Xtreamer Pro hopefully in the next few days

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

The Boxee Box uses the Atom CE4100 series CPU and it can bitstream the advanced codecs.
And that is a single core Atom and it is more than capable. It is vey fast with just the single core Atom CPU. The Xtreamer Ultra will have a dual core CPU.

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3TB MSS EX490(upgraded CPU-E6300(2.8Ghz dual core Pentium)),
4GB memory
57TB unRAID1a--49TB unRAID2--76TB unRAID3

I was a little skeptical of the Atom proc, but Toms HW http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pinetrail-atom-d525-nc98-525-lf,2716-8.html seems to give it decent reviews , but nothing fantastic. It appears the real power behind the unit is the combination of the faster clock speed of the Atom 525 AND the ION 2.
Everything I have found so far boasts great 1080 playback... only real trials in my home will tell though.

I guess the thing that excites me the most is the (alleged) cost of $270 for the system. A $270 all-in-one unit that can easily sit out of the way and run any media center software means that I can put a fully capable HTPC in every room I have a TV. They even come with built in infrared and Bluetooth.... too good to be true?

Once again, just wondering others thoughts because I like what I see, but not sure how real-world tests will pan out. Nothing frustrates me more than hooking up a system that lags between menus, blurs on HD video and worse...stutters or loses audio.

_________________
DIY WHS
AMD Athlon II X2 240
2Gb RAM
13 TB, mixed drives
400+ DVDs and 80 BD ripped using MakeMKV

~My beautiful wife is always asking me if I love my computers more than her...I don't understand it!

Aaron, the CE4100 is a SoC, completely different from the Atom/Ion2 build being used in t he Ultra. The Ion2 cannot bitstream HD Audio which is why Xtreamer has added a separate Realtek Audio chip. However, finding details of this chip is scarce at best, and brings up questions since there are motherboards that come with the announced Realtek chip and cannot bitstream HD Audio

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I would rather have seen them gone with an AMD Fusion build - http://sites.amd.com/us/fusion/apu/Pages/fusion.aspx

This is where you will see all the low power SFF builds go towards. Anandtech did a good writeup regarding (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4134/the- ... -miniitx/9)

Also, the AMD Fusion has native support for HD Audio, etc...

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin