Smart Home Blog

Yesterday I got barebone ASUS P2-M2A690G for testing as media director for LinuxMCE. That box is priced just in €100. But it’s really good: integrated ATI RadeonTM 1250 with HDMI output, S/PDIF-out (Optical) audio, slim form-factor and nice looking design.

Additionally I had Desktop Athlon 64 X2 5400+ and 2GB RAM. Installation of processor and memory took about 15 minutes (thanks to well thought-out internal design). By the way I like the quality of P2-M2A690G assembling. All wires are tied up into braid and placed around case. So, internal space looks very clear.

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It seems that ASUS is going to crowd aOpen and MacMini produced its version of miniPC - Essentio CS 5110. It’s compact - 29 x 20 x 8 cm but has enough power to playback even HDTV! The miniPC is also equipped with built-in 802.11n wireless adaptor with transmission rates of 300Mbps and Bluetooth 2.0 adapter, HDMI and S/PIDF with 7.1 Sound. The CS 5110 is quiet. The operation noise level is only at 23.9dB at idle mode (thanks to 2-in-1 thermal module). So, it provides a very comfortable computing environment. Stylish design of the CS 5110 won’t break your living room appearance.

The availability and price are not known yet. The But I already started to think about using it as media director in LinuxMCE. It has nVidia video adapter and it’s stylish, compact and power. So, let’s see when it’ll be available for buying.

Detailed specification after jump.
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Norwegian company Mesiro offers a compact and stylish Home Entertainment PC Merium. It mixes Scandinavian design and power of moder PC. Compact sizes 26×9x23 cm covers Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz), 2GB DDR2 667 MHz, 250GB SATA HDD, Dual Layer DVD & CD Recorder, integrated Intel 950 graphic, 7.1 channel audio, Integrated Realtek Gigabit PCI LAN Chip and Intel WLAN-PCI – 802.11 a/b/g 54MB. For consumers available following outputs: DVI-I, HDMI & VGA via Converter, S-Video, S/PDIF, 6 x USB 2.0. As operation system Mesiro chose Vista Home Premium (which includes Media Center software). To control Merium media center the wireless multimedia keyboard and MCE remote control can be used.

The stylish Home Entertainment PC Merium is available for about $1000. It isn’t cheap but probably it’s defensible. For all fans of art Mesiro offers original covers. You can get high quality silk-print on polycarbonate by famous designers just for additional €69.

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Sony launched VAIO TP1. That Living Room PC is stylish and features 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 300GB 7,200RPM SATA hard drive, dual-layer DVD writer, ATSC / NTSC TV tuner, GMA 950 integrated graphics set, and HDMI / DVI / VGA outputs, a 4-pin FireWire connector, audio in / out, four USB 2.0 ports, Memory Stick / SD slots, 802.11b/g. You can own all of this together with Vista Home Premium for $1599.99. IMHO I’d exclude Vista and would try Linux with MythTV

[via Engadget]

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MiniPC from aOpen looks very good to be used as a client for home entertainment system. It’s small, power and stylish. Personally, I like it a bit less than Mac Mini but for my purposes aOpen MiniPC is ideal except one thing - it’s graphic card. The point is that I’d like to use it as media director (media client) of Plutohome home automation system. But since Pluthome is based on Linux it doesn’t provide drivers for the latest graphic chipsets. As result, MP945-VDR doesn’t display UI2 Alpha Blended and doesn’t play HD video.

Anyway, the new model MP965-D is based on the Intel Santa Rosa chipset and sports Core 2 Duo with 800MHz FSB, SATA HDD, S-VIDEO, DVI and PCI slot Express. As I see aOpen MiniPC has two USB ports on the front. It makes it ugly IMHO. The previous version with power button only looked much more stylish.

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