New Acer Revo's Advice (L70 & L80)

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Hi chaps,
Complete newbie to the community but looks like some great advice is being shared so I figured you'd all be a good place to come for some advice!

I'm completely new to HTPC's, I currently have an Asus O!Play but I'm looking to purchase one of the two units mentioned to use as an HTPC running XBMC.

The cheaper L80 will be selling for £149.99 when it gets released next month and the L70 will be £179.99.

I was wondering what people think would be the best machine for the purpose out of the two. Storage is not an issue as I'll be running external drives over NAT.

Any advice, positive/negative comments regarding the two products and if there's anything in a similar price range that would suit my needs better I'd definitely be willing to consider them.

Thanks in advance! :)
 
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It depends on what you'll be using it for. Will you be using XBMC?

Yes bud, pretty much only XBMC, it'll be used to stream Bluray's over the network amongst other similar things.

People have mostly said to me to go with the AMD, but looking at Passmark's results they've come back with this:

E450 - 816
Celeron 887 - 1489

Is it definitely true? Because at the moment it looks like the cheaper one is the better one to go with.
 
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Multimedia graphics is better on the E450, the slower CPU is not relevent; XBMC runs really well on the AMD. I would try to get confirmation though that either can do the Blu-ray streaming....I've no idea. Also from what I have heard the AMD will be a quieter solution which is always good for an HTPC box.
 
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Multimedia graphics is better on the E450, the slower CPU is not relevent; XBMC runs really well on the AMD. I would try to get confirmation though that either can do the Blu-ray streaming....I've no idea. Also from what I have heard the AMD will be a quieter solution which is always good for an HTPC box.

Very useful reply there mate, thank you.

I found an old thread on here regarding the previous 'RL70' right here on Overclockers, which is what initially made me sign up here!

Here's the thread:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18375202

What I found most interesting is that people seemed impressed with it for what it was, however mentioned that with 4GB RAM it would be much more useful.

So here it is! :D
 
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Buy the AMD one, it'll be fine IMO
I have an Acer Revo 3700 and stream 30gb MKVs a lot and it never stutters!

That's useful to know mate, would be playing similar file sizes to that at times so glad to know it won't have a problem! :D

I sent (the company in question, starred on here!) an email, since they mentioned that it had USB 3.0, but then it didn't say which ports are 3.0. They have now removed the info from the L70 after the message, and 3.0 is no longer mentioned, however they are still mentioning it on the L80 model.

I don't think USB 3.0 will bother me that much in all honesty, I'll be playing over the network 99% of the time anyway I think.
 
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I just realised I've never used the usb ports apart from the Logitech keyboard that's plugged in

Think I'll pretty much be in the same boat! :D

What are your bootup times like out of curiosity? Anything that the machine lacks in that you think you could get much better with if you had spent a bit more money?

I've already gone with the £180 one now, so too late to turn back but can't get it until Christmas so would like to know what I've let myself in for haha.
 
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Actually not a single thing IMO. I've got a skin which suits the whole family which looks good, it plays everything everytime and I can use my phone to control it if needs.

I'll time a boot up for you when I get home tonight, it's not long from what I remember.

I purchased a Raspberry Pi and it's not working well for me, I think I need to do a bit more tinkering with it and it'll be good for a bedroom box, I'm very tempted just to buy another Acer Revo and be done with it.
 
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Actually not a single thing IMO. I've got a skin which suits the whole family which looks good, it plays everything everytime and I can use my phone to control it if needs.

I'll time a boot up for you when I get home tonight, it's not long from what I remember.

I purchased a Raspberry Pi and it's not working well for me, I think I need to do a bit more tinkering with it and it'll be good for a bedroom box, I'm very tempted just to buy another Acer Revo and be done with it.

Thanks bud, any further update on the bootup time out of curiosity? Sorry to be a pain! :D

I had a Raspberry Pi on launch day, however felt that it was a bit "early days" and decided to spend the money upgrading my PC instead! Figured that like you to save a bit more and go down the Revo route, I feel it's really good value for money with what you get and it's small and discreet aswell. Can't wait to get my hands on it! :D
 
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Yeah sorry mate, forgot that I hadn't posted.

Literally from turning it on, till the moment I could start using it took 63-64 seconds
 
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i was planning on getting one of these,

everyone is saying the L70 is the better option, though the HDD space is quite...small compared to the L80 versions...

which makes my situation undecided as to if i should get this or not. =/

or maybe i should wait lol...
 
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I've been considering one of these (probably the L70) but the mechanical hard drive is the only thing making me pause! Do Acer do a version with an SSD in it?

Check out THIS thread.

It's a tear down of the unit. Very easy to swap out the HD for an ssd btu if the intended use is just XBMC then an ssd is imho overkill.

Especially if streaming from a nas :D
 
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Hi guys,

I recently bought a revo rl70 from ******, i swapped the hdd for my ssd and I installed windows 7 and all drivers installed ok apart from the Ethernet controller, it got most of the way through then came up with this error "The RealTek Network Adapter/Controller was not found.
If Deep Sleep Mode is enabled Please Plug the Cable" we'll nothing I could do worked, I googled the issue which is apparently quite common with windows 7 and Realtek, basically the Ethernet controller is put into a deep sleep mode and you can't wake it up, I tried ALL the suggested fixes but nothing worked so sent it back.
After a week I am finally being sent a replacement as after 'extensive testing' the unit was found to be faulty! I do want another one but am now afraid to replace the hdd for fear of the same problem. Will the ssd make a big difference? Also I have windows 8 and would prefer to put that on the machine but the acer website will only supply drivers for a windows 8 upgrade from win7 and it doesn't have all the drivers so iassume that means the drivers you install for win 7 roll over and work on win8 so does that mean I would have to install win7 and all the drivers first?
Could I install win8 first then find the drivers or install the win7 ones?
I really want this machine to work but I am so worried the same thing will happen and the nightmare of sending it back again!

Cheers guys
 
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