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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Anyone? Looking to purchase one of them in the next couple of days and I have no idea which one I should go for!

 

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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.

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!

 

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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!

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!

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.

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

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!