AOpen XC Cube AV EA65-II any good ?

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I remember thinking about getting one of these when they were just out (and over £200) but now they have come right down in price i am thinking of getting one again :D.
The only thing is i have reads quite a few reviews about the "Instant On" feature being pretty buggy and naff and that the TV card is only analoge.
The system will be getting used purely as a media center, i'll still be keeping my main PC for games and video editing, etc. I have a celeron 1.7gig processor lying around so and a 160gb sata drive so would only need some cheap DDR memory and a DVD rom to make it work.

Any advice appreciated, especially from those who own or have owned this system
 
It's a good cube, but how much will you be paying for it?

Bought the EZ65-II (calmer, glossy version of the EA) and it's fantastic. Have had no problems with it. No overheating and I'm running a 3.0Ghz processor in it.

If the price is right, buy it :)

Mul
 
Cheers mate, it's comming in around £120 with postage so not a bad deal i thought. Just not sure if i want to use that and a 17" monitor or just get a 20" TFT telly. Obvioulsy the PC will do more but it will also be noiser :(
 
Think you'll find that unless the system is playing games or encoding video it's almost inaudible :)
The fan spins around 650-850RPM when idling and it uses a rather effective copper and heatpipe cooler, but note if it's underload for a long time, doing the above applications, it gets pretty hot if the fan don't spin up. Doubt it would be an issue with your CPU though.

But yes, once you start encoding video or gaming it sounds a bit like a vacuum after a while. Infact seeing that you're using a Celeron, I'd bet it would be very quiet nearly all the time.

At £120 that's great. I got my EZ65-II for £117 a year ago but it lacks a few features from the EA.

Mul
 
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Cheers for that. Just found out the celeron won't work as it's not a "D". Just a plain 400mhz celeron 1.7 that doesn't seem to be supported by the 865 chipset.
I have a P4 3ghz thats currently running at 3.3 in my main rig i could put in. Wasn't intending upgrading that until Conroe came out but i may just have to. There's no way my Leadtek 6800GT is fitting in any shuttle so that will mean no gaming for about 6 weeks......decisions decisions !! :(
 
Well actually, thats the i875P chipset you're thinking about.
Intel 865 series takes 400/533 and 800FSB :)

I'll check it out for you though, as I don't want to give you bad advice. But I remember using 400FSB cpu's in an 865 board before.

Yep, my mind wasn't playing tricks :)
http://support.intel.com/products/chipsets/865g/index.htm

and infact on this page, it lists all the aopen barebones and for the EA, there is indeed support for Celeron 400FSB
http://indigo.intel.com/mbsg/results.aspx?orgID=0&aryAttrID=98

Mul
 
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Just got one of these coz i had an old 1.8 celeron laying around doing nothing but unfotunately they don't support any celerons below 2.0 on the 400fsb so i'm now waiting for my 3.0ghz prescot to arrive!

This wasn't anywhere to be found when i was buying but it seems aopen have updated their site
HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY LIST
 
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