[jboschetto (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 1:21PM]

I picked one of these up last week from Circuit City!! I got it for $449...I absolutely love it...It is the best HTPC for the price, hands down.....hopefully this will answer som of your questions..

-Fan: extremely quiet...can not hear it at all and still is inaudible when spinning up

-HDMI: it does 1080P AND it does audio (5.1)

-ESATA: yes it has one in the back (and no i doubt you can squeeze a bunch more drives inside but i havent cracked it open yet)

-HD Videos: it has played all of the 1080P mkvs and HDwmvs that i have thrown at it so far without studdering (with the exeception of one time but i was overtasking the system on purpose)

-Optical Drive: i am planning on throwing a Blu-ray drive in there (im pretty sure the graphics card will handle it because it played the M2TS files i ripped)

Overall: Id give this and A+ for the price...a couple extra features like bluetooth and Blu-ray would have been cool but are both a quick fix after a visit to newegg....the system is incredibly quiet and quick....Best bang for the buck HTPC for sure

[psyclotron Posted Jul 8th 2008 1:33PM]

what bitrates were your h264 files?

i'm finding my core duo 1.83GHz unable to handle most 1080p content

[jboschetto (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 1:49PM]

I had mkv's with bitrates of about 10,000kbps and they played without skipping....i havent had any problems with any of my files....if any files fail to play ill be sure to tell ya

[jayzee77 (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 2:41PM]

jboschetto,

I have a few questions for you since you already own one. Have you tried using a wireless keyboard yet? How is that since it doesn't have bluetooth? Also, nowhere did I find the total specs on this. I assume it has built in wi-fi. Is that correct?

thanks

[jboschetto (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 2:11PM]

this circuitcity link may help with some specs of the one i have:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer-AX1200-U1520A-Desktop-PC-AX1200U1520A/sem/rpsm/oid/214483/catOid/-12962/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

it does NOT have built in wireless...i have it hooked up through its Gigabit network card to my router directly....but you can easily throw a wireless card in there.....

I DO have a wireless keyboard and mouse...it uses bluetooth, which is NOT built-in, so i just plugged the bluetooth dongle in that came with my keyboard into one of the 9 usb slots....the keyboard works fine at 20 feet away...its a logitech MX5000 keyboard mouse combo


if you have any more questions feel free askin

[gfxlonghorn Posted Jul 8th 2008 6:00PM]

Are you serious dude?.. If you want all that, buy a PS3 and just swap out the hard drive and put XP on it.

[d00b Posted Jul 8th 2008 2:18PM]

@jboschetto,

. Does it have drivers for XP?

. What is the power rating for the power supply?

. Is the DVD drive full height or low-profile?

. Does it have space & connectors for a 2nd internal hard drive?

TIA

[jboschetto (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 2:29PM]

. Does it have drivers for XP?

Not sure....its running Vista 64 bit ...if you tell me where to look ill find out

. What is the power rating for the power supply?



. Is the DVD drive full height or low-profile?

dvd drive is full height, which makes it easy to throw in a cheap blu-ray drive...newegg has em for $120

. Does it have space & connectors for a 2nd internal hard drive?

i havent opened up the box yet to check that, so as not to void the warranty... I DOES have a ESATA on the outside so you can always go that route

[jboschetto (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 2:31PM]

oh yea the power supply....oops...ill have to crack it open to check that out too.....ill have time a little later too check those things out for you guys

[jboschetto (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 2:41PM]

ONE more thing to answer phanbouy@'s question

-i just tried a 30mbps m2ts blu-ray video sample (Jumper)....it played in PowerDVD without any lag or skips.....the sample was only 300megabytes large but it should be able to handle the whole file

....what does this mean...well hopefully it means that you can pop a blu-ray player in this baby and enjoy some 1080P without issues or needed upgrades

[korelem (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 4:38PM]

Can you look in the manual or on the X1200 itself, if it has SPDIF optical out, I really need to know this? Thanks

[jboschetto (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 5:11PM]

it does NOT have an optical output.....it does the 5.1 audio through the HDMI

[korelem (Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2008 5:53PM]

Thanks for the answer... To bad it doesnt have SPDIF out, well the DIY HTPC will have to do, it wont be so small & stylish (using the THERMALTAKE DH101 VF7000BNS casing, ITS HUGE), but it will be made with love :) LOL

[Phil Pruente (Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2008 12:53PM]

have you gotten around to putting in a blu-ray drive yet? i'm am still on the fence about buying one of these guys because im not quite sure that it can handle blu-ray playback smoothly

[Chris (Unverified) Posted Nov 28th 2008 12:09PM]

I plan on doing the same (Blu Ray) install soon. Have you found any that you like?

Thanks - Chris