Acer's Ion-boasting Aspire Revo nettop now shipping from Newegg
By Laura June 
posted September 27th 2009 6:02AM
posted September 27th 2009 6:02AM
It's been a bit of a wait, but nettop enthusiasts are sure to be happy to hear this one. Acer's NVIDIA Ion-powered Aspire Revo is now shipping from Newegg. The nettop -- which boasts a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive and Windows XP Home Edition -- got itself a pretty solid review from Engadget back in April, though we did have some gripes about the CPU. It runs $199.99.
[Thanks, Kevin]
[Thanks, Kevin]
weak ass n230...give me a n330 and we will call it a deal!
Bad deal, huh?
The only bad side for me is: they won't ship into my country.
This is just silly. Atom 230 is just too damn weak. Asrock's ION is boosting an atom 330 and it rocks at 2.1 GHz.
And it's only $160 more, what a deal!
@ EGOvoruhk - Yups, and the Asrock ION comes with a DVD-RW drive in addition to the dual-core atom 330.
The ASRock is actually a much better deal if you add up all the cost of the hardware to bring the Acer up to the same spec. ;)
Have the ASRock, love it! The CPU on this one is weak and only 1gig of RAM could be a BIG issue. The GPU will be taking up a good 512meg of this memory leaving just 512meg for the O/S. that's a pretty low price though, if I didn't already have the ASRock, and if the memory could be upgraded, I'd be tempted to at least try it. All I want is a net top box as a media front-end so the DVD drive isn't a big deal to me other than to load the O/S :-) I will be pointing this one out to the XBMC community - we'll see if anyone jumps on it and how well they fare with this CPU and memory.
Should we be happy or cry? The price is great but its the old hardware version. I need the new dual core processor for it to work as my new HTPC, and at $299 or less would sell so well
This has been out for ages hasn't it?
$199 with Ion LE not a bad deal, way better than the $399 Lenovo.
I wonder when that means the dual core N330 model will start shipping, hopefully not too much longer.
Can this be used has a NAS!?
anything with storage and networking can be used as a NAS.
Maybe you should find out what a NAS is first....
I'm getting really tired of these really shit processors clogging up our choices in the HTPC market. I need something in a similar form factor but with a non-ulv C2D or better to play 1080p videos smoothly. And it needs an HDMI output and no other types of outputs.
If you need a C2D to play the video smoothly then you need to choose a different software package! The 9400M is capable of accelerating H.264, MPEG, and I'm pretty sure VC-1. Unless you are watching crappy Flash videos in HD somehow than an ATOM CAN do what you want - mine does! Take a look at the ASRock 330 and XBMC. XBMC on Linux with VDPAU acceleration works great for HD video - I watch it every night. HDMI output to include audio for 5.1 surround sound works great. 7.1 is not yet supported, I'm not crying. I stream this on 100meg Ethernet but the ASRock has a gigE port - 100meg works fine. My biggest concern with this particular box is it's lack of RAM and it's single core CPU - the CPU might be enough but I'd prefer dual core for some compilation speedup. My 330 ATOM takes awhile to compile but playing HIGH bitrate HD video at 1080P the CPU's are only running about 10-15% duty each.
Then go buy a core i7 at $700 just the CPU.
Seriously, this is all about consumer demands. My mom would find this totally a deal to replace her 5 yr old Celeron PC. In the end, she only needs it to check her emails, browse web pages and watch videos. XP is kind of a put-off. She'll probably want something "prettier". Wonder if Windows 7 would run fine on this.
Your whining is really pointless. If you want a compact machine that has full h264
acceleration and a "respectable CPU" than just take a crowbar to your wallet and
guy buy yourself a mac mini. There's really no need to torture yourself.
The nv9400 does all the real work so the CPU doesn't have much to do anyways.
Will people really buy this toy?
at 199? absolutely!
You can't even get a decent Mini ATX box for that, and the Ion means that this will work great as a HTPC on the cheap.
I bought the Asrock ION 330 and is perfect. Replaced my old box, runs 24/7 with a really low power consumption and I can play decent games, watch HD movies, so basically all I ever need at home.
I'd consider getting a bunch of these for my work, to replace some of our REALLY old desktops. $199 a machine makes it cheap enough that we could afford to toss them if they ever went bad. Too bad this model doesn't have a Atom 330 in it.
@Fr0
I was thinking the same thing too. I mean it has to be better than some of these old P4 1.8's with 512 ram, I have around the office. Since all they need it for is office and internet browsing, I think it should be able to handle that much.
Now it has Ion people whinge about the CPU. People will never be happy :-P
I have a 330 which is not officially available yet in the US, and love it. Would wait for improved version.
I'm jealous :-p What are the specs on the N330 Revo? 2 gigs of RAM or 4? Also, do you have Wireless N in your box? I would buy the N330 in a heart beat if it was available in the States...
This has a place as a 2nd PC, an entery level PC or HTPCl. Just like my Atom powered netbook, it will run HULU , Amazon VOD, netflix, and my Slingbox. So, while it's not up to heavy duty 1080P playback, it still has value, especially at the $199 price point.
I setup two single core ATOM machines for some children not long ago. These used the old crappy Intel video chipset but were AWESOME running XP for their games. it was dirt cheap, used little power, was quiet, and as a second PC for WB surfing or children's games it was perfect. For that usage this little box isn't bad although I'd want more memory - the video card is going to take a big chunk out of that one gig!
In case anyone is wondering how the Atom 230 actually performs, Tom's Hardware does a very detailed review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Atom-Efficient,1981.html
Bottom line is that it's good for light surfing and basically one application at a time. It supports Hyper-Threading, but it's generally slower than a Celeron processor.
Perhaps this could be the tiny and cheap device to plug into an HDTV with a webcam to run Logitech's Vid or Skype for simple videoconferencing.
Wow look at all those beautiful stickers! I think I will add some of my own when it comes!
/sarcasm
Hmmm, so if we could get one without Windows on it, I wonder if that would drop it down to ~$150? Wish that was an option.
Uh, you really think Windows is accounting for 25% of this thing's price? No. Try more like 5-10% at the absolute most.
this one doesn't have the ION chipset, it has the slower nvidia LE chipset, wait for the atom 330 ion version. That one will come with a remote anyways which will make it much better as a htpc. This one is just a cheap desktop, nothing more.
Hang on. So the ION LE and the Ion aren't the same chip set? I'm planning on using one of these to run XBMC but now I have to do some more research. I know XBMC under linux can use hardware acceleration on the ION but this is the first time I've seen the extra "LE" designation.
grrrr. More research...
First I'd heard of ION LE but Google provides some detail -> http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14908/34/ what's not clear is what GPU is onboard and does that GPU support VDPAU? I find no information on this thing other than it's a DX9 GPU only - no DX10. NVIDIA needs to clarify this before they really tick some folks off. This is a decent pricepoint IF it will support VDPAU and be fast enough for HD on Linux but if not who needs it?
I think the only difference between ION and ION LE is that LE isn't DX10 (or is it 11?) certified, to reduce costs.
So VDPAU should be supported.
An afternoon of research seems to indicate that the DX10 is the only difference. I'm ordered and am looking forward to wiping XP and installing Linux & XBMC.
Result: a great UI and 1080p for a price tag under $200.
this is a deal if you like save electric and dont plan to upgrade the specs by yourself.
The price is right for it compare to the Asus EeeBox B202 which is still at $290 without the ION.
Looking at the specification, there is no Wi-Fi? Am I wrong? I really hope so...
If it has Wi-Fi I would surely buy one with Windows 7 for home and probably a few for work and I will but the Thinstation (http://www.thinstation.org/) Linux solution to transform it into a thin client.
That's a really good note, but I can sort of understand why it's not in there. It doesn't look like it has wifi. I know for my uses, I'll be able to wire it, but that's probably not the case for most people.
Hmm, seems interesting. Anyone know how these (ie, atom with le ion) work with a TV Tuner? I'd like to use one of these as a DVR
Didnt they already come out with the n330 version. I had read that they recently swapped out the the 230s because it couldnt handle running Vista...
i just noticed i have three atom machines lol but only ended up using the asrock 330 because it is a complete one.
eee pc 900hz, intel self built mini itx and the asrock 330. the asrock is only 359 but it does not come with an OS but it has 2gb of ram and upgradeable to 4gb.
So it's basically a net book disguised as a desktop?
But it's super cheap.
And it can play Crysis*
With an i7, GTX 295, 6gb of Ram, and an SSD- but you know, same thing.
lets see someone buy this and stick a $700 p256 ssd in there :D
The Revo with the n330 is available at NCIXUS - for a decent amount more of course:
http://www.ncixus.com/products/41924/PT.SCA0X.073/Acer/
Can the memory on this thing be expanded?
Will the Atom330 version not be available with XP?
the asrock 330 does not come with an os.
on newegg the asrock 330 comes with 2GB ram. do you know if this is a single ram module or 2 modules (occupying both bays) ?
Wow...
Even with those specs most of you claim as 'low-end', this makes a really cheap NAS device.
I was about to spend $400 for a QNAP NAS device, but now I'm reconsidering my options...
Cool!