It's been
almost a full year since we heard a peep from the fine folks at
Myka, but it looks like we could be talking about 'em a lot more often judging by the specs list on its latest contraption. The simply-titled ION is an Atom-based media PC that relies on NVIDIA's
Ion graphics set and a customized interface that brings
Hulu,
Boxee and pretty much any other web content you can stumble upon to your television. Within, you'll find a 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330 CPU, up to 4GB of RAM, ten USB 2.0 ports, VGA / DVI / HDMI outputs, an eSATA connector, Ethernet and plenty of audio outputs. The fanless design ensures that things remain quiet, and for those oozing cash, a Blu-ray drive, HDD and WiFi module can be implanted. It's up for order right now starting at $379, but you'll be stuck waiting four to six weeks for delivery.
posted Nov 6th 2009 7:12PM
No way an Atom can play Hulu HD at fullscreen. :(
note that it's dual core atom - might be able to do it.
It's a dual core atom.
I build Atom based HTPC's. The dual cores cannot play Hulu reliably. Hopefully when Adobe gets their act together this will change.
But it's not just the Atom since it's using Nvidia ION chipset which can hardware accelerate Flash video.
@Tripp - no it can't, not until the hopefully-coming-soon next version of Flash that will allow GPU offloading, currently Flash runs purely off the CPU
@Mike
You are right about: Atom + Hulu = Bad
But in this case its:
Atom + Ion + Hulu = Not a problem LO
Sorry, I wish this was true but its not. I have a home server/HTPC running on an Atom 330 and NVIDIA 930m GPU and it will not due "hi-def" (480p) hulu fullscreen. Barely does SD hulu fullscreen. Flash is still 100% handled by the processor, and is horribly coded at that.
I wish they would give me this exact setup, but with either the option to put in a C2D or an empty LGA 775 socket. I would happily underclock a C2D or C2Q for heat reasons and put it in this baby.
Hell even a core2quad underclocked to 1.2ghz per core would still shred an atom... Even my AMD semperon 3000+ with 1GB ram can play Hulu in HD. Just shows you how weak the Atom CPU really is architecture wise. If there was nothing that could be done I wouldn't complain, but the fact that intel has the ability to make a CPU for these types of form factors, but refuses to release it to the market so they can ring out more profits from the Atom is annoying.
I want to see an atom box that has a blu-ray drive and can natively play it.
You can play Blu-Ray natively on this box. Dual Core Atom + Ion chipset = Blu-Ray playback. I've built several boxes with this configuration and no problems to date. Like I mentioned earlier - the problem is with Flash right now. Until Adobe off-loads some of the processing to the GPU the Atom processor simply cannot display Hulu adequately.
man, nice specs, but could they make this thing any uglier?
Hey, fat girls need loving too.
It sorta looks like a Sega Saturn
They're using a Morex T3500 fanless mini-ITX case. It looks chubby, but if you want low noise & smallest size, it's the best one available for DIY'ers. Available on eBay.
Is nice if you have standard nerd (cit.) forniture.
@my_ebiz: Hey, fat girls need loving too.
But they've got to pay!
deja vu? i swear i saw this earlier today. yes i have nothing better to do than F5 engadget all day long
acer aspire revo - same hardware specs, 50 dollars cheaper + wireless, + wireless keyboard and mouse + windows 7.
Too expensive.
It seems like that AspireRevo 3610 is a better deal, since it's essentially the same specs, you can run boxee and xbmc on windows 7 home premium, it already has wireless (draft N) AND it costs only $329.99.
asrock is better since it's 349 and it has a dvd drive and spdif out.
Agreed with both of you. Either the Revo (with Windows OS but no internal optical media) or ASRock (with DVD-R and no OS) are better options than this thing.
whoosh
and just like that, im back to life, ya digg!
took the words right out my mouth lil hedgehog fan :)
relevance: i dont really get the point of these... cant you just hook your laptop up using hdmi or something?
so basically a crippled net top that could use W7 but doesn't have a firmware permitting it to
fail
i thought it was because you're racist
Boxee plus Hulu equals love!!!!
last i heard from myka they never gave out the first media players they promised everyone... but i could be wrong. i just dont trust this company anymore.
at $380... may as well go build a HTPC and actually have a decent processor that'll play flash... well if you can't wait for flash 10.1
So... it's an ion powered net-top with some custom linux running on it and trying to pass itself off as some wonder streaming box or something?
Why wouldn't I just buy an ASUS or whatever ??
orrrr you could just connect your computer directly to your tv like ive done for years
I don't own either, but can't either PS3 or the 360 do all of this for cheaper?
I was a little excited till I saw the price.
I'm a white, and the new black was my idea.
At that price, might as well get the Popcornhour C-200
That looks good. I like the options too.
So, how much does it suck ?
Very much or just a little?
Is this running the crappy networked media tank software? some of the gui looks familiar and the remote is the same.
At that price, you could pick up a Mac Mini 1.83Ghz and run anything you want. Doesn't matter if your OS flavor is OS X, Windows or Linux, it's all a go, and you can easily find various remotes for it.
@ alex
I completely agree. Besides this thing is ugly as sin...
HDMI is kind of nice though.
I wonder how long till HuLu is broken on this too...
Hulu needs to get their head out of their ass and unblock the PS3 Web Browser
That's too much and it won't even play hulu in HD. You minuswhale build your own HTPC or buy a PS3
You need to come down in your pricing.
$400 covers ...
- cheap case
- Zotoc MB/Processor
- 2GB RAM
- 80GB Hard drive
That's a solid $100 at least for putting those 4 items together (about 10 minutes worth of work). Great board and good build. Just too expensive. Normally I wouldn't post but since you spanned your own site I feel compelled.
"..ten USB 2.0 ports...."
O RLY?
I think I'm in love...