Arctic is now selling a small form-factor desktop computer with an Intel Atom processor, AMD Radeon HD graphics, and a Linux-based operating system designed to support the XBMC Media Center application.
In other words, for $229 you can pick up a low-power computer with an open source media center, the hardware to handle high-definition video, and a fanless design which allows for silent operation
The Arctic MC001-XBMC ships with OpenELEC 3.0 and XBMC 12 software. You can plug the device into a television and use a wireless infrared remote to control media playback.
Under the hood is a 1.8 GHz Intel Atom D525 processor and Radeon HD 5430 graphics with 512MB of memory.
The PC has 2GB of RAM and a 1TB, 5400RPM hard drive for storing your music, movies, and other content. It features 802.11n WiFi and gigabit Ethernet.
The MC001-XBMC Â has HDMI, VGA, SPDIF, and Ethernet ports, 5 USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, a flash card reader, and an IR receiver on the front for use with the wireless remote.
There’s also a 24x DVD-RW drive.
If you want to watch or record live TV you’ll need to add an optional DVB-T/ATSC tuner – although I don’t actually see an option do to that at the Arctic website.
While the Atom D525 isn’t exactly a powerful processor for general-purpose desktop computing, when paired with the Radeon graphics this little laptop should make a pretty decent media center.
The XBMC 12 media center software makes the computer a pretty nifty TV companion, allowing you to handle audio, video, and photo content from your hard drive, local network, or the internet. And if you’re a fan of open source software, the fact that the MC001-XBMC ships with OpenELEC 3.0 rather than Windows has got to be a nice bonus (and it also helps keep the price of this media PC relatively low.
via FanlessTech
Note full open source as hd gpu décode needs the binary amd driver
I love it that the XBox came out as PC hardware adapted to serve as a game console, XBMC came out as software to turn that hardware into a media player, and now we have multiple hardware designs where the benchmark is how well do they run XBMC.
Also, why does the headline say $299 and the article (and the web site) say $229?
Because I’m a sloppy typist. 🙂
Wonder why they went with the atom, ATI combo, when the e-350 and e-450 from AMD would have worked just as well, and would have used less power and less chips. There are several of these boxes out there for alot less.
I can’t say with certainty that this Atom/AMD combo works perfectly, but AMD E-350 and E-450 chips have known issues with Netflix and some other sites which could affect their utility as media center PC chips.