First Time Mini pc Living abroad

[Taylorakis]

I've been going round in circles, wanting to purchase a mini-pc for the living room, mainly to hook up to the TV - simple tasks, streaming TV, video, music. I live abroad on Crete. Have been considering Asus and Acer models, but uncertain then I alighted on your site. I'm very impressed and looking to order the following:

Intel® Atom™ Dual Core Processor D525 (1.8GHz) 667MHz FSB/1MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® AT5IONT-I: NVIDIA® ION™, HDMI 1080P, USB 3.0

Memory (RAM)
2GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 2GB)

Graphics Card
Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M mGPU + HDMI & DX10 Support

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC, MS)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
WIRELESS-N (150Mbps) 3dBi HIGH GAIN USB ADAPTER

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Bluetooth & Infrared Options
NONE

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

Stand-Alone Monitor
NONE

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
NONE

External Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Notebook Mouse
NONE

External Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
NONE

Printer
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Data Recovery
NONE

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days

Quantity


1

I think this will fit the bill, but a few questions

- is this the fanless model? The quieter the better as I do listen to classical music via Naxos Music Library and BBC.
- am I right to be ordering the Wireless USB adapter? The router is upstairs in the office.
- and practically if I order now is the PC likely to be ready for the weekend March 5/6 when I'm back in England.

Any other advice appreciated and apologies if this is an inappropriate way of getting in touch.

 

[Taylorakis]

I'm too long in the tooth to take offence . Indeed I can see from a computer buff's perspective my post is disinteresting and not that appropriate. I have posted my query directly by e-mail, but all to no avail. From trawling the forums it is clear that the company is under pressure. And my prevarication has not helped. All of which means that I'll have to make do and mend with a mass produced product from Asus or Acer.

Whatever best wishes - just a tad disappointed with the lack of response.

 

[PCS]

My apologies that you did not receive a response before now, even though my response is too late. Our forums are not an official channel for support, the easiest and quickest way to get in touch is through our call centre on 0844 499 4000. Your post is not dis-interesting, but most of our members and moderators focus their attention on the gaming/desktops side and as they do not work for PC Specialist we cannot enforce a reply to posts.

To anwser your questions:

1. This is the fanless model, 100% silent.

2. You should order a wireless USB adapter should you wish to connect wirelessly to your router. I would also recommend you consider homeplug should the signal be weak: http://www.homeplug.org/tech

3. Given your circumstances we could ensure the order is ready for you for the weekend of March 5th/6th.

If we can help you any further, please do not hesitate to get in touch were we will respond much quicker than our first attempt.

 

[Taylorakis]

Thanks for getting in touch

Cheers. I did see that the Forum was inappropriate so I e-mailed enquiries belatedly on the !4th. Much of the fault is mine. I will chase your offer immediately.

Thanks - much appreciated.

Tony

 

[PCS]

No problem, if I can help you any further please just ask.

 

[Taylorakis]

Homeplug

Further to your advice and having chatted to Paul I have ordered the mini-PC as outlined. I found a Homeplug device under Network Accessories, but then realised I am a bit uncertain about how the system works - so at the moment I've not added it. Being a bit of a Luddite I was a bit flummoxed by the Homeplug site.

Any advice appreciated.

And at the risk of being neurotic, after I pressed the payment button, the next page appears as a blank. Is that normal? sorry to be a pain.

 

[Meds]

Home plug basically uses the electrical wiring in your house to carry data. More information can be seen here. I think that PCS actually uses these at home so hopefully he can pop on to explain it in more detail

 

[Taylorakis]

Home plug

The penny has dropped so thanks for the useful link. This alternative to wireless does look very interesting, especially as reliability of the signal is pretty crucial to my wife watching streamed TV from the UK. In fact, given often problems with the infrastructure here on Crete we do pretty well - having an ADSL theoretical speed of 2.50Mb and an actual that varies between 1.50 to 2.00 Mb, sometimes worse or better at the low/high points. Thinking about it if we tried Homeplug we're better off I presume with a 2-pin Europlug, presuming that the idiosyncrasies of Greek wiring don't defeat the whole idea! Just to say up to now we have had a laptop downstairs connected by HDMI to the TV, but it's needed for its proper purpose.
Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Pete]

You can get the 85mbps homplugs for around £15 and the 200mbps for < £40. For streaming video best to go with the latter.

contrary to popular belief, you can use them on different ring mains, they have to be on the same phase that enters the house though. I don't know anything about having them through a country converter however.

so you should be good with cat cable from router -- homeplug ------ homeplug -- media pc.

 

[Taylorakis]

Ta for the info. Very tempted, but wondering whether to go with wireless initially. I could always switch to Home plugs if not satisfied. Will do a bit of pondering.

 

[Sleinous]

Id suggest a 32 or 64mb cached harddrive here especially for a media pc, wd1002faex springs to mind!

 

[Taylorakis]

Thanks for the pieces of advice and particularly drawing my attention to the Homeplugs system, which in my ignorance I knew nothing about. Given the limited number of sockets in our house - Greece is infamous for the plethora of extension leads in most buildings - if I go for it, I would need to purchase two of the Solwise Piggy 6 units to provide for the various bits of hardware at both ends, surge protection, filtering etc. This will cost 120 quid plus, but could be well worth it in the long run. Cheers.