[solamnic]

I get the feeling that there were a lot of 'broken' units. Not everything can be 100% but I have seen many issues with these things being reported on other forums. Not that it isn't a great unit when it works, but lots of DOA and units that simply 'break' after a short amount of usage.
Owners still love them and get working units that have, so far last, but seems like one could run into a lot of hassle if one were to get a 'lemon'
I was close to getting one but seeing that the company behind them seems to be 'liquidating' them and are moving to bigger and better things, even a $99 barebone might not be worth it if you get something that simply will not work.
If Arctic could assure me they would fix any problems and pay shipping both ways if need be, it might be worth it.

Don't get the wrong idea...
People with problems tend to report to forums ...

[p750mmx]

To me it is like you placed it up-side down, if one would place it horizontal the alu side should be facing up, not down. Not just only for better heat loss but owners with an optical in it, this position will cause the disk to drop out, if one could get a disk in in the first place. The stand still attached looks a bit strange, even if there is a reason to let it where it is

Since there is no top and bottom its up to interpretation, however if using optical ( wont do it anyways) I see your point. The silver half is where the memory and gpu if im correct, the black side is where the optical , hd caddy are.

Without the pedestal stand, you see ugly unfinished side. Its just a choice, works ok in this situation. If it were sitting stand along it wouldn't be there i suppose.

Well, there is a top and a bottom, Arctic states that the unit should only be placed and used in the vertical position. They put that in the documentation that comes with the MC001. Besides that, the alu side gets a lot warmer (CPU/GPU side) then the plastic side so which side should be up if one won't place is vertical seems obvious but hey, everyone is free to do what one wants to do with it. It's your party

[voochi]

Don't get the wrong idea...
People with problems tend to report to forums ...

How many DOA reports did you see on forums for Acer Revo? Or Zotac Zbox?

There is way more reports of hardware problems for this device than is normal. I assume it is related to the low price, or vice versa.

[PatrickVogeli]

About DOAs and units that fail after a short time, take that with a grain of salt, I think lots of people ware getting this because they're so cheap, yet lots of them.are certainly no experienced user and/or pc builders, and we can't be sure if they are really DOA or people not knowing how to set them.or troubleshoot a specific problem. Sometimes people come here and moan how bad a unit works (any unit, not only Arctic ones) only to find out they didn't enable Hw accel.. how many of those have been semt back as doa?

About units failing.. this unit should be a little picky about placement. People should place it vertically and in an open space.. how many are puting it horizontaly and/or in a cabinet wit bad ventilation?

[solamnic]

Don't get the wrong idea...
People with problems tend to report to forums ...

How many DOA reports did you see on forums for Acer Revo? Or Zotac Zbox?

There is way more reports of hardware problems for this device than is normal. I assume it is related to the low price, or vice versa.

Cant comment on that because i havent been interested on Revo or Zbox..

Also dont forget that those Arctic models some months ago were pretty expensive..

Nevertheless its a matter of personal choice whether someone trusts a specific product or not...

[VishnuG]

Thanks NC88KEYZ. I have ordered the crucial 4gb stick and a replacement mc001. Waiting... Will post here how it goes.

On the topic of remotes I have a HP Media remote
http://www.amazon.com/HP-Infrared-Receiv...dia+remote

Will this work with the mc001's built in ir receiver?

[nc88keyz]

Thanks NC88KEYZ. I have ordered the crucial 4gb stick and a replacement mc001. Waiting... Will post here how it goes.

On the topic of remotes I have a HP Media remote
http://www.amazon.com/HP-Infrared-Receiv...dia+remote

Will this work with the mc001's built in ir receiver?

That crucial stick at Officemax is a good price if you can deal with their painful delivery time. I did the first time, second time i was placing prime order at amazon so just paid a few dollars more.


Someone posted above issues because of the position of the box. There is several users on here using it in the horizontal position, some maybe even without elevation footings. Not sure and wont point fingers, but I'm darn happy with the first three. The only issue im having is with power on with ir remote, I guess the Measy RC-11 just doesnt do it, only power off. So that leaves me with choice of Harmony or WOL. I have some older harmony 880s i could implement into the set up, but I kinda like the measy for keyboard, and i tend to always have my smart phone on me...and my gosh I can get up and hit that little power button as well.

crossing fingers amazon one comes in working good like the last 3.

[Stacman]

I received the MC001-N Barebones the other day and loaded OpenElec with my waiting USB installer. I played with it for most of the evening, and found that it kept freezing and closing quite often. A few more installs to an SD card didn't change anything. Since they've partnered with the OpenElec folks I didn't expect there would be many problems. It could've been because they provided a windows based drivers disc (there is no drive), and nothing else. I made short work of that experiment and pulled the SD Card to load Windows 7 and all the drivers (you definitely need the accelerated graphics). I didn't want to have to run Windows 7 since it's such a space and resource hog (this load w/SP1 used up 30GB of my spare 60GB SATA Drive), but everything is working much better. Only some problems with typical addon issues and script errors.

Oh, and I haven't done any heavy streaming (forget about streaming any 1080P), but it does heat up pretty well. I'm not expecting a very long life expectancy, but it was cheaper than most, so it'll be a small sacrifice before moving on to something else.

[PatrickVogeli]

have you tried installing openelec to the sata drive?

[Stacman]

have you tried installing openelec to the sata drive?

The sata drive was mine, so it wouldn't have made a difference either way, although it may have been a little more stable. Still no drivers.

[nc88keyz]

I received the MC001-N Barebones the other day and loaded OpenElec with my waiting USB installer. I played with it for most of the evening, and found that it kept freezing and closing quite often. A few more installs to an SD card didn't change anything. Since they've partnered with the OpenElec folks I didn't expect there would be many problems. It could've been because they provided a windows based drivers disc (there is no drive), and nothing else. I made short work of that experiment and pulled the SD Card to load Windows 7 and all the drivers (you definitely need the accelerated graphics). I didn't want to have to run Windows 7 since it's such a space and resource hog (this load w/SP1 used up 30GB of my spare 60GB SATA Drive), but everything is working much better. Only some problems with typical addon issues and script errors.

Oh, and I haven't done any heavy streaming (forget about streaming any 1080P), but it does heat up pretty well. I'm not expecting a very long life expectancy, but it was cheaper than most, so it'll be a small sacrifice before moving on to something else.

Something is wrong, I can stream 1080p with DTS-HD encoding over gigabit lan, without any hickups, The only thing that studders is when i use opensubtitles plug in while movie is playing. I am running off a high speed sony SD card.

UH-1 compatible class 10, and sandisk 16gb ultra class 10 cards. Openelec is very smooth in this setup. Streaming from old ass WHS server that fans. I have an 80gb ssd installed too, but havent bothered to set up windows yet at all. Just stuck it in there for when the time / if it comes for bedroom. I kinda like the openelec experience better than windows xbmc. Well I hope you can get it all figured out but you should be having as many issues that you mention. specially with openelec. 3.0

[p750mmx]

The sata drive was mine, so it wouldn't have made a difference either way, although it may have been a little more stable. Still no drivers.

What are you talking about? Drivers for what? Do you think that your very fresh experience with XBMC could be a possible cause for your "problems" also?

[Stacman]

:|

[p750mmx]

:|

I've seen your original response I know now where the problem really sits. Not in the MC001

[Prisc5idins]

The only reason would be to have Netflix on it as well.