2015-03-26, 14:07
Very new to the forum and to the world of Kodi/ XBMC in general so forgive me if I come off as a bit of a noob. I recently purchased a mini pc to use as my new HTPC from a Chinese supplier Hystou. When looking online for reviews and information on the company I found it really hard so I thought I would post one here for anyone thinking of purchasing off them.
Firstly the spec of the PC I bought is:
Size: 198x198x20mm
Intel Core i3-4010U CPU
8G RAM
60G SSD
1TB HDD
Wifi Bluetooth Gigabit Lan (Broadcom BCM43225HMB)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
Other: Fanless, pc uses heavy aluminium body as a heat sink.
Link: http://www.hystou.com/products/fanless-c...-1461.html (that’s the 8GB Ram version can’t find the 4GB)
I wanted to get a HTPC that still had the functionality of a desktop PC as my girlfriend and I needed to replace our broken home PC anyway. I also wanted to have at least 1tb of internal HDD storage as my external hard drives are almost full and didn’t want the headache of moving and deleting things again for a while. Performance as a desktop pc for browsing, MS office and some light weight gaming (AoE 1 and 2) work perfectly. When I first received the pc it had windows 7 ultimate but some drives were missing. I had to contact the sales person who then had to email them to me which is not ideal. They said it was because the download section of their site was down but I haven’t been able to access it for over 3 weeks now! This is one area that makes me a bit uneasy; but I do know all the different hardware that has been installed so going directly to the parts manufactures in the future should be ok.
Kodi works like a charm. Once I got the missing drivers installed I put Kodi on the SSD and it is really quick and responsive. I have had the pc for about 2-3 weeks now and finally have my set up just how I want it with all components working properly. In that time I have had no crashes or the loathed blue screens.
The pc comes with 4x3.0 USBs on the back and 2x2.0 USBs on the side which is more than enough for my uses; I have a wireless keyboard, IR receiver and 2 external HDD hooked up at the moment. One thing to note is that the USB ports are a bit annoying, the usb devices isn’t able to be inserted the full way and hangs out about 0.3cm than you would normally see. It doesn’t affect performance but it just looks a bit weird.
The seller at Hystou was really nice and answered all my questions; when I stated I was a bit uneasy about ordering from a company website so far away, she suggested placing an order through Aliexpress which allows for buyer protection and keeps all money in ESCRO until you say you are happy with the product. This cost me an extra $30US but feck it; it meant I was able to sleep a bit better until the product arrived.
One question I did not ask before I purchased was the spec of the wifi chip, I had presumed all new pc’s come with 5ghz compatible cards but nope. I don’t blame the supplier I just never specified what I wanted for this bit of hardware. They sell these pc’s barebones and you pick what you want in it (if anything). I could have easily got a better wifi chip if I had asked.
In total the mini pc cost me $397US dollars ($35 was for shipping and $30 for purchasing through Aliexpress) and I am happy with it.
Firstly the spec of the PC I bought is:
Size: 198x198x20mm
Intel Core i3-4010U CPU
8G RAM
60G SSD
1TB HDD
Wifi Bluetooth Gigabit Lan (Broadcom BCM43225HMB)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
Other: Fanless, pc uses heavy aluminium body as a heat sink.
Link: http://www.hystou.com/products/fanless-c...-1461.html (that’s the 8GB Ram version can’t find the 4GB)
I wanted to get a HTPC that still had the functionality of a desktop PC as my girlfriend and I needed to replace our broken home PC anyway. I also wanted to have at least 1tb of internal HDD storage as my external hard drives are almost full and didn’t want the headache of moving and deleting things again for a while. Performance as a desktop pc for browsing, MS office and some light weight gaming (AoE 1 and 2) work perfectly. When I first received the pc it had windows 7 ultimate but some drives were missing. I had to contact the sales person who then had to email them to me which is not ideal. They said it was because the download section of their site was down but I haven’t been able to access it for over 3 weeks now! This is one area that makes me a bit uneasy; but I do know all the different hardware that has been installed so going directly to the parts manufactures in the future should be ok.
Kodi works like a charm. Once I got the missing drivers installed I put Kodi on the SSD and it is really quick and responsive. I have had the pc for about 2-3 weeks now and finally have my set up just how I want it with all components working properly. In that time I have had no crashes or the loathed blue screens.
The pc comes with 4x3.0 USBs on the back and 2x2.0 USBs on the side which is more than enough for my uses; I have a wireless keyboard, IR receiver and 2 external HDD hooked up at the moment. One thing to note is that the USB ports are a bit annoying, the usb devices isn’t able to be inserted the full way and hangs out about 0.3cm than you would normally see. It doesn’t affect performance but it just looks a bit weird.
The seller at Hystou was really nice and answered all my questions; when I stated I was a bit uneasy about ordering from a company website so far away, she suggested placing an order through Aliexpress which allows for buyer protection and keeps all money in ESCRO until you say you are happy with the product. This cost me an extra $30US but feck it; it meant I was able to sleep a bit better until the product arrived.
One question I did not ask before I purchased was the spec of the wifi chip, I had presumed all new pc’s come with 5ghz compatible cards but nope. I don’t blame the supplier I just never specified what I wanted for this bit of hardware. They sell these pc’s barebones and you pick what you want in it (if anything). I could have easily got a better wifi chip if I had asked.
In total the mini pc cost me $397US dollars ($35 was for shipping and $30 for purchasing through Aliexpress) and I am happy with it.
