Many of you have been waiting for a full tilt review of an Acer Aspire Revo 3610 Atom ION 330. Well, here it is. Possibly the first one on the Internet with this level of detail. It’s taken a week of use to get the full impression of it’s power and abilities and this review should leave no doubt! So, here goes.
Some of you may already know that I’ve been on a quest for the ultimate “cut the cable” solution and save $70 + a month on crappy cable service with bloatware content. Well, it’s been a year now and I’ve looked at a lot of software, desktops, NAS items and network media players. I’ve run different programs on Windows and Xboxes too, like XBMC and Boxee. Both of which I love! But none of those items were yet able to give my family a complete media experience. So, what is that experience? None of those devices or media center programs offers BOTH network share (music, video, pictures) and complete Internet content. Though Boxee comes closest, and their new improved Boxee Beta arrives December 7,2009, but it still falls very short of fulfilling my needs with regard to Internet content. That will change over time as media companies embrace Boxee and alliances are forged with media and hardware developers, but that’s a whole other post.
Also, with so many media formats like; Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta, HD, h.264 .mkv, AVI, MOV, mpg4 and Blue Ray, there is nothing yet available with the ability and power to play such a wide diversity of content. Plus, Boxee & XBMC do not provide an browser to view Internet content as well as surf the Internet from your couch. Ultimately, I kept returning to a HTPC with Windows as the only solution. And that’s where the Acer Revo 3610 with Windows-7 64bit comes in! Oh, I can hear the Linux and Mac people just wincing and building up steam. You guys can get the same thing too, so if that’s your flavor go for it. But this is a Windows thing happening here. So, lets get down to business.
What’s Inside?
The Acer Revo 3610 Atom Ion boasts the Intel Atom 330 dual core 1.66 GHz processor, Nvidia Ion GPU that supports full 1080P via an HDMI cable and 5.1 surround sound. Comes with Windows-7 64bit Home Premium installed. Wow, that’s a lot going on there and all for $330.00 USD!
Operating System- Windows® 7 Home Premium
Processor- Intel Atom Processor N330 (1MB L2 cache, 1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB)
Chipset- NVIDIA ION
Memory- 2GB (1/1) DDR2 800 SDRAM installed in two of two memory slots
User upgradeable up to 4GB (one 2GB memory card in each slot)* subject to availability of 2GB card
Storage- 160GB* SATA hard drive, 5400RPM, Multi-in-one card reader supports optional Memory Stick®, MultiMediaCard™, Secure Digital or xD-Picture Card™
Video- NVIDIA® ION™ graphics VGA and HDMI™ (High-Definition Multimedia Interface™) ports
Audio- High-definition audio support Two external USB speakers Headphone and microphone ports
Interface Ports- RJ-45 LAN VGA DC-in Headphones Microphone HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface™) eSATA Optical SPDIF Six USB 2.0 (two front, four back)
Card Slot- Multi-in-one card reader supports optional Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital or xD-Picture Card
Communication- Gigabit LAN, wake-on-LAN ready802.11b/g/Draft-N WLAN
Expansion Slot- One PCI Express® Mini
Dimensions- 7.1″ (180.0mm) W x 7.1″ (180.0mm) D x 1.2″ (30.0mm) H without bezel
User Interface- Wireless keyboard and mouse- Included
Power- 65W AC adapter with power cord
Compliance- Energy Star® 5.0PC2001
Security Feature- Kensington® lock slot
Warranty-One-year limited warranty*
Included Software- Acer® Arcade Deluxe, Acer® eRecovery Management, Adobe® Acrobat® Reader, eSobi™ *, McAfee® Internet Security Suite (trial version), Microsoft® Works 8.5 (full version), Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2007 (60-day trial), MyWinLocker®, Nero® 9 Essentials* ,Oberon Gamezone*.*OEM, not full-featured, version.
The Atom Dual Core 330 1.66 GHz processor does not consume a lot of power at all yet has enough oomph to push up to 1080p Blue Ray HD content with ease courtesy of its close integration ION GPU that supports graphics acceleration and offloading. The Intel Atom & ION is a single mobo unit that incorporates the use of NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M chipset. All this provides a low power consuming, high end video device in a tiny package! The unit is, dare I say it, silent! Even while viewing 1080P content, when the fan is throttled up I have to put my ear up to it in order to hear a whisper of sound. Unlike competitors such as the AsRock 330, which is somewhat audible at 26+dB. Also, the unit is cold to the touch at idle and barely gets warm to the touch when under heavy use.
There’s MORE on pages 2-3!
Hello,
Thanks for the comprehensive review! It helped me decide that this was the way to go for a new HTPC for me.
I wanted to mention that CDW appears to have the Revo R3610-U9012 (version w/out the VESA mount) in stock.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=1910349
The pricing seems competitive with Newegg: $329 retail.
CDW does not seem to have the new version (AR3610-U9022) yet.
Thanks again!
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the kudos on the review and the tip on CDW! Let us know how your Revo works out for you.
FYI… http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi?action=enter&thispage=01000000U011_BCJ7058P.shtml&order_id=!ORDERID! Looks like the new model is incoming!
A minor question – could my my Revo have a system battery issue? I find I have to reset the clock every every other day! This morning it was 12 hours out…
Is it easy to do?
Otherwise everything is still perfect.
Howard
Not so sure about that orderid.. I saw it days ago and noticed it had dvdrw in the description.
Anyways, I have a budget of about $500, so I’ve been looking into building my own rig, and have come up with some awesome ones while staying in budget.
The power of the rigs outdo the Revo’s by far… But you know, I LOVE the form factor of the Revo… Main reason why I would get one over building my own.
.-= Nathan´s last blog ..Mechanic =-.
Howard,
Yes, if the time is resetting, it could be the battery. Are you powering it off?
I’ve not taken mine appart yet, but the battery is located on the motherboard. It is tricky to get the side off the revo and snap it back on. I saw a vid on Youtube to change the ram and they show how to open the thing.
Nathan,
Sure, we can all buy or build a box that “out powers” the Revo. But the point of the Revo is the power it does have vs. cost vs. power consumption. Which, for me is where it’s at. Revo has what I wanted without spending $500+. There isn’t anything I can’t watch on it. Sure, with a small 1.66 ghz dual core, it’s not the fastest mulit tasking…video ripping…..photoshopping rig. But that’s not what I need it to do.
It comes down to ones needs and expectations and then find the right rig with the right skill set to match those expectations. For me it’s the Revo. 
Though, I’m looking at the Dell Zino HD with best vid and 3gb ram for about $450….gonna put it in the office as the main rig. Same thing though, small size, power, cost and power consumption. Hell, really the only thing it offers additionally for the extra $100 is a DVD ripper/player. Not so sure that’s a good deal either over another Revo.
Get another Revo… I have not been impressed with the Zino. I have been impressed with the Revo dual core. I was at first concerned with power consumption and saving some bucks… Which you can still do with the dual core or quad core low power processors… The video cards are the power hungry ones now.
For instance you can get a 2.8 ghz 65 Watt intel dual core for $117, and an excellent mobo for $139… You’d already out power the Zino with that.. (the 139 mobo is a mini itx form… tiny!!) Look up Zotac 9300 if you aren’t aware of it already.
There are excellent dvd drives for $30 on Newegg as well, and Ram prices are up right now, but catch a good deal on it somewhere. If you have spare Hds, then you don’t have to worry about a new one, even though there is a nice sata for $47.00 on newegg (320 gb).
My setup including case and power supply came out to $497. I’ll be able to upgrade the video card if I choose to do so later on as well. Note: I didn’t include a dvd burner in my setup, since I have many spares laying around already.
Needless to say, I’ve done A LOT of researching, and was going to stick with the Revo or similar Ion based platform, but I have worried too much about not being able to do what I need it to do without being sluggish.
.-= Nathan´s last blog ..Mechanic =-.
Yup, battery goes down only if I power off completely at the mains supply.. if I switch off via windows and do NOT switch off the power supply time stays OK. I’ll check that you tube out.
Hi Paul, Just to confirm – does the Revo support 5.1 through the HDMI cable to the AV receiver?
Justin,
It is supposed to. I have not tried it myself and is one of the last things I’ve not tested. But I can test it with a friends’ receiver over the holiday. I KNOW it does with the SPDIF connection.
Howard,
Aargh, that sucks. Brand new and have to put a new mobo battery in. Yeah, if it does not keep time after a total power down, then yes, it’s the battery.
The cheaper Linux version is NOW within my price range, BUT, I travel a lot, and where I stay, currently, Brazil, vast MAJORITY of TV’s still use traditional ‘Composite’ connection. So for many, this is a major omission for a Media Streamer. Can you advise me on a compact, cheap adapter to convert the o/p of the Revo3610L to ‘composite’ and show the Revo o/p (converted down if need be, to SD) on 525/625 line TVs ?
Also, I see the Acer Power spec is 65 Watts. I thought the concept of Atom+ION was much LOWER power than Notebooks. If that 7x7inch box dissipates 65W it will be v. hot. Have you a truer figure ? Acer website doesn’t say if the adapter is a ‘Universal’ 90-240V. Do you know ? Many thanks for your excellent review & viewpoints on media streamers
Leon,
Since you emailed me before I approved this post, I sent your answer in a reply email.
so I bought this and my friend thinks I should just buy a ps3 any thoughts ?? I am only looking to stream tv from netflix. Also I bought a protection plan for $75 for 3 years i think its worth it since the thing is so small fixing it may become expensive.
-Amar
Either a Revo or a PS3 is overkill if all you want to do is play Netflix. Question is which one would you use more? A PC or a Game Console?
Extended warranties are not usually worth the money. The unit is already covered by a one year MFG warranty and most PC’s last 4-7 years anyway. The small size is its simplicity really. The side pops off and everything is right there. Takes only a few minutes to take apart and all the parts are fairly common. But it’s always up to the buyer when it comes to warranties.
FYI CDW now has the new version listed, 1-3 days, http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1954194
Homer
cdw.com keeps going between “call” up to “5-8 days” … I believe this just means they don’t have it yet. check around – there are people who cancelled cdw orders because they just kept pushing the ship date back.
It’s instock at ecost. I ordered on Monday and UPS has the delivery expecting it the following Wednesday with ground shipping.
http://www.ecost.com/Detail.aspx?edp=53373433
So it has actually shipped? let us know how it goes!
Paul-
Can you please comment on the performance of the wireless keyboard? My TV is 8-10 feet from the couch. Will that work OK? BTW, thanks for the great review.
Hey Paul.
Oh yes, that keyboard and mouse will work fine. I’m 9 ft back from my unit and it works fine. I’ve not tested to see just how far it’s max range is, but you’re safe at 8-10 ft
Thanks for the complement on the review! More to come…..
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just wondering if anyone has actually gotten one of these shipped from cdw recently? Can’t figure out if they actually have some to ship, or just keep adjusting the ship date out…
OK, I’m starting to convert media to put on a server for my ION based TV viewing. Question: which format(s) will benefit from the ION’s hardware acceleration other than Flash and what programs are implementing support?
Homer
I ordered one Saturday from CDW. I just got notified it’s back-ordered until 2/2/2010. eCost is out of stock as well. Amazon shows it as “available for pre-order” with no firm date. As far as I can tell, no one has these at the moment. Has anyone found one in the last couple of days?
@Kaz, I talked to my CDW rep and he said that they were expecting a shipment of 50 Revo 3610′s on January 12th. Hopefully that is correct!
@Homer, to the best of my knowledge, the ION video hardware has the capability to decode video encoded in H.264 format. However, as we have seen with Flash, the application has to be written to hand-off the decoding to the video hardware instead of the main CPU. Can anyone else comment on this? Will applications like iTunes be accelerated? How about content from ABC.com that uses the Move Networks player? (that doesn’t use H.264, but maybe it could be accelerated anyway).
Brian,
1-With Acer changing the part number on the 3610, there will be a lag to when retailers will actually get it. Would not surprise me if they are getting trickles of shipments in to cover the huge back orders. So, first order, get first shipped. Hard to say without pinning down CDW, NewEgg or whoever is offering them for sale now.
2-The first step is the hardware. ION has it. Second step is the player like VLC or MPC-HD or Windows MPlayer or Boxee Beta etc. Maybe dozens of others. IE8 and FFox supports it. The third are the formats and the drivers for the formats—-HD & H.264 needs DirectX, Flash requires the Flash Beta 10.1 1p or 2p (NO other -older Flash driver supports acceleration but 10.1 and higher!), Silverlight 3 supports it, Move Networks supports it. ( I feel a dedicated GPU acceleration post coming on….)
Does iTunes video get accelerated? Is iTunes code written to offload to the Ion GPU? I don’t know as I stopped using anything iTunes due to DRM protection! If someone with an Ion tests it, post your results here.
Homer and Brian,
Ion supports all video formats of acceleration.
They include: Flash 10.1 Beta 1p or the newer and not so good 10.1 2p (Hulu Desktop or browser, NBC, YouTube etc), Silverlight 3 (netflix), DirectX (HD and H.264, AVI, MOV, MP4 etc), Move Network Plug-In (ABC, CBS, FX, Fox, WB. One install covers them all). These ALL play in IE-7 and IE-8 and FireFox browsers. Oh, and this includes ISO DVD rips, TS-Vob, DVD’s, AVI, MPEG, etc. Just use Boxee Beta or MPC-HC or Windows Movie Player or any other player that supports acceleration.
So, install your drivers to get all this to work: Latest DirectX, Flash 10.1 beta, Silverlight, Move Networks. And get your player ready–I suggest MPC-HC 64.
This should clear things up.
BTW-Many Ion users are finding that the first Flash Beta 10.1 1P works better and has lower CPU usage. Since it is no longer posted on the Adobe site, I have the zip files loaded on my blog.
@Tim – where did you see it on Amazon?
Amazon has them in stock now. Just ordered mine…
I saw them at amazon.com available for pre-order but now can’t find them on amazon at all. Kaz, can you post a link please?
@Kaz – I found the amazon link and ordered. I couldn’t find it by searching but I pulled it out of my browsing history. I’m canceling my order at CDW. CDW now shows a 2/22/2010 ship date.
Glad you found it.. my just shipped today. now I just need to decide the following (advice appreciated):
1 TB or 500 GB drive? (local or networked)
Which media center remote?
Upgrade wireless network to 11n? or just move router down near TV and use ethernet?
My plan is to take my pilot 1600 and attach 2 x 1TB drives with one as primary (eSATA) and have 2nd (USB) as nightly backup. Then put this wired on my router as a media server. Each TV will then get a 3610 with on-board N wireless. As part of my pilot, I tried the xBox 360 with G wireless and it was not quite fast enough for HD. For cost, move it down for now. Watch for a decent N router to come on sale and then switch it out. YMMV
Homer,
Are you installing WHS on the 1600 or leaving Win-7 or XP on it? I’m thinking of retireing my home built WHS OEM and buy an HP media smart WHS box. Need something a little more energy efficient than my older WHS rig and swap my 4 TB of WD-Green storage over to it.
The wireless N cards on the Revos is a notebook card with no antennae, so the reception is not that great over long distances and through many walls. Your mileage may vary. Technically, G is enough for HD. But many do not get any wireless to work well let alone wireless HD. Since N is technically “overkill,” it may give you enough margin to overcome any shortcomings in the network. I was fortunate that my house was easy to wire with Cat-5 & Cat-6. I could not take the wifi game any longer. Hope it works out. Keep us posted.
Sounds like my best bet is moving the cable modem and router down near where I will have the revo and using a wired connection. I do most of my surfing downstairs, anyhow.
sounds like I am gonna need a powerstrip with more plugs!
@Paul: I was thinking of leaving it as Win 7 Home Premium. I tried to get to it for remote desktop from my Ultimate system, no go. I’m thinking it is either a firewall thing or a permissions thing. Have fire up my searchfu on Google…
The picture you show has two leads connected to the card and antennae in two roughly opposite sides. So it does have internal antennae. That is the same config as an internal card in a laptop. It helped with the card I tried but that card had issues with my router so back it went for a USB dongle. It works fine.
That is my thought on the wireless as well. I also took the step of separating the G traffic from the N traffic. Now the primary router is N only and does all of the DDNS stuff and goes outside. The secondary router, my old G one is back in service as G only to handle that traffic and is serving as a switch only for the G traffic. That bumped my laptop up considerably, DD-WRT notes it as 78 – 107 on the 2nd floor with the routers in the basement.
I have to bump it to at least Pro for it to act as a host.
Homer
@Tim – where does your order stand? Mine seems stuck on ups saying it has received the shipping info…
Picked up a 3610-9022 at Fry’s today for $300.
Brian,
Glad to hear you nabbed one! The older model without the VESA stand seems to be straggling into some of the retailers! Go get ‘em.
I’m working on configuring my 2 from Amazon now. The 1600 is up and running with W7Pro and a 1TB external (eSATA) as a server. Now if they would just release Boxee to the masses…
Homer,
Glad to hear you got your revos!
You know, I’m a Super Mod at the Boxee forums for team Boxee. The Boxee Beta was released to the masses on Jan 7th.
I emailed you the same info and the link to register and down load Boxee Beta.
Paul
Thanks! I knew you are a super at boxee… sort of why I mentioned it
I got the beta now, will fire it up. I had registered but didn’t see a “come and get it” e-mail.
BTW Good news, they both came with VESA brackets. Bad news, the TV I want to mount it on has a larger VESA set of holes. So, does anyone know of an adapter to mount on the back that will permit using the smaller one?
Homer,
Oh, IC now.
Oh, btw, make sure you hit this link in the Boxee Beta site. Me and Agentlame whipped up an announcement thread to get people started with issues and fixes.
I posted all the info for Windows updates, plug ins, add ins and driver updates. Be sure to install all the stuff I have posted for Windows! Both topics in bold:
Stuttering video while watching Flash, Silverlight (NetFlix) or DirectX Based Content in Boxee Beta
and
Video won’t play when viewing Network TV Shows in Boxee Beta- I.E. Fox, CBS and ABC. Requires the Move Networks Plug-in to play
http://forum.boxee.tv/announcement.php?f=21
Second, You should install the Flash 10.1 1p beta and not the newer 10.1 2p. The 1p performs better and is no longer available at the Adobe site. I posted a mega zip pack on my site and it’s helped a ton of people get their revo whipped back into shape!
http://www.pauljroberts.com/flash-beta-10-1-1p-files-for-revo-ion
No, I’ve no idea on Vesa mounting and such. Total newb at that
Hello to Everybody,
It seems that the 3610 greatly does its job at video/audio play back. I would like to know if any of you have clear idea about how the box behaves in tasks like “word processing + spread sheeting + power pointing”. I would like also to install in the box a VNC server and APACHE+JBOSS for a WIKI server.
I work in my home office, and basically I would like to have the 3610 for video/audio purposes, but also use it abit as a “slim server” to serve 1-2 clients.
Thanks,
Omar.-
does the wireless keyboard and mouse on this use RF? does that mean if I get a remote that does IR and RF, I don’t need to buy an IR reciever?
Omar,
The 3610 dual core revo works well with spreadsheets and word etc. I dooooon’t know that I’d want to run an apache server on it and a a wiki. I have another one I use for my home office, but I would not do that with it.
You could try it out, but I cannot confirm that the performance would be what you expect. I’d put Windows Home Server on it for that duty, but not a web server.
Kaz,
No and no.