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XTreamer Ultra Review

Good day to all who read. A month has passed since XTreamer Ultra came to me from across the ocean. Ultra is a top HTPC from XTreamer. Positioned as a full-fledged computer on which you can install multiple operating systems and use it to fit your needs. In my first article on habrahabr, I decided to share with you the experience of buying and using, as well as my impressions and conclusions.




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Specifications


Contents of delivery


Purchase

Price: 400 dollars (+25 WiFi antenna, +55 delivery to Russia). Of course, it is expensive, but fortunately, my wallet did not pay all that amount.
Ordered through ebay . 6 numbers paid via PayPal, 20 numbers already received a parcel in the mail. Total two weeks. The following is the tracking package: But what came to me in the mail:



Unpacking

Box: And inside it: Xtreamer itself: Mini keyboard and its receiver with mini-usb charging cable:
By the way, it was defined without problems in debian'e (I did not try it in win7) and it works like a full-fledged keyboard!
Remote controller: Flash drive and WiFi (purchased separately): Hdmi cable from the kit and power supply: Again: And behind:



First impressions

When booting from a USB flash drive, the system loads for a long time, and a tangible response to your actions will make you think about installing hdd. In addition, the remote had to aim directly at the body, because otherwise he did not catch the signal. Fortunately, after the flashing this problem disappeared.


Available systems

Good screenshots of the following 3 systems can be viewed here .

Boxee
Could not start, I do not know why. On the n + 1 attempt, I already stopped trying.

Xbmc
XBMC is just lovely, everything is neat and very convenient. Most of all I liked it. To her, we will return.

Ultra OS (Everest)
Essentially, Everest is an Ubuntu build. Since I moved from Windows to Ubuntu, from Ubuntu to Debian, and from him to Arch, I was not surprised at anything, but I took it with calm soul and let it pass by. Unless he groaned when running the Last.fm label hoping to see the native cutout application, and got just a page in the browser. We made a taxbar on the left and added links to web pages, nothing special. Personally, I didn’t like this OS.

Freenas
I did not even run FreeNAS . Under NAS , I have a Netgear 3500L with Tomato firmware.

Windows 7
Win7 can be installed on the system. There are all configured drivers for it. I did not try to install, because I do not feel the need, and most importantly - the desire.

Openelec
Openelec is a Linux distribution that is designed for media centers. It differs from other distributions by its small size, high speed of work. Openelec is not a program, but a full-featured system, customized for specific needs. Openelec has many advantages:


Flashing

The speed of the OS can be greatly increased if you install it on the internal HDD. I immediately decided to put openelec. Installation instructions are here , you need only 5 minutes of time, one flash drive (or hard drive), and also one straight arm. First, I installed the system on a USB flash drive, but later on hdd, which I put inside.
Top without cover: The lid itself and 2.5 "hdd:



Using

Quickly works, reads and plays all that podsunesh. View the full list of supported formats on wiki.xbmc . Brakes when watching movies was not observed. FullHD turns without problems. It is worth noting that the mini keyboard will allow you to get full access to all the functions of the system, while using the remote control you cannot perform some actions, for example, the context menu for the file through the remote still remains for me unsolved mystery.

With the light of a recent topic, which refers to an annoying bright blue light :
Red front light:
Remote control with phosphor buttons in the dark:
Backlit Keyboard:


Noise

The body is made of aluminum. That in itself, together with the relief of the plates provides a sufficient level of cooling. The site states that inside a hybrid passive and active cooling system with a noise level of 24dBA. It does not make much noise, no discomfort is experienced during its operation. Unless only when the system is idle (i.e. when video or audio is not playing), a strange squeak is observed. When you start playback, it disappears. Need to pick settings.
The hard disk in the process of use is heated well enough, not to say that it overheats. It is a question of its temperature, but I don’t know how to measure it yet.

Total

Minuses:
Pros:
More about Xtreamer Ultra:

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/129805/

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