ASRock Vision 3D HTPC... interesting. - Page 3

If the price is reasonable I'm very interested in this. What kind of gaming can this thing do? I'm assuming not much given the laptop components but can it play games from 2 years ago at decent resolutions?

Defcon, look at Tomshardware http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...r-pc,2715.html

Here you can see the what's possible or not.

Isn't that for the Core 100 which was reviewed by other sites around 6 - 8 weeks back ?

Sorry you are right there Jakmal, but will it make a big difference? Ofcourse the video performance will be better (I hope), but cpu and chipset is the same.

The specs also indicate a 500G 7200 HDD and there isn't one listed as compatible on the site. This seems to be the biggest compromise for the device (minimal storage), other than not having a built in HDtuner card with only space for (I assuming) x2 Hdds you really need to be storing all your media file on a different PC/server/NAS.
It would also be good if it had an option or an RCA video out.

You always can use an external hardisk and/or an external tv-box to solve this and drop it behind this small box.

I have an engineering sample in hand Performance is better than Core 100 in almost all respects (importantly, the CPU is i3-530M and not i3-330M, the stock speed is 140 MHz higher). Graphics capabilities are also good (whatever you can expect from a GPU solution with a TDP of 27W). I tested with nV's 260.48 beta drivers, so can't give out any further details till they officially release it.

Any new update on when that will be?

Sep 9th or Sep 13th, but no guarantees

Great news jakmal! Waiting for your review.

Guys,

After taking into account Core 100 pricing and the specs as linked in a previous post in this thread, what do you think would be a good price for this system? Would like to hear your thoughts on what you think each feature is worth

Given the $750 MSRP of the core 100, I'd expect a $100-150 premium for the better form factor, slot loading BD and discrete GPU.

jakmal,

as the pricing of the ht100-BD at this moment is going down to €585( $744). Based on the added value of the slotin drive and the vision 3d video and the I3 processor, I etimate a price of €750 ($950) is reasenable. Of course a much lower price is better

manvanstaal, You probably know that HT100 shipped barebones, i.e, no OS or Blu-Ray player software. So, is the 750 euros you are ready to pay intended for a barebones system ?

ASRock told me that nV performance metrics are not under NDA now. I am just waiting for more information on pricing from them. All your inputs will help me figure out how the market will react to their pricing.

On a side note, does anyone know of the pricing structure for the mobile GPUs ? It is very difficult to find information about that anywhere.

jakmal,

I expect Asrock to deliver for that price also a W7 x64 operating system. I know 750 is a high price but look at the pricing level of the 100HT-BD. I estimate they put the Vision 3D higher in the market or they have to lower the price of the 100HT-BD drastically.

I agree with the earlier comments, form factor isn't worth that much especially with the limitations that it brings with it. No ability to have an inbuilt tuner card, only 1 additional internal HDD, basically means the end user (if it's a serious HTPC) will need to buy a server/NAS. My previous HTPC held 6 HDDS of videos/music/ podcasts. This is all fine and I'm seriously considered getting one once released but have set my budget to US$1000 inclusive of Win7 pro x64, BD, 500GB 7200rpm, i5, 4GB ram. I thins asrock need to make up some lost ground in the market after the last model and don't expect it to be above this.

The problem with asking us is that we compare it to what we could DYI which isn't a real apples-apples comparison 1) because we can't DYI HTPC with mobile parts, specialty boards, etc and 2) most enthusiasts (myself included) apply unreasonable discounts to the value of [our] time.

I agree that the HT100 is priced higher than I would pay personally and IMO looks too much like a PC, the aesthetics of this system would be hard to match at less then $1k (i.e. case is almost as nice as the M10 and a slot BD drive).


Intel is usually very good about publishing the per 1000 cost, for other vendors I've seen it on Semi Accurate and The Inquirer but usually not before it's announced.

Andy, Quite true. For the cost analysis of the Core 100, I tried to backtrack a bit from the price of a similarly spec-ed laptop. For the Vision 3D, most of the 425M equipped laptops aren't yet priced (or, if they are, they come with a i7 mobile processor). Hence, my question

ASRock quoted me a retail price for Vision 3D and I was shocked. I have sent them feedback and also asked for more details on their pricing structure. Suffice to say that I like ASRock a lot for thei quality and responsiveness, and don't want them to be getting 'bad press' by making their quoted price public.

Actually, the 425M is based on the GF108 and it was announced by nV at the IFA last week. I don't see any mobile GPU pricing on either Inquirer or SemiAccurate. Do you have some hard links? I can probably try to contact those guys if they do get such information

I haven't seen it for these GPUs yet; [strike]if they haven't been officially announced it might be hard to find[/strike].

Let's start a pool. My guess $1200

I saw on Newegg that the Core 100 started out high and has now stabilised to around $570 for DVD and $670 for Blu-Ray (might be cheaper to just buy a Blu-Ray drive outside on eBay and plug that in place of the DVD). Around 80 bucks cheaper than their initial price.

That said, ASRock does listen to feedback unlike some other vendors, so we might be able to get down to what manvanstaal wants

Very close to what the end cost to the user might be -- if they have a 3D TV and HDMI 1.4 receiver and want to play 3D Blu-Rays The price they quoted me was for the barebones, which was lesser than that.

That's what I'd use it for

palehorse,

The feedback from this forum reaches ASRock's ears, so don't lose hope till you see an official confirmation of the price.

If you look at the N73JQ from Asus with a similar 425M GPU, it costs $1344. The OS, screen and keyboard are extra in the Asus laptop and it also has i7 M processor, but the Vision 3D has USB 3 ports / MCE remote -- really better build quality than the Core 100 remote, and it is priced lesser than the Asus laptop..

I am trying to persuade ASRock to include the OS, Blu-Ray player OEM version and the 3D TV Play for the price they quoted me. In that case, it will be a pretty decent starting price, similar to what manvanstaal wanted..

I am not so sure you can build a mini-ITX system within the power envelop that Vision 3D has. (as babgvant notes).

The minimum Clarkdale TDP is 65W, and if you add an nV GPU (GT 420 for similar capabilities) rated at 50W, you have to cool down a 110W system.

Compare this with the Vision 3D, where the Arrandale TDP is 35W and the nV GPU is 27W, and the total power consumption is only 62W! You can't achieve this type of power envelop without using laptop parts. This type of market wasn't exposed earlier because the processing power of laptop chipsets / processors were just not what users had come to expect from desktops / nettops. With Arrandale, this has changed quite a bit (the tempering of expectations after going through a glut of Atom nettops has also contributed). ASRock deserves appreciation for trying to bring alive this market segment, but, sadly, they do need a rethink on the pricing front (They can't price it at the same price as a laptop).

They problem may be that the premium on that 30-40W difference doesn't net out for most enthusiasts.