ASUS S-presso SFF System Review Posted! - Page 11

yuhaohuang · 5th Apr 2005, 06:24 PM

Hi everyone

I've just put mine down on order today. Should be here in a couple of days.

A question though. The manual says that Instant On does not work with add on cards nor any AGP cards.

To what I have gathered, the included TV tuner that comes with P111 will work in Instant On mode. Has anyone tried changing the card to another and testing if that will work ?

I have a HDTV tuner card that I would like to be able to put into the box.

And with the VGA problem, AOPEN's EA65II seems to have solved that with a simple BIOS flash. So im thinking ASUS will follow suit pretty soon.

801run · 6th Apr 2005, 04:46 PM

thanx for the review. great, read it before i bought the barebone. have had lots of trouble with this piece though =)

my first intention was to use the s-presso with Windows Media Center 2005. i needed an agp-card with dvi output to get a descent picture on my panasonic ae-700 video projector. the instant-on feature didn't really bother me, i start my system in the morning and let it run all day, dont care about a few extra seconds to boot. also i would not like booting from instant-on to windows just because i like to stream some mp3 or a little now and then. i figured the sp-111 would be a better choice, since i read on several pages that it's compatible with the WinXP MCE and then i would get the tuner and remote, which the sp-112 didn't offer.

setting up MCE was not a walk in the park though. first off, the cheap radeon7000 card i bought wasn't compatible with the MCE, despite the ATI MCE drivers. also, note to all using projectors with long dvi cables, this card didn't put up with a good enougn dvi-output signal. the picture contained lots of artifacts when using a 5m dvi->hdmi cable. when using a standrard 1280x1024 tft monitor the picture was great. so i switched the card for a radeon9600se after reading this review

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...ection-08.html

the 9600se comes without the fan, and luckily enough the dvi signal was good enough to travel 5m to the ae-700. also, this card is supported by the MCE. so, at a moment there i was at piece, until trying to configure the tuner in MCE. the leadtek winfastXP 2000 that comes with the s-presso sp-111 is NOT compatible with the MCE, despite all pages stating that the s-presso sp-111 is compatible with the MCE. according to leadtek, they do not plan to release any MCE compatible drivers either for the winfastxp 2000, they suggest using their PVR2000 card instead. great, so now actually the only piece of hardware delivered by the sp-111 that IS compatible with the MCE is the remote control, works like a treat. also, for you who are planning to use the internal gfx on the sp-111, it's compatible with the MCE, i tried it, but for me the vga connector is not an option.

so i decided to live with the home theatre software until MCE compatible drivers for the tuner is available.

kculpia · 6th Apr 2005, 06:51 PM

There are some amazing modifications here, but a few comments.

Of course the case temp is going to increase when the internal graphics card isn't used. This unit was designed to use the Intel video onboard.

Why would the MCE be used instead of the Asus Home Theater? What is the advantage gained? Glad to hear the remote works with MCE, but again the value is lost as the buyer paid for the integration of the software with the box. I am curious, does the front panel touch buttons work with the MCE (chaning mode, pausing video, etc).

TV out? Hmmmm, yes you just need a TV not a computer. I still don't understand why someone would buy this and want TV out. One can get to DVI with an adapter though (VGA to DVI).

yuhaohuang · 6th Apr 2005, 10:15 PM

most CRT projectors has only video, s-video and component video. Since a VGA to component video converter cable is very costly, TV-out is preferable for me. Most of my video cards lying around has s-video or video out anyway. The only downside is I wont be able to use Instant on

Of course the ultimate setup would be to have a LCD projector with a VGA or DVI input.

kculpia is right that using a vga to dvi converter is probably the smart choice if u've decided to use MCE.

desteef · 6th Apr 2005, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kculpia

TV out? Hmmmm, yes you just need a TV not a computer. I still don't understand why someone would buy this and want TV out. One can get to DVI with an adapter though (VGA to DVI).

I want to connect it to a TV to use it in stead of my vcr.
I want to select my mp3 on screen and watch DVD's etc
so i was really dissapointed that the machine ha no tv-out

SSS · 7th Apr 2005, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peaz

all equal long beeps sounds like it's memory related. Reslot them in and see?

After memory reslot is wrong,too.
If I remove the processor the beeping noise disappeares. If I remove everything from the machine the fans run on the maximum speed. Is it a normal reaction? It seems they are always sensing the hot temperature, or the motor controller IC went wrong. As far as I know these fans controlled by PWM and maybe the PWM providing IC went wrong or it can’t get the appropriate signal on its input. I discharged the processor in a normal way but nothing has happened.

desteef · 7th Apr 2005, 02:01 PM

I just got my ASUS MX4000 card and installed it.

InstantOn doesn't work anymore.
I get a segmentation error in de rc.boot

I also found out that the filesystem probably is a reiserfs and my next project will be to research wether or not it is possible to change the video driver

Koen · 7th Apr 2005, 07:32 PM

I'm sorry that you wasted money on the MX4000. I did not want to take the risk myself of buying one to find out if it would work. In the mean while I inscribed in the forum I mentioned. I'll send a pm to the author of the post to see if he can give some more detiails.
PS. The fact that the remote works well in MCE doesn't surprise me. I was looking for it in the device manager and I think it is just detected like a keyboard. Open notepad and then click on the buttons of your remote and it will type (albeit special characters)
I am not very interested in using MCE thought. One thing I don't like is the propretary format they use to store recordings.

Koen · 7th Apr 2005, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSS

If I remove everything from the machine the fans run on the maximum speed. Is it a normal reaction?

I tried a non working cpu and that had the same effect. Fans go to 100% so I don't think there is anything wrong with your fan connections. Probably your fans will only work correctly once your pc is up and running. I noticed the same with my digimatrix, while booting the fans go fast for a very short time.

desteef · 8th Apr 2005, 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koen

I'm sorry that you wasted money on the MX4000. I did not want to take the risk myself of buying one to find out if it would work. In the mean while I inscribed in the forum I mentioned. I'll send a pm to the author of the post to see if he can give some more detiails.

Thanks

it's not waisted, because i need a tv-out anyway
and i have something to experiment fot the RedHat instanOn partition

5th Apr 2005, 06:24 PM	#101 (permalink)
yuhaohuang Newbie Join Date: 5 Apr 2005 Posts: 2 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	New Hi everyone I've just put mine down on order today. Should be here in a couple of days. A question though. The manual says that Instant On does not work with add on cards nor any AGP cards. To what I have gathered, the included TV tuner that comes with P111 will work in Instant On mode. Has anyone tried changing the card to another and testing if that will work ? I have a HDTV tuner card that I would like to be able to put into the box. And with the VGA problem, AOPEN's EA65II seems to have solved that with a simple BIOS flash. So im thinking ASUS will follow suit pretty soon.

6th Apr 2005, 04:46 PM	#102 (permalink)
801run Newbie Join Date: 6 Apr 2005 Posts: 1 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	S-Presso with MCE 2005 thanx for the review. great, read it before i bought the barebone. have had lots of trouble with this piece though =) my first intention was to use the s-presso with Windows Media Center 2005. i needed an agp-card with dvi output to get a descent picture on my panasonic ae-700 video projector. the instant-on feature didn't really bother me, i start my system in the morning and let it run all day, dont care about a few extra seconds to boot. also i would not like booting from instant-on to windows just because i like to stream some mp3 or a little now and then. i figured the sp-111 would be a better choice, since i read on several pages that it's compatible with the WinXP MCE and then i would get the tuner and remote, which the sp-112 didn't offer. setting up MCE was not a walk in the park though. first off, the cheap radeon7000 card i bought wasn't compatible with the MCE, despite the ATI MCE drivers. also, note to all using projectors with long dvi cables, this card didn't put up with a good enougn dvi-output signal. the picture contained lots of artifacts when using a 5m dvi->hdmi cable. when using a standrard 1280x1024 tft monitor the picture was great. so i switched the card for a radeon9600se after reading this review http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...ection-08.html the 9600se comes without the fan, and luckily enough the dvi signal was good enough to travel 5m to the ae-700. also, this card is supported by the MCE. so, at a moment there i was at piece, until trying to configure the tuner in MCE. the leadtek winfastXP 2000 that comes with the s-presso sp-111 is NOT compatible with the MCE, despite all pages stating that the s-presso sp-111 is compatible with the MCE. according to leadtek, they do not plan to release any MCE compatible drivers either for the winfastxp 2000, they suggest using their PVR2000 card instead. great, so now actually the only piece of hardware delivered by the sp-111 that IS compatible with the MCE is the remote control, works like a treat. also, for you who are planning to use the internal gfx on the sp-111, it's compatible with the MCE, i tried it, but for me the vga connector is not an option. so i decided to live with the home theatre software until MCE compatible drivers for the tuner is available.

7th Apr 2005, 02:01 PM	#107 (permalink)
desteef Newbie Join Date: 4 Apr 2005 Posts: 11 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	MX4000 doesn't work I just got my ASUS MX4000 card and installed it. InstantOn doesn't work anymore. I get a segmentation error in de rc.boot I also found out that the filesystem probably is a reiserfs and my next project will be to research wether or not it is possible to change the video driver

7th Apr 2005, 07:32 PM	#108 (permalink)
Koen Newbie Join Date: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 10 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	MX4000 I'm sorry that you wasted money on the MX4000. I did not want to take the risk myself of buying one to find out if it would work. In the mean while I inscribed in the forum I mentioned. I'll send a pm to the author of the post to see if he can give some more detiails. PS. The fact that the remote works well in MCE doesn't surprise me. I was looking for it in the device manager and I think it is just detected like a keyboard. Open notepad and then click on the buttons of your remote and it will type (albeit special characters) I am not very interested in using MCE thought. One thing I don't like is the propretary format they use to store recordings.

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6th Apr 2005, 06:51 PM	#103 (permalink)
kculpia Newbie Join Date: 2 Mar 2005 Posts: 13 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	There are some amazing modifications here, but a few comments. Of course the case temp is going to increase when the internal graphics card isn't used. This unit was designed to use the Intel video onboard. Why would the MCE be used instead of the Asus Home Theater? What is the advantage gained? Glad to hear the remote works with MCE, but again the value is lost as the buyer paid for the integration of the software with the box. I am curious, does the front panel touch buttons work with the MCE (chaning mode, pausing video, etc). TV out? Hmmmm, yes you just need a TV not a computer. I still don't understand why someone would buy this and want TV out. One can get to DVI with an adapter though (VGA to DVI).

6th Apr 2005, 10:15 PM	#104 (permalink)
yuhaohuang Newbie Join Date: 5 Apr 2005 Posts: 2 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	most CRT projectors has only video, s-video and component video. Since a VGA to component video converter cable is very costly, TV-out is preferable for me. Most of my video cards lying around has s-video or video out anyway. The only downside is I wont be able to use Instant on Of course the ultimate setup would be to have a LCD projector with a VGA or DVI input. kculpia is right that using a vga to dvi converter is probably the smart choice if u've decided to use MCE.