ASUS S-presso SFF System Review Posted!

[alex]

Originally Posted by kculpia

Anybody know of a "widget" that plugs into USB and has FireWire?

"...Wednesday 16 June 2004, 12:52 AM

A new USB video cable from Pixela allows you to transfer raw DV from a FireWire camcorder to a typical Hi-Speed USB host desktop or notebook, and vice versa..."

Check here http://www.everythingusb.com/news/index/3889.htm

And you'll see:
This product is only available in Japan, and is designed for use solely in the Japanese environment, with a Japanese OS. Support for this product is limited to users who meet these criteria and is available only in the Japanese language

Anybody from Japan here? Please ?! I'd order a couple for sure! What's Belkin is thinking about???

[Orion89]

what do you consider hot? i was using a 2.0 cpu and i never got to install xp because i thought the motherboard was defective (sent it back to zipzoomfly to be tested). i tryed fixing the problem for 2 full days before sending it back. why is there no mention of the fans not working for 5-10 min in the hardware guide? did your red thermometer stay lit the whole time before you installed instant on?

what do you think? did i send back a working s-presso? hope not

[alex]

I believe, for P4A (2.0GHz) "hot" is anything above 50C. The idea was to check the BIOS temperature readings, which may be wrong if you've got an old CPU or have the BIOS problem. The HW manual may be obsolete. Check the online version in pdf. The zipzoomfly (or anybody else) may have an older version of s-presso in stock. Mine is from Newegg and it looks like most recent revision, but the doc's are old still. Yes, the red thermometer is allways lit on mine, even in pure DOS 6.22. By the way, how do you know that the CPU temp was above 140F when you shut it off? The Instant On was installed?

Too little data to think , but it sent back already right? Just wait for their comments (Let us know!).

[Orion89]

i think i received the newest version of the s-presso cause i didnt have the problem with the front cover everyone was talking about and the guides where up to date with the ones available on asus's web site. i did try a 4 to 3 pin power converter to test the cpu fan to see if that was the problem but it worked fine. i used the bios's hardware monitor to see the current temps for the cpu and the motherboard but both fan rpm's would not come up (look at the bios page in the review for a example).
the cpu temp got to 60C before i figgered it was unsafe for the cpu. i read all the pdf's off of asus site a week before i recieved the system so i was sure i up to date with the latest info(btw i learned more here then the guides had to offer).

thanks again for your help

btw... how much did we all spend on our s-presso? i spent $299 for a p-111 w/ free 2nd day shipping.

[alex]

NewEgg: $329 +tax +~$10 S/H (part of a big order).

[jp5fuel]

As a new owner of an ASUS S-PRESSO, I was glad to see such great user discussions regarding setting the system up. I am just days away from peicing my system together and looking for advise regarding installation of Windows MCE on my machine. Has anyone here installed MCE. My main reason for using MCE is so I can utilize MCE plugins that work with my Home Automation equipment. Will it work? Will I lose any functionality? I'd appreciate any feedback.

[dhesselink]

it won't work as MCE won't be able to see the standard tv card...that's what i'm reading at least.

Haven't tried it myself yet.

[Hampa_d]

right guys 'n girls. im getting my asus deluxe on wendsday (sorry for my lousy english), and i have no idea what ive given me into. im not the sharpest tool in the shed on all this pc hardware stuff . im more into software.
but as i understand if i change the grafics and tv card for something better then instant on wont work right?
damn what else i had a million thoughts but now im all blank.
im questioning if i made the right choice of ordering the deluxe.
what can i actually do with the tv card. the thing is i don´t play games that much got one i want to try but its not that demanding i reckon.
im more into movies 'n music. please give me ideas of things ahh damn it´s all blank again

[dhesselink]

Here's a little bit about my experience on the installation of the S-Presso with touch-panel.


First of all, I have an experience level 'heavy user'...but definately a 'consumer' and not a tomshardware wizzard or anything like that. Just so you know where i'm coming from.


Hardware Installation:
1. All components can be installed without much trouble.
Beware when putting the HDD in place...there's some fragile cables in the aria and you don't really want to do anything else than installing a harddisk

Another wicked thing to mention is that I use a single 1GB RAM module. It doesn't describe where to install it...bank A or B. A is the obious thing to do...well...wrong decision. Nothing will work with power-on...except for all the fans. If you have a single module, use bank B.

Because most peeps will use an IDE optical drive it's good to mention that:
-in case you don't have IDE optical drive but already an s-ata optical: instant-on won't work with it
-When you close the cover make sure that the Flat-Cable folds back as much as possible to give the heatsink as much room as possible (just check and you'll see what i mean)

2. Software Installation

First you should install instant on.
READ THE MANUAL before installing the Instant-On software...it takes some funny bios settings to get it work...depending on the IDE/S-ATA combinations you may have. It'll save you some trouble.

After having installed intant on, and then windows, from an empty 200 GB disk it was strange to find a partition of 200 MB (for instant-on), another of 120 GB (for windows) and the rest (60+GB) unused. Had to correct this with Partioning software. Weird, but true.

Another freaky thing to find when installing the barebone from a 'clean' HDD, is that it'll make a drive 'I:\' and install windows on it. And NO..you won't se it in the process. It'll give you major trouble to install other things, such as Norton Antivirus and others. ASUS didn't put it in the manual. I found out, after an uncuccessful attempt of installing Norton Antivirus what they have to say about it on the support site:

This is not an OS or hardware issue. It is designed for Windows NT based O/S including Win2000, WinXP, Win2003.

Please refer to http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;225025

If you are not familiar with it, please enter BIOS page and follow the steps below.

Advanced-->USB configuration-->USB 2.0 controller [Disabled]

These steps should be done before installing Windows operation system.

Then enable USB 2.0 controller function after OS is installed.

Well Fantastic. Why is the USB controller enabled by default then!? To have everybody install the OS twice probably

The application software and windows drivers installed without a problem. If you run it on XP you may see that there's some errors in the config panel on USB 2.0 hardware and find out that you can't install it from the CD. No problem: Just put the CD in and install them from the device-manager.

You can scan for tv programs easily, but it's a pain to get a good playlist. Even after having read the manual, I haven't figured out how to get a 'default' list that doesn't include channels that have no good quality image. Also, to rename the channel-names you must find out that there is a 'configuration tool' that can do it...but then again, it's not clear how. I also miss the ability to manually set the frequencies.

Once getting over these shortcomings, the software works as intended.
radio/pictures/dvd etc all works very intuitive and the remote can do it all.

The only pain is that the 'Guide' (EPG) doesn't work for me...after startup the button fades out (I'm in Holland...if anybody knows the answer for me just shout!).


Conclusion
It's a brilliant idea...it you have the time to get it intalled properly. A shame that, despite the small price difference, asus used a TV card that's not on the compatibility list of MCE. So you'll have to replace it if you want MCE, unknowing if it'll have effect on Instant On and remote-control features.The noise level of this machine is excellent. I could use it as a pillow.

The installation CAN be done without problems...if you have MORE information than in the manual. I hope they add these things to it. For the peeps who don't mind playing around a bit, it's fun to do so. For the 'novice' users that want a HTPC cuz they fell for the marketing, it's a bad call.

The installation instructions lack, and the software too.
To keep everybody happy I hope Asus can soon
1) make a completer manual
2) use MCE compatible TV card
3) add more features to their software to manage/customize radio/tv channels
4) include drivers / software for Linux freakz
5) get a decent support forum (...)

Finally:
Still happy. Love playing around with stuff like this. But ...not forever . This machine has potential, but it still lacks some things.


Any good links / hints to get the EPG working in Holland are appreciated, as are links to alternative software (that can work with the remote of the s-presso).

[dhesselink]

Originally Posted by orion23

Keep in mind that Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 and 2005 require at leat 64MB of video memory in order to run.
I don't think you can do this without installing a separate video card, which will kill the instant on!

in the bios you can assign up to 64 MB to the onboard-video