Acer Aspire L310 as an HTPC...

FreeBaGeL · Post by **FreeBaGeL** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:06 pm

I was looking to throw together a small, cheap HTPC for a secondary TV when this deal for the Acer Slimline L310 showed up really cheap at Circuit City. It has little room for expandability, so I had a few questions first. Here are the specs:

C2D E6300 processor
1GB DDR2 memory
Integrated nVidia 6150 graphics

Here is the unit: http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/175 ... dp0t539653

1. Is this going to be strong enough for what I'm looking to do with it? My main concern is with 720p playback (not through a tuner) from downloaded files and from a slingbox on the HD DVR downstairs.

2. (the main one I'm looking for advice on on this forum) Anyone have any experience with how loud/quiet this thing is? None of the reviews I can find even mention it. This will be going in my bedroom so I'll need to be able to sleep with it on.

scrandman · Post by **scrandman** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:14 pm

I believe this is actually based on a laptop motherboard, so you would expect it to be relatively quiet. Oh, and absolutely no expandabilty options (other than USB and laptop memory).

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:28 pm

1. Yes, this setup can easily handle 720p. This is a stronger configuration than a Mac Mini, which has been shown to play 1080p successfully.

2. Acer claims 26 dB at idle which is pretty quiet, but who knows what happens as it loads up. As for needing it to be extra quiet at bed time, why not just put it in standby? It sounds like you are only using it as a player, not a DVR, so it doesn't need to be running all the time . . .