Newegg Kabini $99 kit

[bleucharm28]

so i finally received my Kabini kit for $99 at Newegg. The special is still on. Pretty sweet deal all together. Nice looking mini itx case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1594348

Anyways, I got everything to install successfully. But a couple of issues that I'm not sure if is something I've missed doing.

Window is kinda of laggy. What i mean by that is when I'm moving multiple windows on the same screen.

My next problem is i cannot view YouTube videos. I can see like first 3-4 seconds and then all i see is a black screen. I had same issue using Firefox or IE browser.

Any i got everything i need to install, drivers, window updates. But still can't figure it whats causing the issues.

99$ Kabini kit
4 gigs of ram/memory 1600
300w Seasonic PSU.

 

[tential]

If you can, I'd return your PSU. You probably just got it but it's SEVERE overkill. You can get a completely silent PSU in the form of a PicoPSU and a notebook power brick. No reason to get a 300w PSU.

I wish I could help with the issues but so far, most posts I've seen on Kabini are in regard to it's XBMC use since people are using it as a HTPC set top box.

If you can give a more personal experience on how Windows feels for you that'd be great. Have you tried using Ubuntu yet?

 

[Ketchup]

When you say the drivers are installed, is this off the CD or off the Asrock site?

What version of Windows?

When you are seeing the computer get laggy, what speed is the CPU at?

 

[bleucharm28]

This is some weird shit. I like to think that I've found the issue. I install drivers from Asrock website. I know 300w is way over kill. but I got it cheap for $17.00

I first uninstall Adobe Flash for IE. What a miracle, I was able to view Youtube videos. I went back and try to view from Firefox; no luck same black screen error.

So it only make sense now to uninstall Adobe Flash Plugin for FF. And guess what? I was able to view Youtube videos.

I don't know what the hell is going on. But I've never seen such issue before. Maybe I need reinstall Adobe again?

 

[LoveMachine]

Various Flash versions are known to have serious glitches, causing video stutter. Sometimes rolling back to older versions does the trick.

Regarding hardware drivers, use the latest Catalyst drivers directly from amd.com for your video driver. ASRock may not have up to date CCC versions, even on the website.

 

[Ketchup]

Various Flash versions are known to have serious glitches, causing video stutter. Sometimes rolling back to older versions does the trick.

Regarding hardware drivers, use the latest Catalyst drivers directly from amd.com for your video driver. ASRock may not have up to date CCC versions, even on the website.

Could be, it just seems odd that the latest parts on the market would need an 'older' software. If anything, it would need a newer version to fix a yet-unfixed bug.

I would give the older version a shot, but if nothing good happens, maybe try something like this:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashruntimes/flashplayer/

 

[DerekPDX]

Hey bleucharm, did you get everything working? I'm considering putting together an HTPC as well, and these Kabinis have really caught my eye. Do you plan on watching and recording live over the air HDTV? I would love to know if these guys are up to the task. Been considering pairing one with a R9 270 I have leftover from my dogecoin mining days.

 

[DesiPower]

Was looking at the benchmarks and they are not at all impressive, in fact even the Athlon 5350 is pretty low in the listing... well below J1800 and Atom... however, the reviews of HD movie, BRD or MVK rips all played smoothly, with a caveat that it shuttered on VLC but played smooth on WMP. Wonder how it will work on browser based Flash streams... Might be with a shot, but I would atleast go with Athlon, not Samporn.

 

[piasabird]

No HDMI is a game ender for me.

I have that case and I don't like the case. It looks nice, but I don't like the lousy options for mounting a hard drive. Just my opinion.

 

[lsd]

No HDMI is a game ender for me.

It does have hdmi, you can see the port mounted vertically next to the usb ports.
I have this kit and I am happy with its performance in xbmc. I can play 10-20gb bd rips with no problem though general windows 7 usage does seem a bit sluggish.

 

[Ketchup]

OK, I have a question/observation:

Right now, you could get an Intel Pentium G2030 and an H61 motherboard with HDMI for $103.98 without even searching for a deal.

In most benchmarks here
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7933/the-desktop-kabini-review-part-1-athlon-5350-am1/3
the Pentium gives it a pretty good pounding.

So why would anyone want to buy A Kabini over other hardware that is already on the market?

 

[Elixer]

OK, I have a question/observation:

Right now, you could get an Intel Pentium G2030 and an H61 motherboard with HDMI for $103.98 without even searching for a deal.

In most benchmarks here
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7933/the-desktop-kabini-review-part-1-athlon-5350-am1/3
the Pentium gives it a pretty good pounding.

So why would anyone want to buy A Kabini over other hardware that is already on the market?

Kabini is 25W... and for some, they want ultra quiet systems, but can still handle BD rips (or whatever).

 

[greybaby]

OK, I have a question/observation:

Right now, you could get an Intel Pentium G2030 and an H61 motherboard with HDMI for $103.98 without even searching for a deal.

In most benchmarks here
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7933/the-desktop-kabini-review-part-1-athlon-5350-am1/3
the Pentium gives it a pretty good pounding.

So why would anyone want to buy A Kabini over other hardware that is already on the market?

The kabini really saves on energy and when you want to go super small but still have PC architecture, it helps to have the cpu use less than 25w. Its really mostly for regular usage and videos, nothing else and the biggest advantage is really the price and the power savings.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

The kabini really saves on energy and when you want to go super small but still have PC architecture, it helps to have the cpu use less than 25w. Its really mostly for regular usage and videos, nothing else and the biggest advantage is really the price and the power savings.

Price is not an advantage as it costs the same. As for power savings, they're negligible. Any of the two will be just fine on a small case as they produce very little heat. Have you seen the heatsinks even Core i7s come with? Maybe you'll save $1 on your electricity bill a year, but a Pentium is easily almost 2x faster.

Example:

And if you're gonna do encoding, hey, the Haswell Pentiums even come with QuickSync.

Power consumption isn't really much better on Kabini:

Again, negligible. There is close to zero reason to pick an Athlon 5350 when a Pentium G3220/3258/3440 can be had for the same price or very close.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Again, negligible. There is close to zero reason to pick an Athlon 5350 when a Pentium G3220/3258/3440 can be had for the same price or very close.

But the mini-ITX boards for AM1, are much, much cheaper than mini-ITX boards for 1150.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

But the mini-ITX boards for AM1, are much, much cheaper than mini-ITX boards for 1150.

I guess, yeah. Not by a whole lot, though.

Intel Pentium G3220: $57
AMD Athlon 5350: $57

ECS H81H3-I: $49
ASUS AM1I-A: $41

I guess you could argue that ASUS is a more-recognized brand than ECS, but you also have an actual upgrade path if you get a Pentium. Not to mention, you get a processor that is much faster.

The difference in price is rather minute.

 

[HumblePie]

The youtube problem my friend was having with his PC that I installed a fresh copy of windows 8.1 and everything on it. He would get 1-4 seconds of the video with what looked like a rubberbanding or reloading of the video and then a black screen. This was happening in a couple of browsers. Wasn't the flash version that was the problem, but adblock/flashblock addons from firefox was messing up both firefox and ie. Didn't affect chrome.

If you have the adblock/flashblock addons, it was blocking something that wasn't showing up in their context menus to unblock easily. If you disable them the videos should run, but there is a way to get what those addon(s) are blocking and stop that so you can still leave the addons running which I recommend. Wish I could remember the steps I took to figure that out though.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

This is a AMD kabini thread, why when every time someone mentions AMD some one has to start in with the you should buy intel BS.He already has this AMD system!!What do you people work for intel or something??Cause you sure push that crap enough.And as for an i3 being better then a 5350 I call BS all day long.. I can play most newer games on my 5350 at lower setting just fine getting an average of 25-30 FPS and trying to play the same games with a G3220 couldnt even get 5-10 FPS.
Also where are you getting these Bench graphs from cause under full load I am only seeing 20-25w peeking at 31w at the wall socket using my Kilowatt meter using a 5350 and 67-72w with my g3220.i3's and pentium's are only better when it comes to single threaded performance and thats all.If your getting 25w with your G3220 please share your magical settings cause I have never been able to get lower then 35w.