Lenovo IdeaCentre Q180 31102KU Desktop (Black)
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- Intel Processor 2.3GHz (1MB Cache)
- 2GB SDRAM DDR3 RAM
- 320GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
- AMD Radeon HD 6450
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
An ultra-slim nettop that’s perfect for the living room. The lean, elegantly designed IdeaCentre Q180 is a simple, fun, and affordable way to bring home entertainment and computing to your living room television. The IdeaCentre Q180 gives you the graphics power of a desktop PC in the size of—and for the price of—a nettop. Lenovo IdeaCentre Q180 <!–div#PAGE-WRAP {min-width:980px;} * html div#page-wrap { border-right: 980px solid #fff; width: 100%; margin-right: 25px;} * html div#content { float: left; position:relative; margin-right: -980px; } div#LEFTCOL {float:left;} div#LEFTCOLHIDDEN {float:left;} div#RIGHTCOL {float:right;} div#RIGHTCOLHIDDEN {float:right;} div#CENTER1 {overflow:hidden;} div#CENTERCOL {overflow:hidden;} div#CENTERRIGHTSPANCOL {overflow:hidden;} * html div#center1 { width: 100% } * html div#centercol { width:100%; } * html div#centerrightspancol { width: 100%; } div.UN
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Lenovo IdeaCentre Q180 31102KU Desktop (Black)
List Price: $ 349.99
Price:
Lenovo Q180,
Excellent PC. When I first got it, I was disappointed becuase it wasn’t playing 1080p well. This is the solution – delete Windows, or don’t buy one with Windows. Stick Linux Ubuntu 12.04 (or later) on it. This will automatically install all the right drivers and is a great (free) OS. Then install XBMC (also free) as a media player. This will play anything and looks / sounds great.
The dual core Atom 2.13gz processor is fine, no issues there. To the previous reviewer, you are not going to see much difference between 2.13gz and 2.3gz, but in fairness, Amazon should change this page to say 2.13gz so people know what they’re buying.
The 2 USB ports on the front are USB 3 – a quick web search would have answered this for you.
Great PC – small, neat, quiet, and with 4GB RAM – perfect for a HTPC. Wouldn’t bother using this with Windows though – I think you’d need an Intel i3 or i5 processor to get Windows to play 1080p flawlessly but as I said, the Dual Core Atom is perfect with Ubuntu 12.04.
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|User Tweaking Required,
update: I strongly recommend paying a couple of hundred bucks extra for a system with I3+Intel HD3000/4000 graphics that will simply work. I’ve now run into enough Flash files that choke the Q180 (but not my older laptop) to realize that, specs not withstanding, there are many files/streams on hulu etc. which do not properly take advantage of hardware acceleration, even if Flash itself does. For a compotent HTPC, you really need to have a processor that can handle the decoding in software when necessary for those odd files. E.g., I’ve seen some episodes that have significant problems where other episodes don’t; no problems with the same episodes on the laptop. 720p Netflix remains marginal, with occasional desyncing issues although these haven’t been more than once or twice per movie. Thanks to Lenovo’s restocking fee, I won’t be returning it. But if I had it to do over again, definitely an Asrock or Mac Mini.
Note: I purchased the 4gb memory + blueray player version, but the comments below apply equally as long as you bump the memory (and maybe even without it).
Some of the problems people (like me) first have with this computer are due to Lenovo’s outdated drivers. Lenovo’s support page drivers are also outdated as of the time of writing (they’re dated Oct. 2011). To get this machine working as smoothly as possible, I needed to follow clues from several forums and do the following:
1) update Realtek ethernet driver and Intel chipset driver from those two web sites directly (Realtek HD Audio driver also had an update). Windows doesn’t find these automatically.
2) Disable many of the AMD video effects, especially Mosquito Noise Reduction. and dynamic contrast adjustment (go into Catalyst control center > Video Settings).
3) Possibly change the Windows theme to something that sounds less flashy, like Windows Classic or Windows 7 Basic. The Arrow and Glass special effects are big system hogs. However, some other Atom + Ion users report that disabling Arrow breaks Flash acceleration.
4) Uninstall McAffrey, replacing it perhaps with Microsoft Security Essentials or NOD32, both of which run lighter.
5) You might want to try adjusting the minimum processor power to 100% under Advanced power plan settings if you still have slow-down issues.
I had major networking issues and sleep problems (computer’s and mine) until updating those drivers. I really don’t expect to have to troubleshoot a computer right out of the box just to get the ethernet connection and such to work. [update: turns out the ethernet connection itself is just not well-made. Regardless of the cable being used, nudging the connector–or oftehn the computer itself–causes the cable to back away a millimeter or two, severring contact. At least on my unit]
The oft-noted choppy Netflix HD playback issue has been common to all processors short of a Mac Mini because of Silverlight + Netflix uneven hardware acceleration support. The Q180 can do graphics well, thanks to the AMD discrete GPU, as long as the Atom processor doesn’t have to handle it. Silverlight 5 (Dec. 2011) adds hardware acceleration, but it isn’t clear to me if this AMD GPU is supported yet. It’s a toss up right now whether Netflix and Microsoft will make Atom processors with discrete graphics work or just wait until the last Nettop and netbook devices go extinct, which appears will be soon as more I5 etc. platforms are put into these smaller cases (e.g., Lenovo’s M92p “Tiny”).
Netflix HD within Windows Media Center and flash in Chrome or Firefox have been smoother than the horror stories I’ve read. There are certainly occasional issues that you won’t have with a normal processor, but it’s watchable. Maybe profound choppiness at the beginning of a flash video, which largely then clears up; or a 2-minute desync issue 45 minutes into a movie that fixes itself after a couple of minutes. I’ve also seen a bit of jerkiness on DVD playback once or twice when the computer starts doing something in the background.
Wireless performance is very limited, as one might expect inasmuch as laptops have that nice big monitor bezel for stringing a much longer antenna. Placed on top of a desk 15 feet from the Wireless-n router, I got a respectable 63mbps. But 45 feet away in the living room on a shelf beneath the TV, that became 13mbps, unusable for HD streaming. I therefore use a stand-alone network bridge to provide wireless at 5GHz at 83mbps over the same distance. Powerline adapters also work well if they work in your house (they don’t in mine).
The Q180 Works smoothly with my HDHomeRUn. 24-bit Digital optical also sounds very nice: good enough to where I am not worrying about USB audio, although I have that as an option through my external DAC. Overall, the system runs about the same as the 5-year-old 2GHz Intel Core II Duo system it replaces, which was an AOpen mini-PC with…
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|Almost there,
I’ve been playing around with this little machine.
1. Standard Def plays well. Streaming via wifi works well with standard def files.
2. It can play 720p videos although streaming via wifi does not work too well. The audio and video desync. If the 720p file is on the physical harddrive it will play decently. The audio and video of some files will desync sometimes.
3. It doesn’t play 1080p files well at all. It stutters when played using GomPlayer.
Netflix seems to run fine on Chrome browser. I haven’t really checked it out on Internet Explorer because I don’t really use it.
Youtube HD runs fine as well.
I give this a four star because:
-It is compact.
-It will play netflix.
-Youtube HD will play fine.
-Streaming SD content Via wifi works fine
Minus 1 star because the product does not do full HD 1080p
I really wish this product had a bit more power to run full 1080p without hiccups. Maybe the next iteration will be better.
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