The initial setup went well, and worked as it should. However, getting an alternate Linux OS installed was a huge pain. My preferred OS, Pop!_OS wouldn't even boot from USB, even after disabling all the secure boot and fast boot options. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS would boot and install from USB, but would not boot from the M.2 SSD. The SSD is recognized by both the BIOS and OS, but would not boot in either standard or legacy boot modes. Getting into the BIOS in the first place was a nightmare. To Atari's credit, their tech support was quite good until the BIOS password they gave me didn't work. I ended up just finding something on Reddit saying to reinstall a downgraded BIOS version as Atari changed the password in the most recent update. I'd bought a PC that I was locked out of. I was furious and let Atari know so. I ended up installing Ubuntu onto the eMMC flash and using the 1TB SSD as data storage. Now I only get about 90MB/s read times on the OS drive instead of 550MB/s... Lovely.AAt least it works. Kind of.

The wifi is terrible under Ubuntu and will drop out randomly. I can get 16 ping replies before it drops out. I tried installing new wifi drivers and got no where. My Pi 400 does the same thing. Very disappointed with both right now. I currently have both systems hardwired into my router, which required extending my ISP's fiber wire and redoing my entire physical network layout. Luckily both systems are next to the TV and the TV hides all the router and cable mess.

Initial video editing and rendering tests were rough, until I remembered that I have to manually set the proxy clips up in Kdenlive. The VCS was doing a surprisingly good job of scrubbing through 4K video footage. The fan is very annoying stock. The moment the CPU comes under heavy load the fans immediately hits 100%, then drops off instantly. The fan constantly cycles like this the entire time I'm using it for anything intensive. There's no fan control through Ubuntu, and I haven't had time to adjust the fan thresholds in the BIOS. I've read that the solution is to replace the terrible thermal pad with proper thermal paste. I happen to have some laying around, so I'll do that and test it again.

Overall, it's been a good home theater PC and light gaming system. Video editing is quite good on it, as long as proxy clips are used. I love how it looks on the mantle of my Victorian era living room as well. Any other system I've seen would look very out of place. I enjoy the system and will continue using it as my daily driver until I can build a proper PC.