Hi Community!
This is my first post at xbmc.org. The past months i have visited this site many, many times. My name is Patrick, I am from Austria and I study Electrical Engeenering at the Technical University of Vienna...
...and please pardon my bad english skills.
I also want a small htpc or media center. About one year ago i surfed the web and found a solution for my problem, XBMC. I was surprised about the features of this media center and bought an old xbox 1. I was high motivated and startet my project. I searched the web, especially xbox-scene.com and evo-x for tutorials for creating such a media center. But afer a few days i got dissapointed, because there are many things about the old box, that seems to be a problem (for me):
* the need of a mod-chip or soft-mod
* the lag of CPU-POwer for watching 720p and 1080p Material
* the missing of hdmi, vga-output (except xbox v1.0)
* the missing of native-wlan
* the fact that there is no end-solution for me, the customer, I mean, i have to solder the mod-chip, install the ir-mod for remote-controll and so on...
Thats why i stopped my project and searched again for a solution. I was very happy to see, that the xbmc- team have started the port of xbmc to pc or mac.
I thought, okay, you have the right software for your htpc you need now the right hardware. Important for me are the following points:
* not to expensive
* as small as possible
* powerfull hardware, capable to handle hd-content for at least 3 years
* Multichannel-support (at least DD and DTS) for my receiver
So i searched and found a solution, the "Intel Essential Series", witch Intel ATOM-CPU and mini-itx-format (17cmx17cm) or (6,7inchx6,7inch)
http://geizhals.at/a338314.html. This would be a cheap solution but not the right for this project, because it has the following problems:
* the Intel GMA950 is only able to show 720p content, he can't handle 1080p without stuttering or lags.
* the onboard-sound has only two channels.
I was dissapointed about the whole thing, i thought, i would never find a solution (in the near future)... than i found that:
http://geizhals.at/a338725.html, a mini-itx-board with onboard x4100-graphic-chip, capable for HD-Content, support for C2D-CPUs and TOS-Link-output for my a/v-receiver. Search the web, you will find some reviews about this board. It combines the power of an ATX-board with the tiny size of itx.
I started a calculation for a possible htpc (in Euro):
* MB for about 105€
* E1200 Celeron-CPU (you need not more, look for reviews, very powefull) for about 40€
* DDR2-KIT 1GB for about 15€
* picoPSU and external Powersupply for about 70€
I need no other parts, i have an old 2,5inch HDD and will create a custom case made of wood or plexi-glass. When you sum the positions above you got about 230€, think, that would be about 300 Dollar.
Would do you think about this solution, please tell me, thanks Patrick.