[paul elder]

I was going to build a system with this board (see below) but is this powerful enough the goal of this to run xbmc (openelec) I want to use Linux and not windows it will play mostly 720p and some 1080p, I have been reading various items on the forum but not sure which way to go. Is the below spec good choice or would I be better going another route

Proposed system
Asus AT510nt-I deluxe fan less ion 2
WESENA ITX6 Case
SSD 30gb?
2gb ram?
Slim loading dvd

[numb7rs]

That spec will run fine. More than enough grunt to play 1080p in Linux.

[eskro]

good for 1080P but might struggle on heavy XBMC skins like AEON MQ2

[claypigeon]

good for 1080P but might struggle on heavy XBMC skins like AEON MQ2

Have you, or are you running openelec and mq2 on a ion or ion2 box?

I am running mq2 right now with no struggles on an Intel Atom 330 with 1G ram right now. What struggles are you concerned about when you bring this up? I run in mq2 in normal mode with no issue. I would say the performance is about on par with Neon or Nox. Very usable IMO.

[eskro]

yes, it is usable, but not as fluid as on Celerons or Athlon dual-cores....