[painejake]

Hi guys, I've found XBMC perfect for my current needs (using it on a laptop currently) and I'm looking to build a little HTPC.

I have a dedicated server with 4TB disk space collocated in a datacenter not too far from me, streaming wise things are great streaming back 720p films and TV so I will be looking to build a small HTPC with no local disk space however I'm not sure the hardware I've selected is perfect for my needs.

Anyway enough rabbling

Zotac ZBOX-ID41-B ZBOX to which I will add 2GB ram and a 8GB Kingston SSDNow drive.

I was planning to use Linux/FreeBSD for a very light system with XBMC running on top and sharing via password protected web directory (HTTPS)

Are there any pro's to choosing Windows other than ease of use? I'm trying to do it on a budget and have used Linux for over 6 years - so no issues on that front.

Hope I haven't missed anything or added any confusion to what I want and any advice or opinions on the setup would be great! I'm currently running XBMC on 3.0GHz i5 with 8GB ram and a Nvidia 540M, would XBMC still feel as snappy on the hardware above?

Many thanks

[gabbott]

Check out openelec if you already haven't. Linux based and about as lightweight as you can get. Even 'easier' to setup than a windows based system and will run pretty decent on that zotac hardware

[Sureguy]

As far as I know there are 2 advantages to using Windows currently:

The ability to bitstream dts-hd and truehd audio.
The ability to stream netflix.

[painejake]

Thanks both

I think *nix should suffice for my needs then, thanks for sharing that gabbott looks brilliant! Seems to be exactly what I need!

[eskro]

yepp, openelec is great