2012-02-21, 17:34
This originally started because my gf was complaining about her cable bill and I told her there were options...
What's inside...
Zotac IONITX-G-E Atom N330...............$83.99
Samsung M8 500gb SATA 2.5" 5400rpm.. $69.99
ASUS BD Player...................................$49.99
Kingston 8GB USB Stick........................$ 6.99
2 GB Ultra PC5400 DDR2.......................$19.97
MI-100-BK Case..................................$49.99
Wireless PC Remote from eBay...............$ 7.98 (bought it mainly for the IR Rcvr)
USB to MB Header Cable.......................$ 2.99
2.5 to 3.5 HD Adapter..........................$ 1.99
ENCORE ENUWI-2XN45 USB2.0 Wireless
N300 Adapter w/2 antenna...................$14.99 (on order using old USB Netgear WG111v3 for now)
Total................................................ $308.87
My lil bro has had a XBMC for the last 2 years, "built it, set it and forget it" is how he put it. It's running Ubuntu 9 I think and as he says, it's solid and not broken so why "f" with it. He torrents and uses his XBMC as a NAS also.
It's been a long time since I've built any kind of system. My Frankencomputer I built 5 yrs ago is still screaming right along so this build was a bit daunting.
My first piece of the puzzle was the Zotac board which my brother found on NCIX.ca for half price. He said the ION board would be perfect for all I wanted it to do. He bought one too but was waiting to see how my new build went before building his gf one too.
After a lot of reading on this forum, I decided (against my lil bro's concerns) to go with a Live USB build because I'm cheap and didn't want to buy an SSD no matter how cheap and because I was building it for my gf so she could dump the PVR from the cable company. Since this box will be always on, I wasn't too concerned about boot times. She already has a Roku box but it doesn't get her favorite CBS shows nor the Nick and History channel shows for her kid.
Everything fit into the case very easily and I forgot how much I enjoyed the process of planning and assembling a system. After numerous reinstalls of XBMC Live to the USB stick (cuz I didn't know what I was doing and would screw up settings and crash hard) I finally got it stable enough to move it out of my office and into my living room and let it run without me watching it (plus I wanted my 24" LED computer monitor back and was tired of using my old 17 CRT)
The USB Stick has been moved to the other side. There is also a Mini PCIE slot (just to the right of the big heatsink) on this Zotac board and a Centrino Wifi/Bluetooth ($22) card was going to be installed for the wireless but went with the USB instead.
The Bd was cheap and altho I haven't figured out how to make it play BR or rip them (the focus was on TV shows), I have MakeMKV installed but I don't have the settings right I think.
Yes the yellow Energy Sticker and the plastic is still on the TV...I bought it especially to test the XBMC...
I moved it to my gf's place last night. After initially setting it up to her wifi and showing her how to access Sb and Cp, and how to navigate the menus with her iPhone, "thus endith" my first XBMC build.
My build for MY place...
TO BE CONTINUED
What's inside...
Zotac IONITX-G-E Atom N330...............$83.99
Samsung M8 500gb SATA 2.5" 5400rpm.. $69.99
ASUS BD Player...................................$49.99
Kingston 8GB USB Stick........................$ 6.99
2 GB Ultra PC5400 DDR2.......................$19.97
MI-100-BK Case..................................$49.99
Wireless PC Remote from eBay...............$ 7.98 (bought it mainly for the IR Rcvr)
USB to MB Header Cable.......................$ 2.99
2.5 to 3.5 HD Adapter..........................$ 1.99
ENCORE ENUWI-2XN45 USB2.0 Wireless
N300 Adapter w/2 antenna...................$14.99 (on order using old USB Netgear WG111v3 for now)
Total................................................ $308.87
My lil bro has had a XBMC for the last 2 years, "built it, set it and forget it" is how he put it. It's running Ubuntu 9 I think and as he says, it's solid and not broken so why "f" with it. He torrents and uses his XBMC as a NAS also.
It's been a long time since I've built any kind of system. My Frankencomputer I built 5 yrs ago is still screaming right along so this build was a bit daunting.
My first piece of the puzzle was the Zotac board which my brother found on NCIX.ca for half price. He said the ION board would be perfect for all I wanted it to do. He bought one too but was waiting to see how my new build went before building his gf one too.
After a lot of reading on this forum, I decided (against my lil bro's concerns) to go with a Live USB build because I'm cheap and didn't want to buy an SSD no matter how cheap and because I was building it for my gf so she could dump the PVR from the cable company. Since this box will be always on, I wasn't too concerned about boot times. She already has a Roku box but it doesn't get her favorite CBS shows nor the Nick and History channel shows for her kid.
Everything fit into the case very easily and I forgot how much I enjoyed the process of planning and assembling a system. After numerous reinstalls of XBMC Live to the USB stick (cuz I didn't know what I was doing and would screw up settings and crash hard) I finally got it stable enough to move it out of my office and into my living room and let it run without me watching it (plus I wanted my 24" LED computer monitor back and was tired of using my old 17 CRT)
The USB Stick has been moved to the other side. There is also a Mini PCIE slot (just to the right of the big heatsink) on this Zotac board and a Centrino Wifi/Bluetooth ($22) card was going to be installed for the wireless but went with the USB instead.
The Bd was cheap and altho I haven't figured out how to make it play BR or rip them (the focus was on TV shows), I have MakeMKV installed but I don't have the settings right I think.
Yes the yellow Energy Sticker and the plastic is still on the TV...I bought it especially to test the XBMC...
I moved it to my gf's place last night. After initially setting it up to her wifi and showing her how to access Sb and Cp, and how to navigate the menus with her iPhone, "thus endith" my first XBMC build.
My build for MY place...
TO BE CONTINUED
