[Nilrecurring]

I want to run Ubuntu (or XBMCbuntu) on a soon to be purchased HTPC.

Which of these two builds would be better for that?

Note: prices are in New Zealand dollars. Also note that this is both a backup unit and an HTPC.

Build 1:

Antec New Solution NSK2480 Black = $150
Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 2120 = $150
CORSAIR VS2GB1333D3 2GB (1x2GB) 240-Pin DDR3-1333 CL9 Retail - $35
GIGABYTE H61M-S2PV LGA1155 Intel H61 = $100
EVGA GeForce GT210 1GB DDR3 PCI-E low profile = $55
Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 = $200
And some soon to be decided bluray drive = $140

Total = $840

Build 2:

Antec New Solution NSK2480 Black = $150
AMD A6-3500 Liano 2.4GHz 3MB L2 Cache Socket FM1 (with Radeon HD 6530D) = $110
Asus F1A55-M AMD A55 Socket FM1 mATX 4x DDR3-2250 RAID Onboard VGA DVI HDMI = $110
CORSAIR VS2GB1333D3 2GB (1x2GB) 240-Pin DDR3-1333 CL9 Retail - $35
Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 = $200
And some soon to be decided bluray drive = $140

Total = $740

[F1y3r]

I was thinking about the exact same question just yesterday, but I'll do my best not to hijack your thread.

The build that I was considering was almost exactly the same. In fact, I was specifically looking for a mobo with a parallel port because I like my old printer so much. I think AMD build would really benefit from faster ram though.

The only potential problem that I see with the second build is AMD video drivers. Video acceleration works in both AMD and Nvidia blob drivers, but It's still not quite ready in the open source drivers. Even worse last month AMD dropped support for HD 2000/3000/4000. Some HD 4000 cards were released just 3 years ago and now you can only use them with either older X.org or open source driver. Whereas Nvidia still updates their legacy driver (FX 5 series) for new versions of kernel and X but doesn't add any new features. Maybe someone could confirm XBMC works with Gallium3d? I think that if at least h264 and hdmi sound work then It's no problem if AMD decides to drop support for some more "old" hardware.

[Nilrecurring]

Yeah, I have a decent amount of experience with Ubuntu and AMD video cards. My laptop has an HD 6630M and seriously I loathe AMD for their terrible Linux drivers. I've found that basically you can either use the proprietary drivers which will let you game, but have huge amounts of tearing in video and desktop (even games actually), or you can use the open source drivers and have nice video playback. Naturally, you'd opt to use the open source drivers, however, playback is terrible if you're trying to play extremely high quality 1080p mkv files.

I've also tried every single compiz configuration I can think of, and the tearing with the proprietary drivers is still really prominent. Even with AMD's "tear free desktop" enabled, it's still horrible. So I'm leaning in favour of the Intel/Nvidia build.

But yeah I just need an opinion that isn't my terrible AMD Linux experience

[bossanova808]

I think AMD build would really benefit from faster ram though.

The only potential problem that I see with the second build is AMD video drivers. Video acceleration works in both AMD and Nvidia blob drivers, but It's still not quite ready in the open source drivers. Even worse last month AMD dropped support for HD 2000/3000/4000. Some HD 4000 cards were released just 3 years ago and now you can only use them with either older X.org or open source driver. Whereas Nvidia still updates their legacy driver (FX 5 series) for new versions of kernel and X but doesn't add any new features. Maybe someone could confirm XBMC works with Gallium3d? I think that if at least h264 and hdmi sound work then It's no problem if AMD decides to drop support for some more "old" hardware.

What's the big deal with AMD and faster RAM? I have 8Gb of DDR3 1333 and it's blazingly fast with both Windows and Openelec, although the Intel 520 SSD has a lot to do with that I am sure....I can't really see it being faster for XBMC purposes.

Overall, with XBMC, the AMD video performance with OE is on par with ION, perhaps slightly better overall - much smoother on AMD (way less frame drops etc), but ION has much better SD quality scaling. No issues with AMD and 720/1080 material though, breezes through it. No tearing etc. There is some occasional flicker when stopping a movie and dropping back to the XBMC UI, but it's not much, and with an A6-3500 even Aeon Nox etc. is silky silky smooth. The big issue is total lack of support for HD audio under linux, but other than that unless you watch a lot of SD (and it's only really noticeable on cartoons), AMD/linux is pretty good. With OE-PVR you get a very comprehensive and capable box going easily.

On Windows, you can get HD audio working, and in theory you have better video quality too thanks to better drivers, but I am still exploring and basically having Windows under there, with focus issues etc, is a bit of a pain. Also, TV server support under Windows I have not explored as much but it seems that as dushmaniac has concentrated on TvHeadEnd, that works the best overall (it really is super easy under OE, I plan to try For The Recors Argus under Windows soon)...

If you go the AMD route, you could always add a fanless nvidia 430 or something later if you jsut can't live with the AMD linux thing - about $AU85 over here. But then you'd end up with a weaker CPU + discrete than the Intel.

It's really irritating the NVidia hasn't gone any further than ION with more integrated stuff....obviously i3 + nvidia is a definite option and probably the best for linux in all as vdpau is a LOT more established the xvba...

[thethirdnut]

+1 for the Nvidia build.

[jackh]

Build 1:

Antec New Solution NSK2480 Black = $150
Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 2120 = $150
CORSAIR VS2GB1333D3 2GB (1x2GB) 240-Pin DDR3-1333 CL9 Retail - $35
GIGABYTE H61M-S2PV LGA1155 Intel H61 = $100
EVGA GeForce GT210 1GB DDR3 PCI-E low profile = $55
Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 = $200
And some soon to be decided bluray drive = $140

I built a nearly identical Linux HTPC recently, search for my previous posts for details.
In a nutshell, I'd go with your option 1 (above) but would change the CPU for an Intel G530 or G620, whatever you can find in your country. The i3 is an overkill. I used the G530 which has power to spare and costs half or less, also put a GT210, and it works like a charm
Oh, and I'm not only a Linux fan, but also a not-too-savvy Linux fan

[teaguecl]

Also note that this is both a backup unit and an HTPC.

I would encourage you not to combine your HTPC with your backup mechanism. Everyone has their own desired features/options, but this combination very rarely works out. These two features don't overlap very much in their requirements, which leads to lots of compromises. For example:
- HTPC's aren't normally on 24 hours a day, backup systems (usually) are
- HTPC's are typically low power, small form factor, quiet, livingroom machines. Backup systems don't necessarily need any of that.
- Backup systems don't need video cards (or monitors, or keyboards)
- Backup systems usually require large/loud cases to hold many HDD's. This is normally not desirable in a HTPC
- Backup systems need to be very reliable - nearly 0% downtime. HTPC's like XBMC powered devices tend to be tinkered with occasionally, resulting in downtime. For example, the upgrade from the old XBMCLive to XBMCbuntu might have been pretty painful for a HTPC+Backup system.
Think it through it, and if it makes sense to you to combine them, go for it - everyone has different needs.

Otherwise, I'll echo the previous sentiment - don't bother with AMD graphics on Linux.

[Nilrecurring]

Yep, thanks guys, I went ahead and bought the Intel/Nvidia build.

Also note that this is both a backup unit and an HTPC.

I would encourage you not to combine your HTPC with your backup mechanism. Everyone has their own desired features/options, but this combination very rarely works out. These two features don't overlap very much in their requirements, which leads to lots of compromises. For example:
- HTPC's aren't normally on 24 hours a day, backup systems (usually) are
- HTPC's are typically low power, small form factor, quiet, livingroom machines. Backup systems don't necessarily need any of that.
- Backup systems don't need video cards (or monitors, or keyboards)
- Backup systems usually require large/loud cases to hold many HDD's. This is normally not desirable in a HTPC
- Backup systems need to be very reliable - nearly 0% downtime. HTPC's like XBMC powered devices tend to be tinkered with occasionally, resulting in downtime. For example, the upgrade from the old XBMCLive to XBMCbuntu might have been pretty painful for a HTPC+Backup system.
Think it through it, and if it makes sense to you to combine them, go for it - everyone has different needs.

Otherwise, I'll echo the previous sentiment - don't bother with AMD graphics on Linux.

Yep, I 100% agree with you. I actually probably shouldn't have said "backup unit" it's more just something to back up the 4TB or so of stuff I've ripped from TV show/movies I have. So it would only be used for media storage, I mainly just wrote that to explain the couple of HDD's a put in it.

So it's not really a backup unit in the server type sense. Thanks though, I hadn't actually thought of that so it should be helpful to know in the future