[poofyhairguy]

What about the build in this thread?
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1117165

That is a winner.

[Boulavogue]

probably a noob post but How about a £25 Raspberry Pi running raspbmc?
Still in RC2 with some bugs but a potential contender? http://www.raspbmc.com/

The 'your item has been dispatched' email came in this morning for my Pi so hopefully will be able to bring more first hand info on raspbmc to the community shortly

[Bladerunner1962]

Cause you have already a Windows 7 Licence I would recommand
the LENOVO Q180 with 2GB RAM (absolutly enough for only movie viewing!).
So you also able from start to have also HD Audio via HDMI (DTS HD and
TRUE HD)
Nice design, very quiet fan, small.
Amazon: 249€
But you have to order in addtion an IR-Device (20-30€).

I have the Lenovo now 6-7 weeks and I'm happy.

[Dougie Fresh]

As long as you don't plan to watch Netflix HD video (or anything Silverlight) the Q180 (D2700) is a good choice.

Bladerunner, are you running Windows on the Q180? What do you think of the responsiveness? Have you noticed any strange lag minimizing/maximizing windows, navigating menus, etc.?

[Bladerunner1962]

@dougie Fresh

yes, I run Windows 7 64bit on the Q180

I guess your questions belongs to what I recognize in working with XBMC on the Lenovo?
if yes:
there are no problems within the navigation...its very fast....as it has to be

minimizing/maximasing...no idea, what you exactly mean with that....

where I have a small issue is sometimes the coverflow speed...depends on the view modus
selecting a movie...but I'm meanwhile sure, this has nothing to do with my system...
cause CPU is always very low....this has more to do with the no. of movies...

perhaps you could congrete your question

[poofyhairguy]

where I have a small issue is sometimes the coverflow speed...depends on the view modus
selecting a movie...but I'm meanwhile sure, this has nothing to do with my system...
cause CPU is always very low....this has more to do with the no. of movies...

That is where a SSD rocks.

[DJDJDJDJ]

Thanks guys. Would you be able to recommend some makes/models that I should check out on ebay?

If not Windows, I would rather go with a Linux based system than ATV. I just like that fact and a fully functional PC will give me more options that a simple TV box such as Apple TV.

[maddog808]

No, I got one of the 970015s. It is is possibly more robust than the old model but still not near what real GPUs do.

I think for the money an AppleTV 2 is a better deal than the 1 and for a little more ION 1s do the best at the sub $150 price point.

I recommend just building an ION box (of course). You can get the mobo for pretty cheap now:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ZOTAC-IONITX...806wt_1236

Get a cheap Mini ITX case with a PSU like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ark-2-Bay-Mini-I...555wt_1141

And some cheap RAM:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-1gb-Kit-...500wt_1251

And a cheap SSD:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kingspec-8GB-2CH...321wt_1236

Throw on XBMCbuntu or Openelec and enjoy your library.

Why not just get what Poofy suggested here?

[DJDJDJDJ]

I will have to check and see which of these parts (or something similar) are available here in the UK. All those link are for the US Ebay.


BTW, is Raspberry Pi device any good?

Thanks.

[Mick1152]

The Raspberry Pi is making progress towards being a decent, low end, cheap media player. There are working builds of OpenELEC and Raspbmc that are both working for playing movies now. User interface is reportedly sluggish. You can find a ton of Youtube videos of the Raspberry Pi running some form of XBMC or another. I probably wouldn't use it as my main HTPC but, I do have one on order on the chance it may be an excellent system for my spare room TV or my garage TV.

My concern with the Raspberry Pi, is that many people are hearing it will run XBMC and are getting ready to jump into it, without understanding this is a very limited little system that is going to be sluggish in the user interface. This may turn some people off of XBMC as a whole if this is their only experience with it.

[ragedogg69]

I recommend just building an ION box (of course). You can get the mobo for pretty cheap now:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ZOTAC-IONITX...806wt_1236

Get a cheap Mini ITX case with a PSU like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ark-2-Bay-Mini-I...555wt_1141

And some cheap RAM:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-1gb-Kit-...500wt_1251

And a cheap SSD:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kingspec-8GB-2CH...321wt_1236

Throw on XBMCbuntu or Openelec and enjoy your library.

What about the build in this thread?
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1117165

I'm building a basic budget HTPC for my bro-in-law who needs it to run XBMC and occasional web browsing. He'll mostly stream videos online in XBMC and Netflix, very little full 1080p video playback. He won't use it extensively, maybe a few hrs a day. Here's the build so far:

CPU: Intel Celeron G530 2.4 GHz ($44.99)
http://www.directron.com/bx80623g530.html

Motherboard: ECS H61H2-M2(1.0) H61 HDMI Micro ATX ($14.99 AR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813135288

Ram: G.SKILL NS 2GB DDR3 1333 ($12.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820231395

Case & PSU: Apex DM-318 includes 275W PSU ($36.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811154062

SSD: Waiting for a deal on any 64GB SSD like this one (around $44.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820227794

All in all, looking at a basic build for about $154.95. Looks like enough power to stream video in XBMC and use the browser occasionally. Any feedback or see any problems? I am considering upgrading to 4 GB RAM and maybe a Pentium instead of Celeron.

Would any of these have enough horsepower to run win7 (32bit?) and utorrent in the background while watching a 1080p movie in xbmc?

[thefrog]

The Raspberry Pi is making progress towards being a decent, low end, cheap media player.

I have one, and XBMC it is sluggish in strange places. I think if I were to put the DB onto a MySQL server somewhere in the house it would be much faster. My biggest problem is the lack of an MPEG2 hardware decode license g(raspberry pi mpeg2). Since almost all of my content would need transcode to play (7tb), I set it aside and started looking for other hardware ...

Hence my post in this thread.

--thefrog

[CuBox]

Hi,

Have you checked out CuBox by SolidRun? Might be what you're looking for. www.solid-run.com

Hi,

I am looking for an inexpensive (not cheap) device to act as my XBMC front-end. Currently, I have a server with all my media. I have a few netbooks connected to my TV playing XBMC. All seems to be working find except that some of my 1080P videos stutter with one of my Netbooks. I have verified that this computer is CPU bound. It cannot process full HD video.

So, I am looking for a small device with HDMI output that can run full HD videos. Also, I know a lot of you will frown upon this but I would prefer to use a device running Windows. All my systems are Windows based with server running Server 2008 R2. It just makes it simpler for me to manager my network.

BTW, I am in the UK. Are there any devices under £100.00?
If some of you on the other side of the pond want to recommend something from the US, that would be fine as well. I have have someone purchase it and ship it over as long as it uses dual power.

Thanks a bunch.

[assassin]

We are working on an inexpensive xbmc device. Our prototype is complete and we just had our first order for one. Stay tuned as our option could be what many of you are looking for and will be better than everything else at the same price point.

[stammie]

Thanks guys. Would you be able to recommend some makes/models that I should check out on ebay?

If not Windows, I would rather go with a Linux based system than ATV. I just like that fact and a fully functional PC will give me more options that a simple TV box such as Apple TV.

I was going to suggest an Acer Revo RL70 from ebuyer but it looks like the cheaper 2gb version isn't available now, this 3gb one comes in at £189.99 :-


http://www.ebuyer.com/344479-acer-aspire...-sj4ek-001

I've setup a couple of these recently for friends with windows 7 but primarily as xbmc machines and they are surprisingly capable little pc's considering the specs.

With hard drive prices still very high its quite hard to build a box for less than these things come in at.