[skiddyrow]

Hi folks, I've been running XBMC for a while off my iMac and finally decided to try my luck with an inexpensive build for my bedroom. I've set up XBMCbuntu on the hardware below and it works great. From extended reading through the forums I understand that Openelec offers better Fusion support so I'm now considering that as well. However, I wouldnt mind having full desktop functionality as well so am considering Ubuntu 12.04 with XBMC instead, but if this would cause a performance issue on this board then I would happily give that idea up - I did try the live version off a USB stick and found it not as smooth, but thats probably because of additional drivers not being installed. Would anyone using a Fusion board be able to give me some insight on which OS would offer the best performance / features?

Video Performance

In general, video worked great but I did have some tearing issues - I adjusted some settings based on a forum search and that seems to have solved the issue. Does anyone have any recommended settings for this processor / board that I can refine performance further?

WiFi issue

Also having another strange problem with my Netgear WNA1000M USB WiFi adapter. The system detected it during install and it also displays available wireless networks. When I enter my password and try to connect, it tries connecting for around 30s to a minute and then pops up the password dialog again. Signal strength is great (3-4 bars) but it just does not connect. The same problem occurred with the Ubuntu 12.04 live USB as well, so this seems to be a Ubuntu issue (also found several posts but not a solution on the Ubuntu forums). Anyone able to help me with this?

Hardware

Here's my hardware list - due to the limited choices available to me here in India with the Mini ITX form factor (both in terms of cases as well as motherboards), I did some shopping around at the local markets and found both this case and the motherboard as pretty much the only option without having to order online for higher priced hardware (it seems to work well enough for quite a few people, based on a forum search, so I went ahead and bought it). Total system cost was around $200.

Case

Prime Source CC-19S Mini ITX with 100W Power supply
http://primesource.in/inner_products_pcc...cc-19s.htm
At under $40 for a neat looking case with a 100W power supply, this was a good buy. Build quality is also pretty decent.

Motherboard

Digilite DL-AHD1S-K (Branded Foxconn AHD1S-K)
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDet...-us0000533
AMD Hudson D1 E350 Processor (1.6GHz Dual Core) AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics core. Got this for around $90

Storage

Kingston 32GB SSD

RAM

Corsair 4GB

Wireless USB Adapter

NETGEAR G54/N150 Wireless USB Micro Adapter
http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wir...1000M.aspx

[skiddyrow]

Anyone? Have waited 3-4 days before bumping this thread. In the meantime I've tried Ubuntu 12.04 with XBMC and performance is worse than XBMCbuntu. Tried installing updated catalyst drivers and messing around with the settings in XBMC but video still not as smooth and also some weird driver issues (screen fills with static while launching XBMC). The only positive here is that my USB WiFi adapter works out of the box.

The weird thing now is that after installing Ubuntu 12.04, I can neither install Openelec or XBMCbuntu. Openelec just does not boot into the installation screen, and XBMCBuntu works in live mode, but even if I try to install it does not let me format the SSD before installing and ends up working as a live install. Anyone know how to resolve this?

Thanks - would appreciate any feedback - I'm a Linux noob and really dont want to go back to WIndows out of frustration.

[wsnipex]

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=116996

[skiddyrow]

Thanks wsnipex, I have seen that thread, but being a first time linux user, that seems a little daunting to install. Also I dont need PVR functionality so I'm not sure if that's the right one for me. As an update, I've tried the new Openelec Fusion build and video plays flawlessly! Unfortunately the WiFi USB adapter is not working so need to check that. Also when the system is powered on before the receiver the resolution is not full HD - I guess I need to try the Openelec forums for this issue.

Thanks for the response, and I will try that thread once I understand a bit more about it.