Second-gen XBMC box - ideas?
#1
Hi all,

I've been using a purpose-built XBMC player under my telly for about a year now, with an Athlon X2 260, an Asus M4A78LT-M mobo and an MSI G210 fanless graphics card, and XBMC installed on an OCZ 60Gb SSD. The PSU is a 380W Antec Green, and it all sits in a Silverstone ML03B.

I've run various flavours of XBMC Live and XBMCBuntu.

I'm now thinking of 'upgrading' to maybe improve compatibility a little and definitely improve the noise levels.

Right now I'm looking at the following:

Pentium G530
Asrock H61M Socket 1155 with HDMI
Some sort of Pico PSU

...and hoping that I can get away with the G530's integrated graphics (the G210 would still be available to me as a fallback, of course, since it doesn't add any further noise).

Just wondering if anyone has experience of any of these elements and can offer advice? Will the G530 still give me as slick an XBMCBuntu experience as the X2 260? Will its integrated graphics be good enough for up to 1080p playback? (I don't play BluRay rips, so no 24fps stuff for me - telly can't cope with it anyway).

Also, does anyone have any ideas on which Pico PSU would be up to coping with that? I'm looking at the 90W or 120W one at present, although I note that both 150W and 160W versions are also available...

Any advice or comments appreciated,

Discy
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#2
Why change if it has been working? is most of your noise then coming from your PSU? why not get a pico for what you already have? or a fanless PSU if it bothers you?


I had a Gt210 before and was happy. Played everything....

you want to change cases? The case you have I like...
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#3
In case you want something silent I can recommend a build similar to my own http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=139045

More than enough performance und zero noise - no moving parts inside. Wink

Mike
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#4
(2012-09-17, 13:41)Beer40oz Wrote: Why change if it has been working? is most of your noise then coming from your PSU? why not get a pico for what you already have? or a fanless PSU if it bothers you?


I had a Gt210 before and was happy. Played everything....

you want to change cases? The case you have I like...

No, I don't want to change cases. I like it too!

I think most of the noise is coming from the PSU, although I'm going to double-check this with the lid off the case before buying anything, of course.

Can a Pico PSU cope with the X2 260 and the GF210?

I'm also a bit cheesed off with an nVidia bug in XBMCBuntu Eden that crashes every time you try to play a video. I've found a workaround, but in doing so it breaks things like NFS sharing, which would be my preferred route instead of Samba. So I thought it'd be worth trying the integrated G530 graphics; my playback needs are relatively simple. Mostly 720p, occasional 1080p, no 3D and no gaming.

Discy
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#5
(2012-09-17, 14:06)discmeister Wrote:
(2012-09-17, 13:41)Beer40oz Wrote: Why change if it has been working? is most of your noise then coming from your PSU? why not get a pico for what you already have? or a fanless PSU if it bothers you?


I had a Gt210 before and was happy. Played everything....

you want to change cases? The case you have I like...

No, I don't want to change cases. I like it too!

I think most of the noise is coming from the PSU, although I'm going to double-check this with the lid off the case before buying anything, of course.

Can a Pico PSU cope with the X2 260 and the GF210?

I'm also a bit cheesed off with an nVidia bug in XBMCBuntu Eden that crashes every time you try to play a video. I've found a workaround, but in doing so it breaks things like NFS sharing, which would be my preferred route instead of Samba. So I thought it'd be worth trying the integrated G530 graphics; my playback needs are relatively simple. Mostly 720p, occasional 1080p, no 3D and no gaming.

Discy

why not going for openelec? im running it right now with my gt430 and it is working like a charm. Just pick the general build, my build is likely the same as you + the same case Smile
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#6
(2012-09-17, 14:06)discmeister Wrote:
(2012-09-17, 13:41)Beer40oz Wrote: Why change if it has been working? is most of your noise then coming from your PSU? why not get a pico for what you already have? or a fanless PSU if it bothers you?


I had a Gt210 before and was happy. Played everything....

you want to change cases? The case you have I like...

No, I don't want to change cases. I like it too!

I think most of the noise is coming from the PSU, although I'm going to double-check this with the lid off the case before buying anything, of course.

Can a Pico PSU cope with the X2 260 and the GF210?

I'm also a bit cheesed off with an nVidia bug in XBMCBuntu Eden that crashes every time you try to play a video. I've found a workaround, but in doing so it breaks things like NFS sharing, which would be my preferred route instead of Samba. So I thought it'd be worth trying the integrated G530 graphics; my playback needs are relatively simple. Mostly 720p, occasional 1080p, no 3D and no gaming.

Discy

Yes a picoPSU should be fine but you have to get some adapters to reach your sockets... you should talk to Dougie Fresh he knows more about this then me... hopefully he will see this thread.

I don't know about the bug you are talking about. Never had XBMCBuntu...

Maybe you should try openELEC... or windows 7...

http://openelec.tv/
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#7
Windows 7 seems an enormous amount of load for only XBMC, surely?

OpenELEC does avoid the nVidia bug, yes, but has problems in other areas. It's much harder to configure, for starters, thanks to a read-only file system that's an utter pain to edit via SSH.

What are you running if not XBMCBuntu?

One other reason to shift is that I've been thinking about making my server upstairs a bit leaner and quieter anyway. While the XBMC player hardware is relatively noisy under a TV, it'd be a useful upgrade on the server system. Effective 'rolldown' is an integral part of any IT solution, I always find. Smile

Discy
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#8
With the G530, a picoPSU would handle it no problem. I am not sure if you put the GT210 in there how it will do but when I've tried it with a HD5450 + i3-2100 I was able to use a 84W AC adapter and it ran fine. I did not test it running maxed out though so I can't say. Discrete video cards are a variable that makes it hard to say how a picoPSU will do.

The G530 definitely out-performs the X2 260 so no worries there.

I am surprised there's any noise from your EA-380D. I've done many builds with the EA-380D (and still have one in my living room HTPC) and I've never heard even a whisper from them. Could it be your CPU cooler? Are you using the stock cooler? Did you try unplugging any case fans to see how the noise changes?
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#9
So I guess the main point of my question is, does anyone here run XBMCBuntu on a G530 with the integrated graphics and if so, what's it like?

Here's hoping Dougie Fresh gets involved in this discussion: I really think PicoPSU could be a useful part of the system, but am totally lost on what rating I should go for...

Discy
Ah, Dougie beat me toit!

From what you say, it sounds like the 120W Pico adapter should be fine...?

I'm going to take the lid off the player tonight and fire it up. The CPU fan is aftermarket, a Scythe Shuriken. That bit was a no-brainer - I've had appalling experience with noisy stock AMD coolers over the years.

Kind regards, and thanks for replying,

Discy
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#10
Jeje forgot to ask about the cooler... AMD's older coolers like my phenom make so much noise....
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#11
You could always just replace the PSU fan with a quieter one too.

A nice picoPSU setup is the picoPSU 120-WI-25 with a 18.5 or 19V 120W AC adapter. It's more money than the 12V picoPSU but the 19V AC adapters are easier to find than a 120W AC adapter with a 4-pin mini-DIN plug.
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#12
Dougie,

I was thinking of this combo - would it not do?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PicoPSU-120w-P...869wt_1357

Thanks for your help,

Discy
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#13
Technically, the harness for the barrel connector is not supposed to exceed 8A(96W). It's in the manual on the mini-box website.

I see these combinations being sold however so I am not sure why. It might be worth contacting mini-box to find out.

If you use the 19V one, then 120W is only 6.3A, below the spec.
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#14
Ouch - an alarming amount of that last post meant nothing to me, Dougie. Are you saying that I shouldn't buy one of the 120W combos? And can you point me towards the 19V one that you're talking about? Want to get this right...

Thanks for your patience, and input!

Discy
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#15
Also Dougie, how does the one I linked to differ from this one?

http://www.quietpc.com/picopsu-160-xt-acdc

Is there any reason why one is more suitable or credible a combo than the other?

Yours in confusion,

Discy
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