OpenELEC ☆ Build #3

No Netflix HD with E-350 or Atom -- neither are powerful enough to handle software rendering of high-def content (Netflix uses Silverlight which as of last checked does not always do GPU acceleration).

Celeron 847 (as cwide alludes to) is the minimum.

Or a DIY Celeron 847 system, some of the boards are showing up on sale for $60 after mail in rebates or $80 with 8GB memory included. Add a cheap case with a power supply and you have a system capable of running Windows and XBMC for much less than most of these pre built systems that will only be okay with OpenELEC.

You can literally build an Openelec DIY Celeron 847 system for around $130 right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813128585 - $50 AR

http://www.amazon.com/MI-008-Tower-Black...s=ITX+case - $53

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-ValueRAM-...=2+gb+ddr3 - $20

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-TS16GJF7...lash+drive - $11

Total: $134 or $123 with spare USB drive.

Not the greatest case though. Add $30 for http://www.amazon.com/ANTEC-OEM-ISK110-V...=antec+itx

This is a nice ITX case that comes with a power supply for $61: http://www.directron.com/emc600bl.html that works well for a Celeron 847 motherboard.

@SKANK: at this moment, only the Pivos XIOS seems recommended because it gives you hardware decode.
android is fairly new in the htpc scene so, expectit to be buggy and clunky working a bit.
im not ready to go full android now in my htpc because of this.
someday i will tho, its going there. just not ready for prime time consumer level as of today.

@cwide: it is cheap, but again you need to look into what suits you best feature wise.
If you need FULL 3D 1080P and HD-Audio Bitstream, then its not for you.
then, it might be a noisy system with the APEC MI-008 PSU just on top of the CPU cooler,
you'll need to add a side Fan like many did in there with that case, so you add cost there just for that.
the ISK110 is a better case since it comes with a fanless PSU or that nice Habey case Dougie posted here http://goo.gl/5c5qX,
i forgot that one! nice catch Dougie!
also, that gigabyte board has bad reviews to me.... i dunno...

FWIW, eskro's build in the first post will support HD audio bitstreaming in Windows, just not on Linux/OpenELEC. The hardware can do it, there just isn't the driver for it in Linux.

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(2013-05-29 04:35)eskro Wrote:  also, that gigabyte board has bad reviews to me.... i dunno...

Where? When I look at the Newegg link I see 5 eggs for 16 reviews, two of which weren't good but all others were 5 eggs.

You can't recommend Foxconn and Zotac and then say Gigabyte gets bad reviews

correct Dougie