[nighty2k7]

Hi,
As XBMC 13.0 has just been released I'd like to push my planned HTPC migration.

I am currently using a Atom330/ION system with OpenELEC 3.2.4, which I want to replace because OpenELEC4 based on XBMC 13 has a slight lag between audio and video for me on that system. Also interface-wise a performance bump would be nice.

* I don't care for size/noise/wattage
* The system will only be running for watching movie or tv series, (no music center or TV station),around 2-6 hours per week
* The system is positioned in the basement with a 15m HDMI cable up to the living room TV (Needs good HDMI output to bridge the 15m cable (which is out of HDMI specs)
* Needs reliable standby function (USB wake up via USB remote)
* Needs proper 24p output, I can't stand seeing movies stutter


* Option A: I have a PC standing around (Intel E5200/4GB) and could buy a dedicated GPU for that system
* Option B: I could buy newer system components (Beema, Haswell) to put into a mini itx chassis/psu I have around or use the chassis/psu from Option A

I would spent around 120$ for either a dediceted GPU or a mainboard/cpu/gpu combination.

Do I have additional options?

[Aquarius]

Hi!

I just replaced my old IONITX ( a Zotac ION/Atom 330 board) with a bay-trail-D mother board. There are several of those lying around and a whole thread about them here on this forum. I only easily available one in my country was the Gigabyte one. (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product...id=4881#ov ).
The bay trail CPU maxes at 10W (GPU included) and is roughly comparable to my old Core 2 Duo.

[nighty2k7]

Hi!

I just replaced my old IONITX ( a Zotac ION/Atom 330 board) with a bay-trail-D mother board. There are several of those lying around and a whole thread about them here on this forum. I only easily available one in my country was the Gigabyte one. (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product...id=4881#ov ).
The bay trail CPU maxes at 10W (GPU included) and is roughly comparable to my old Core 2 Duo.

Hi,
took a look at those and some reviews, and the miniITX boards (if using the old ION-mini-ITX-case) would require me to buy some so-dimm RAM (2GB=17€), I have one regular 1GB DDR3 stick lying around (Is 1GB enough for OpenELEC?) I could also buy a used Nvidia GTX 560 2GB for 60€ and use that in my old E5200 system, which would enable it as a potential gaming system.


Asrock Q1900B-ITX 57€, 2GB RAM 17€, shipping 7€ =81€
Asrock H81M-ITX 50€, G3220 46€, free 1GB DDR3, shipping 7€ = 96€
Intel E5200 system with 2GB RAM 0€, Nvidia GTX 560 60€ = 60€

Which would you recommend on that basis?

[Aquarius]

Asrock Q1900B-ITX 57€, 2GB RAM 17€, shipping 7€ =81€

Close to what I have so enough for my needs, but maybe not for yours (deinterlacing, 3D video... stuff like that might not work, go read the bay-trail-D thread).

Asrock H81M-ITX 50€, G3220 46€, free 1GB DDR3, shipping 7€ = 96€

More powerfull but too much power consumption & noise for my needs.

Intel E5200 system with 2GB RAM 0€, Nvidia GTX 560 60€ = 60€

Cheepest but you uses a lot more elec power than your old ION board. If the objective is to replace your ION board as closely as possible, then your solution is Bay trail D or AMD AM1. If your needs are different then it's only up to you.

[nighty2k7]

Hi,
just wanted to report back on the path I chose:

I bought:
* Used G3220 (37,90€ including shipment)
* New Asrock H81M-ITX (58€ incl. shipment)
* Use the mini-itx case/psu/ssd from my ION system

And I am gonna use the DDR3 stick I got lying around and am sure I got a couple of other DDR3 sticks coming around for free over the next months (swaps/upgrades at work)

[Aquarius]

This should work fine good luck for your build.

[nighty2k7]

Some feedback on how it went:

For a temporary setup I left my ION system intact and used

420W BeQuiet PSU
8GB DDR2 stick from my server (The 2GB stick I thought I could use was a DDR2 type...)
Asrock H81M-ITX Board
The used G3220
Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
Gigabit LAN
Rii Mini USb remote

* I put everything together, updated the Bios to v1.70, then installed OpenELEC 4.0 via USB-Stick to the SSD.
* The board did not boot from a 8GB CNmemory USB stick, I then used a 2GB Transcend stick, which worked fine.
* OpenELEC booted fine, added shares, set audio to HDMI (Panasonic TX-P50UT50e)

Everything very nice so far, however I have to deal with three problems:

* The Rii Mini USB can wake up my ION system just fine, but I cannot get the Asrock board to wake from sleep. I set every option in BIOS to "wake up by USB mouse, wake up by USB Keyboard", but it just won't wake up. (Is there any setting in BIOS I could try?)
* I noticed that on movies content was missing and saw overscan is active. In OpenELC 3.x I never had any overscan activated (It IS deactivated on the TV, so it must be from the OpenELEC driver. Is this known?
* Every now and then Audio plays on and video stops playing, most of the times suddenly video restarts again nd catches up to audio.

I am gonna try OpenELEC 3.2.4 for the last two problems, and am quite content to get those fixed. However how can I handle non-working USB wakeup?

Is this a weakness of AsRock boards or of that specific model? Are there boards known to have working USB wakeup like the MSI H81I or ASUS H81I-Plus or Gigabyte GA-H81N?

[nighty2k7]

Yeah, I got USB wake up (Rii Mini USB to Asrock H81M-ITX) to work with the following settings in BIOS:

With the 3.0 controller active I could not get USB wake up to work, I disabled it in BIOS

Code:

ACPI Configuration: Only activate "USB Keyboard/Remote Power On
USB Configuration: USB controller: enable, USB 3.0 controller (disable), Legacy USB support (enable), Legacy USB 3.0 support (disable)

In Openelec use SSH and execute:

Code:

echo EHC1 > /proc/acpi/wakeup
echo EHC2 > /proc/acpi/wakeup

Use the USB 2.0 ports to plug in your remote!

I also changed the temp 8GB Crucial stick against a 2GB Samsung DDR3 stick, so I am at my final setup now and will put it inside a case in the evening. With that setup I watched a 1080p ~13Mbit/sec file 24p for 45 minutes, everything smooth, no stutters, no hiccups, no hangs.

I would also like to note that the Asrock board handles the 15m HDMI cable distance without artifacts, in my experience not all devices deliver a clean HDMI signal over 15m. Also the Rii Mini is used over a USB-RJ45 extender, so my HTPC can be based in the basement, so I don not have to deal with noise, place or aesthetics.