Cheap but more powerful PC to run XBMC for Linux?

BLKMGK Wrote:There's no easy Linux image yet is there? I think I saw you guys had an EFI shim that required no Apple files at least.

No disk image as the plan is to be able to install from a current distro LiveCD, then do some easy fixes for full device support.

It's not too hard to install MythBuntu 7.10, then use apt-get to convert it to full Ubuntu, then apt-get xbmc.

A cdrom boot/install guide is coming, I've recently done this under KnoppMyth KM5F27, the current release. I've also learned a few tricks along the way to eliminate doing a kernel rebuild.

waldo22 Wrote:at which point you may as well just run XBMC on an Xbox, right?

It's probably almost twice as fast as an xbox, which usually can't handle h.264 dvd rips. The pentium M in the Apple TV is 1GHz apparently, but it's faster MHz for MHz than the Celeron 733Mhz (p3 derived) in the xbox1.

2MB of L2 never hurts either

I like the idea of building a machine with this:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...6856101064

A lot of people seem to think that the GMA950 will not handle the output in 1080i/p. Interestingly enough yuvalt put together a thread suggesting a build with a GMA950.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=31539

This summer I plan to build a GMA950 box to run XBMC, but I have to keep open the possibility that the GMA950 won't be enough, in which case I'll probably add one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...6814130289

Of course it could be that the PCI bus in incapable of handling the output, but I really won't know until I try.

Cheers!

@frosty,

You'd have to use a video card because that shuttle has no DVI output. Unless ofcourse you've got the vga on your tv.

Kuhl Wrote:@frosty,

You'd have to use a video card because that shuttle has no DVI output. Unless ofcourse you've got the vga on your tv.

Yep. I have a cable that breaks vga into R,G,B,H, and V, and inputs on the back of my TV for each. It's an old HD RPTV that would only normally do component and composite, but thankfully has one more input for those. I don't really care if the interface is ultra-smooth, just that I can output at 1080i and not have a problem with playback. As I think that's mostly a decode and CPU limitation, the longer I wait, the better processor I can get for the least amount of money. My current in progress build is here, and I hope to keep it under 300 with a better processor by the time I actually go ahead with it. I may also drop the CF to 4 gig instead of 8 to cut costs down, or put in a real hard drive to all this to do my torrents and usenet work as well.

My other option is to go with a mac mini instead as it would likely be a lot more plug and play, but is unfortunately much more cost prohibitive.