[dustobub]

http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalo...oards.html

Who needs the appletv anymore? Wish it had a better video chipset and DVI/HDMI, but it would still make a damn nice little xbmc htpc.

Dustin

[dustobub]

No SPDIF support either, too bad. But it is a sign of things to come.

[topfs2]

I think "fly creek" looks more promising if you want to go beyond 720p (atom is a bit slow :S)

http://www.mini-itx.com/2008/03/06/intel...itx-boards

Also on display was a DG45FC board (codename "Fly Creek"). The G45 chipset has rather nice X4500HD integrated graphics, supporting High Def H264 and VC-1 decoding in hardware.

Intel DG45FC Mini-ITX board

This one has an Intel G45 + ICH10-R chipset; LGA-755 socket supporting 65W FMB Intel Core 2 CPUs (Wolfdale and Conroe); Dual output through 1x DVI-I and 1x HDMI ports; 2x Dual Channel DDR2 800/667 DIMM slots; 4x SATA 2.0; 1x 82567LM Gigabit LAN; 5x Audio & S/PDIF out (10 channel audio with Dolby HT); 6x USB 2.0 + 4x USB 2.0 headers on the board; a PCIe x1 Slot and 1x eSATA port.

The hw decode won't be usefull in linux ofc. but the other speccs are quite nice, though no coaxial s/pdif but I suspect it is somewere on the motherboard, just need to scourge through the manual and add some small additions

[davilla]

http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalo...oards.html

Who needs the appletv anymore? Wish it had a better video chipset and DVI/HDMI, but it would still make a damn nice little xbmc htpc.

Dustin

I've seen it, not played with one yet. 1.6GHz model, with 512K of L2 cache, Faster CPU but much less L2 cache than the AppleTV. Similar 82945G chipset. on-board intel video. Might be a push in performance compared to the AppleTV.

It's around $100, add case, memory, disk, ps, and wifi and you are over the $225 AppleTV price. AppleTV is under 30 watts running and can get down to 18 watts idle, less if you sleep the disk.

[dustobub]

True, although I like where these things are going. Check out this:

http://www.portwell.com/products/detail....1=PEB-2736

I've got some interesting xbmc projects floating around in my head.

[davilla]

Just checked some cpu stats, The 1.6GHz atom is about 1/2 as fast performance wise as a 1.7GHz Pentium-M. So a little slower than the 1GHz Pentium-M in the AppleTV.

Just an FYI for those thinking about ITX form factor. Anything that can take a 2.0GHz Core2 Duo or above will be able to handle 1080p h.264 decode and display. GPU does not really matter as nothing in the Linux world does mpeg4/H.264 GPU assisted decode. Just the motherboard is going to cost around $225 to $300, add cpu, memory, disk, enclosure and ps.

Think MacMini -> 1.8 to 2.0GHz Core2 Duo with standard on-board Intel GPU. Anything with similar hardware can do 1080p.