Best XBMC HTPC Hardware with HDMI / HD / 1080p + HDMI Audio

Look at my sig below, Gigabyte with Intel 3100, OpenGL 1.5.
Plays Killa Sample without hickup or audio stuttering
Plays all my *.mkv files that my former AMD system didn´t without audio/visual stuttering on some content.

Actually mine not a PCI card, it's a board made for the ASUS boards as I recall. Plugs into a header on the board. I'll try to find it, funny thing is a Google search already brings up my previous post! :-O

I have decided to go with an ATX board instead of micro-ATX, since space is not an issue for me (case will be hidden in a component cabinet). So, I'll be going with the GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L with a E8400 and a GeForce 9600 GT. That should be able to handle anything I throw at it. Works out to about $150 more, but at least it know I will be able to do anything I want.

My experience with Abit I-N73HD so far...... (With E8200 and 2x1GB)

Setting up was a breeze, all hardware seems to be supported nativley, yay!

Audio
Optical passthrough works, although at first only AC3 movies were coming through, but after looking at audio hardware settings i changed the default audio device to match the pass through one (iec956 or something)
Now i get mp3's and mp3 movies too, i'm still not getting UI sounds through optical, is this hard coded or is it just me being thick?
Playing the killa sample it looks ok, but pressing "i" on the keyboard it tells me it looses between 40 and 120 frames. Everything else plays fine.

Video
Everything just works as expected and looks perfect quality wise, except one problem.
All i can output so far is 720p or 1080i, at first i thought this was user error, but some searching leads me to think that maybe this board cant do 1080p by design, can anyone clarify? (My 720p projector accepts a 1080p input)


Network
Again, supported by default and just works, although if you plan to use LiveUSB Xbmc, check my post in that thread.

So other than the 1080p thing i'm fully happy with everything (ie. not so happy )

Shorty

ShortySco Wrote:My experience with Abit I-N73HD so far...... (With E8200 and 2x1GB)

Setting up was a breeze, all hardware seems to be supported nativley, yay!

Audio
Optical passthrough works, although at first only AC3 movies were coming through, but after looking at audio hardware settings i changed the default audio device to match the pass through one (iec956 or something)
Now i get mp3's and mp3 movies too, i'm still not getting UI sounds through optical, is this hard coded or is it just me being thick?
Playing the killa sample it looks ok, but pressing "i" on the keyboard it tells me it looses between 40 and 120 frames. Everything else plays fine.

Video
Everything just works as expected and looks perfect quality wise, except one problem.
All i can output so far is 720p or 1080i, at first i thought this was user error, but some searching leads me to think that maybe this board cant do 1080p by design, can anyone clarify? (My 720p projector accepts a 1080p input)


Network
Again, supported by default and just works, although if you plan to use LiveUSB Xbmc, check my post in that thread.

So other than the 1080p thing i'm fully happy with everything (ie. not so happy )

Shorty

this post is useless without pics! soo... pics! btw i have the same prob with the liveusb @ my motherboard..

ShortySco Wrote:My experience with Abit I-N73HD so far...... (With E8200 and 2x1GB)

Setting up was a breeze, all hardware seems to be supported nativley, yay!

Audio
Optical passthrough works, although at first only AC3 movies were coming through, but after looking at audio hardware settings i changed the default audio device to match the pass through one (iec956 or something)
Now i get mp3's and mp3 movies too, i'm still not getting UI sounds through optical, is this hard coded or is it just me being thick?
Playing the killa sample it looks ok, but pressing "i" on the keyboard it tells me it looses between 40 and 120 frames. Everything else plays fine.

Video
Everything just works as expected and looks perfect quality wise, except one problem.
All i can output so far is 720p or 1080i, at first i thought this was user error, but some searching leads me to think that maybe this board cant do 1080p by design, can anyone clarify? (My 720p projector accepts a 1080p input)


Network
Again, supported by default and just works, although if you plan to use LiveUSB Xbmc, check my post in that thread.

So other than the 1080p thing i'm fully happy with everything (ie. not so happy )

Shorty

How did you setup the remote?

Which remote? Took me minutes on my setup...

LOL, yeah, which remote? I don't have one.

But FWIW i was planning to get a Gyration media center suite

It should be great as it's a WiiMote style mouse and media center remote in one working on 2.4ghz and IR, i've read it works great out of the xbox in XBMC as mouse/keyboard, some tinkering gets the buttons working too. And as an alternate option there's always LIRC, since it's IR too.

Shorty

Check my sig, ZipZoomFly sells them cheap cheap - as I've posted a few dozen times. It's pretty much PnP too - as I've posted many times.

I was new to the scene and I wanted something to upgrade from my stock original Xbox that has been my XBMC for years now, and she's finally showing her age. I just put together this lil rig and its running circles at everything I throw at it. Here is the specs. I might note that the thing you want to steer clear of the most... ONBOARD audio, they are horrible in any situation and suck cpu cycles! Anyways the other thing I wanted was LOW cost... And I came in under 250 bucks for the whole rig.

All items purchased at newegg. Here is a print of my invoice. You search the part #s

11-108-058 HTPC CASE IN-WIN|IW-BT566T.300BL RT 1 $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811108058

13-135-066R MB ECS GF7100PVT-M 775 7100/630I RT 1 $35.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...813135066R

80-125-001 DIGI REMOTE EDATA TECH DEC-200B R 1 $29.99
COM DISCOUNT FOR COMBO #106604 1 ($10.00) ($10.00)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6880125001

29-102-002R SDCARD CREATIVE|SB0570 AUDIGY SE RT 1 $25.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...829102002R

20-231-121 MEM 2G|GSK F2-6400CL5S-2GBPQ R 1 $42.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820231121

19-116-039 CPU INTEL|C430 1.8G 775 512K R 1 $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819116039

I had to purchase 2 things from Creative's Website for this to be complete. 1) was the low profile bracket for the soundcard to work with this case.
http://us.creative.com/products/product....duct=16916

2) was the SPDIF adapter plug which made a great extention to the 3ft cable I already had so that was bonus.
http://us.creative.com/products/product....duct%20Img

Got the rig running Ubuntu 8.04 and latest XBMC and its running everything perfectly fine. Make sure you go into the bios and assign it 256MB ram to the video (stock is 128MB). Lastly the biggest thing I liked with this setup. Its ultra quiet, runs stock at 29degrees C, and LOW power consumption. If you go with a dualcore/bigger processor (which this setup is capable of) will generate more heat and suck more juice thats not needed imo!