• 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5(current)
  • 6
  • 7
  • 31
Best XBMC HTPC Hardware with HDMI / HD / 1080p + HDMI Audio
#61
I've been keeping my eyes open for a new/upcoming motherboards that could be suitable for XBMC. Knowing that in general ATi/AMD graphics dont play nice with Linux, I put aside the currently popular 780G chipset and focused on Intel & nVidia. Intel G45 is still on the horizon and looks like it will turn up around September which of course leaves the current nVidia option as 8200.

However, we are just starting to see the arrival of nVidia 8300 based boards and the Asus M3N78-EM is the first one that seems to tick all the boxes. I guess it should be available later this month.

Anyone else have any thoughts about this?
Reply
#62
Icey Wrote:I've been keeping my eyes open for a new/upcoming motherboards that could be suitable for XBMC. Knowing that in general ATi/AMD graphics dont play nice with Linux, I put aside the currently popular 780G chipset and focused on Intel & nVidia. Intel G45 is still on the horizon and looks like it will turn up around September which of course leaves the current nVidia option as 8200.

However, we are just starting to see the arrival of nVidia 8300 based boards and the Asus M3N78-EM is the first one that seems to tick all the boxes. I guess it should be available later this month.

Anyone else have any thoughts about this?

Can't confirm any ATI/AMD Problems with Ubuntu 8.04 at least.
Though I got my PCI Nvidia 8500GT running right now, that was cause I wanted Component out first before I got my new Plasma with HDMI, the onboard ATI 1200 on my 780G board works flawlessly with the ATI driver provided by Ubuntu. I'll report more, as soon as I got my HTPC box done. Few more things to do like fan control, digital sound etc.

boba
Reply
#63
Icey Wrote:I've been keeping my eyes open for a new/upcoming motherboards that could be suitable for XBMC. Knowing that in general ATi/AMD graphics dont play nice with Linux, I put aside the currently popular 780G chipset and focused on Intel & nVidia. Intel G45 is still on the horizon and looks like it will turn up around September which of course leaves the current nVidia option as 8200.

However, we are just starting to see the arrival of nVidia 8300 based boards and the Asus M3N78-EM is the first one that seems to tick all the boxes. I guess it should be available later this month.

Anyone else have any thoughts about this?


If you want Intel + Nvidia 8200 you will have to wait because there aren't any MOBOs yet with the 8200 for Intel CPUs. Only for AMD.
Reply
#64
I'm in a rather slow process of building a HTPC with some extra network gateway and server functionality. The demand for double gigabit ethernet ports, small system size, hdmi, appropriate processing power and low power consumption led me to the Jetway J9F2 motherboard.
mini-itx.com
Jetway Mini-Itx
Jetway
linitx.com
I'm not sure it will play 1080p material under linux althou I really hope it will and it might need a better soundcard with some nicer ports. Still probably a decent solution for xbmc if you want to keep the case as small as possible and still get some kind of punch from it.
Reply
#65
Haohmaru Wrote:If you want Intel + Nvidia 8200 you will have to wait because there aren't any MOBOs yet with the 8200 for Intel CPUs. Only for AMD.

Thats okay... I actually prefer to use AMD since they have lower power CPUs - something like the 4850e should be sufficient.

As for the chipset I really didn't want to use the 8200 since I keep reading issues. That being said the 8300 may also have it's own issues.... but at least its a faster graphics core.
Reply
#66
The new Shuttle looks like a good candidate to me for XBMC. Onboard NVIDIA GeForce 8200 + AMD AM2+ support. Plus it has evetything you need for a HTPC.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...pk=SN78SH7

I wish someone could review it. I wonder how noisy it is.
Reply
#67
cejstrup Wrote:I have an old E6600 and a Nvidia GeForce 7100 card and I have absolutely no problems decoding 1080p at all. CPU is not loaded much

With what CPU? Others running same hardware as me save video card have reported issues with The Bird clip and others. the video card seems to make a slight difference and in any case the card I bought was CHEAP. Bitrate makes a big difference, one clip vs another. Right now I wouldn't go AMD for the CPU either - the 45nm C2D are STOMPING the AMD offerings and at reasonable prices.

I have a Shuttle XPC with a quad core in it. Because it's clocked to the Moon and overvolted it gets pretty warm when transcoding and the fans are set to run on high - that's loud! Run something like an E8400 though and you will be much much cooler and ought to be able to get away with much lower fan speeds that will be quiet.
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
Reply
#68
BLKMGK Wrote:With what CPU? Others running same hardware as me save video card have reported issues with The Bird clip and others. the video card seems to make a slight difference and in any case the card I bought was CHEAP. Bitrate makes a big difference, one clip vs another. Right now I wouldn't go AMD for the CPU either - the 45nm C2D are STOMPING the AMD offerings and at reasonable prices.

I have a Shuttle XPC with a quad core in it. Because it's clocked to the Moon and overvolted it gets pretty warm when transcoding and the fans are set to run on high - that's loud! Run something like an E8400 though and you will be much much cooler and ought to be able to get away with much lower fan speeds that will be quiet.

As I said. The CPU is an E6600. Intel Core 2 Duo. Wink

I've tried to play the bird clip and there's no noticable problems playing it.
Reply
#69
cejstrup Wrote:I've tried to play the bird clip and there's no noticable problems playing it.

Did you try pressing "i" on the keyboard and watch the "dropped frames" variable?

Shorty
Reply
#70
BLKMGK Wrote:Right now I wouldn't go AMD for the CPU either - the 45nm C2D are STOMPING the AMD offerings and at reasonable prices.

Stomping is a bit hard I think. Eek

The new 65W Brisbane Core 5600+ 2.9Ghz for 103$ seems a best buy for me right now.

The E8400 (65W 3.0Ghz)costs almost the double of it.

Are 87$ really worth for 0.1 Ghz more ?
Reply
#71
does it really make sense to be specing hardware right now given all the development work in the GSoC in terms of GPU hardware acceleration? If the work is succesful, wouldn't that greatly reduce the hardware requirements to run XBMC?
Reply
#72
Haohmaru Wrote:Stomping is a bit hard I think. Eek

The new 65W Brisbane Core 5600+ 2.9Ghz for 103$ seems a best buy for me right now.

The E8400 (65W 3.0Ghz)costs almost the double of it.

Are 87$ really worth for 0.1 Ghz more ?

Are you really telling me that you think they perform equally clock for clock?Laugh How about heat dissipation? Power usage? I have an E8400 running 3.8Ghz in this workstation, I do not think I could achieve the same performance with an AMD for a reasonable cost. Yes, I've owned many AMD and until the C2D that was all I had in house.

In this case we simply need "good enough" for the task at hand. I've seen lots of folks with AMD having playback issues, far fewer with Intel I think. IF you can get smooth playback and no dropped frames with the $100 chip buy it but don't buy it just because the rated speed is close for a lower price.
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
Reply
#73
BLKMGK Wrote:Are you really telling me that you think they perform equally clock for clock?Laugh How about heat dissipation? Power usage? I have an E8400 running 3.8Ghz in this workstation, I do not think I could achieve the same performance with an AMD for a reasonable cost. Yes, I've owned many AMD and until the C2D that was all I had in house.

In this case we simply need "good enough" for the task at hand. I've seen lots of folks with AMD having playback issues, far fewer with Intel I think. IF you can get smooth playback and no dropped frames with the $100 chip buy it but don't buy it just because the rated speed is close for a lower price.

Well, of course Intel Core2 is faster clock by clock, but in my eyes it can't be the solution to put a dual core 5 ghz machine into your living room just to play videos, can it?
Anyway, as I stated before, I didn't test 34384734 1080p videos, but any of the H264 1080p trailers I threw at my AMD 4850e (running at default clock) played perfectly fine so far. So I do not see a reason to put a system into my HTPC, which could participate in the super computer top 500 list. That's simply rediculous. Plust, HW MPEG4/H264 etc. accel will come to linux sooner or later.
Reply
#74
I think we all know the only 1080p test we care about is the killa sampla. Trailers generally aren't encoded at too high a bitrate anyway.
Reply
#75
I got my components (see my sig) yesterday and slapped them together but I am having trouble with the front panel (power, LED, speaker, etc.) plug (which is all one piece) not matching up with the connector on the Mobo. I am going to try my hand at pulling each wire out and connecting it manually, but I have never done this before so this is frustrating. I am contemplating dropping $75 for a new case (the one I am using is old) just to avoid the issue.

So, I had hoped to report total success last night but alas, it looks like one or two more days before I'll have a chance to get XBMC up and running on the new system.
Supporter of all things Linux, Android, XBMC and NextPVR
Reply
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5(current)
  • 6
  • 7
  • 31

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
Best XBMC HTPC Hardware with HDMI / HD / 1080p + HDMI Audio3