XBMC HTPC! What do you think?
#1
I'm planning to build myself an xbmc box with the following components:

Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H, 790GX http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a354907.html

AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a387809.html

Corsair XMS2 DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-8500U CL5-5-5-15 (DDR2-1066) http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a360163.html

Noctua NH-U12P http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a295892.html

Western Digital Caviar Green 1000GB, 32MB Cache, SATA II http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a366846.html

Seasonic S12II 430W ATX 2.2 http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a258464.html

As a Case i got a Lian Li PC-V800 lying around which should get the job done.

So what do you think? Will this be enough to play 1080p flawlessly?
Will the 430W power supply be enough?
Should I change something? Does anybody know of any incompatibilities with those parts?

I hope you can help me make my decision;-)

Gotta go to work in a bit, got the damn nightshift:-( but i will be back around 2am (gmt+1) and will check here...maybe by then some of you already commented on my setup;-)
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#2
mybrain87 Wrote:I'm planning to build myself an xbmc box with the following components:

Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H, 790GX http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a354907.html

AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a387809.html

Corsair XMS2 DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-8500U CL5-5-5-15 (DDR2-1066) http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a360163.html

Noctua NH-U12P http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a295892.html

Western Digital Caviar Green 1000GB, 32MB Cache, SATA II http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a366846.html

Seasonic S12II 430W ATX 2.2 http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a258464.html

As a Case i got a Lian Li PC-V800 lying around which should get the job done.

So what do you think? Will this be enough to play 1080p flawlessly?
Will the 430W power supply be enough?
Should I change something? Does anybody know of any incompatibilities with those parts?

I hope you can help me make my decision;-)

Gotta go to work in a bit, got the damn nightshift:-( but i will be back around 2am (gmt+1) and will check here...maybe by then some of you already commented on my setup;-)

What operating system are you planning to use. Since you selected 4GB of RAM and posted in the Windows forum I suspect some Vista 64bit variant ? Do you plan on doing anything else with the PC besides XBMC?

If you are just using XBMC you might want to consider using the Linux version and exchange the mainboard for a board with integrated Geforce IGP. This way you will be able to use the GPU accelerated video decoding.

If you want to use Windows you might want to think about using just 2 GB RAM and instead get a stronger CPU (there is no GPU video decoding on Windows) and only use a 32bit Windows.
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#3
ccMatrix Wrote:What operating system are you planning to use. Since you selected 4GB of RAM and posted in the Windows forum I suspect some Vista 64bit variant ? Do you plan on doing anything else with the PC besides XBMC?

If you are just using XBMC you might want to consider using the Linux version and exchange the mainboard for a board with integrated Geforce IGP. This way you will be able to use the GPU accelerated video decoding.

If you want to use Windows you might want to think about using just 2 GB RAM and instead get a stronger CPU (there is no GPU video decoding on Windows) and only use a 32bit Windows.

I was actually planning on using 32bit Windows!
The PC will mainly be used for XBMC!

Does the GPU accelerated video decoding on Linux only work with Geforce IGP or also with ATI IGP? Maybe using linux instead of Windows might not be such a bad idea.

I havent heard so much good stuff about the Geforce 8200/8300 igp, thats why I think I would like to go with the 790GX even if it does not support PCM Sound through HDMI. This could later be corrected with the purchase of a new graphics adapter.

Maybe I will chose a Phenom quadcore...should be enough power, right?
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#4
mybrain87 Wrote:I was actually planning on using 32bit Windows!
The PC will mainly be used for XBMC!

Does the GPU accelerated video decoding on Linux only work with Geforce IGP or also with ATI IGP? Maybe using linux instead of Windows might not be such a bad idea.

I havent heard so much good stuff about the Geforce 8200/8300 igp, thats why I think I would like to go with the 790GX even if it does not support PCM Sound through HDMI. This could later be corrected with the purchase of a new graphics adapter.

Maybe I will chose a Phenom quadcore...should be enough power, right?

If you plan on using a 32 bit operating system then 4GB are more than your operating system can address. 2GB are enough for a Windows system and plenty for Linux.

The GPU accelerated video decoding on Linux currently only works with Geforce 8 series or better. Since I am using an Intel based system I'm not very familiar with the AMD specific chipsets. What issues did you hear about the Geforce 8200/8300 IGPs? Most benchmarks and tests compare gaming performance which isn't an issue for XBMC since the load on the rendering pipeline is relatively small.
The best way for now is probably to go for a Geforce IGP system with a free PCIe x16 and later upgrade to a faster dedicated GPU (maybe low profile depending on the case) if necessary.

At the moment XBMC doesn't benefit from more than 2 cores. A higher clock rate is more important. But if you are deciding to go with a Linux solution you can use the CPU from your first post since the videos will be decoded largely by the GPU. You would only need a really fast CPU on Windows since there everything is decoded by the CPU.

One other small thing - just so you are aware - if you plan on any Blu-Ray playback: there is currently no support for playing Blu-Ray disks directly on Linux.
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#5
Some respectable answers going on here, I can't guarantee mine will be! Big Grin

- If you do go for the 2.7 AMD chip, I'd love to know how you get on with 1080 content.
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#6
Why are people still buying AMD? It makes no sense whatsoever. The c2d is better. And whatever you do don't go for an Ati onboard solution if you're going to use linux.

I would go for a mb with either gf9300 or 9400 and a c2d e8400 cpu. That way you're safe no matter what.
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#7
o_dog Wrote:Why are people still buying AMD? It makes no sense whatsoever. The c2d is better. And whatever you do don't go for an Ati onboard solution if you're going to use linux.

I would go for a mb with either gf9300 or 9400 and a c2d e8400 cpu. That way you're safe no matter what.

I must say that I agree that a mainboard with a geforce 9 series IGP and an Intel CPU in the 2.5 GHz range is probably one of the best ways to go when using XBMC on linux but I didn't want to force my Intel view upon the original poster. Some people are very happy with AMD and they are good CPUs. It sucks that there are no Geforce 9 series IGP for AMD chipsets which is the only real issue I can see when going with an AMD.
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#8
Okay what about the following;

Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H, GeForce 9400 http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a379710.html

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (E0) http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a374043.html

Corsair XMS2 DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-6400U CL5-5-5-18 (DDR2-800) http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a267208.html

Noctua NH-U12P http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a295892.html

Western Digital Caviar Green 1000GB, 32MB Cache, SATA II http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a366846.html

Enermax PRO82+ 425W ATX 2.2 http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a312980.html

This should definitely be enough to play 1080p flawlessly, right?
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#9
mybrain87 Wrote:Okay what about the following;

Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H, GeForce 9400 http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a379710.html

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (E0) http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a374043.html

Corsair XMS2 DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-6400U CL5-5-5-18 (DDR2-800) http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a267208.html

Noctua NH-U12P http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a295892.html

Western Digital Caviar Green 1000GB, 32MB Cache, SATA II http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a366846.html

Enermax PRO82+ 425W ATX 2.2 http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a312980.html

This should definitely be enough to play 1080p flawlessly, right?

Looks like a very good setup. I love the mainboard - made me think about changing my setup Wink
The E8400 is a very powerful CPU. You will be able to play 1080p with that setup on Windows or Linux. If you use Linux I doubt you will ever really stress the CPU when you run with GPU video decoding - even with 1080p. I think you will have fun with that setup for quite a while!
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#10
Great! Thank you very much for the help!
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#11
One thing I would suggest you check out is this article

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/d...yback.html

It compares and evaluates most of the newer video card solutions both integrated and seperate as for use with a htpc. I had my heart set on that same motherboard until a user on another forum showed me this link.

Thanks to the info on that link and the help of a that forum member, I have chosen a cheaper setup that offers better video decoding.

As for your cpu, I have been pro intel for a long time now. I was planning on going the intel route until doing some investigating and realized that the amd cpu is plenty powerful enough to decode 1080p, blu ray or mkv.

Check out the amd 5050e, cheap, runs cool and uses 45w of power...very common amongst htpc builders.

I don't mean to go against other posters and their build methodology, just thought I would chime in and offer mine :o
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#12
FantaXP7 Wrote:One thing I would suggest you check out is this article

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/d...yback.html

It compares and evaluates most of the newer video card solutions both integrated and seperate as for use with a htpc. I had my heart set on that same motherboard until a user on another forum showed me this link.

Thanks to the info on that link and the help of a that forum member, I have chosen a cheaper setup that offers better video decoding.

As for your cpu, I have been pro intel for a long time now. I was planning on going the intel route until doing some investigating and realized that the amd cpu is plenty powerful enough to decode 1080p, blu ray or mkv.

Check out the amd 5050e, cheap, runs cool and uses 45w of power...very common amongst htpc builders.

I don't mean to go against other posters and their build methodology, just thought I would chime in and offer mine :o

So you've built this and can play say Killa' Sample with zero dropped frames? If you've not already done it please do not recommend it! Maybe it works on some other software but unless it's working on XBMC in your hands do not speculate. AMD has issues decoding HD compared to Intel so unless it's GPU accelerated IMO go Intel.

Right now the E8400 is probably MORE than what you need for pure software decoding. For VDPAU decoding on Linux Celeron and ATOM CPUs have been used, I think oen person using a PCI 8x video card even had HD working on a P4! So, consider scaling back the C2D CPU clock a little bit and know that if it's not quite enough to do software decoding you could likely overclock it. The 9x IGP solutions work well, IMO get oen with an HDMI port to do audio too....
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)
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#13
I have read from members here that it does indeed work. However, upon some further search on the forum, yes people have had problems. My appologies.
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