ASrock Ionstar 330 vs. ASUS P4-P5N9300 for HTPC?

I finally decided to replace one of my old Xboxes with Linux running machine.

I narrowed down my choice to ASROCK IONSTAR 330

http://www.asrock.com/nettop/spec/ION%20330.asp

and ASUS P4-P5N9300 barebone with E5200 processor and 2gb of RAM, 500gb HDD and DVD-RW.

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=fEMLgh6B4GRRCGDK

ASROCK IONSTAR looks ideal but I am worried that even though it has a dual core atom processor it might strugle with some more demanding XBMC skins. On the other hand E5200 should have no preformance problems but I am worried that it will produce much more noise and heat.

I would appreciate any thoughts

That ASrock one looks AWESOME!
I hope its $300 or under, and is super quiet!

-Ash-

AshsToAshs Wrote:That ASrock one looks AWESOME!
I hope its $300 or under, and is super quiet!

-Ash-

UK price is 300 pounds

http://www.zonetronics.com/products/IONS...49-47.html

http://www.shinyhardware.co.uk/prods/sho...?pid=12168

Both of these systems (ASROCK and ASUS) would cost me about the same amount

koscica Wrote:UK price is 300 pounds

http://www.zonetronics.com/products/IONS...49-47.html

http://www.shinyhardware.co.uk/prods/sho...?pid=12168

Both of these systems (ASROCK and ASUS) would cost me about the same amount

I'd choose the ASUS myself, it gives a lot more potential CPU headroom.

koscica Wrote:I finally decided to replace one of my old Xboxes with Linux running machine.

I narrowed down my choice to ASROCK IONSTAR 330

http://www.asrock.com/nettop/spec/ION%20330.asp

and ASUS P4-P5N9300 barebone with E5200 processor and 2gb of RAM, 500gb HDD and DVD-RW.

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=fEMLgh6B4GRRCGDK

ASROCK IONSTAR looks ideal but I am worried that even though it has a dual core atom processor it might strugle with some more demanding XBMC skins. On the other hand E5200 should have no preformance problems but I am worried that it will produce much more noise and heat.

I would appreciate any thoughts

I have build for myself asus system with pc power 420 silencer PSU and Artic Cool Alpine Pro 7 fan (which is sub $15 and extremely quite) and with BIOS settings for the fan on QUIET this system is virtually noiseless

nikiiv Wrote:I have build for myself asus system with pc power 420 silencer PSU and Artic Cool Alpine Pro 7 fan (which is sub $15 and extremely quite) and with BIOS settings for the fan on QUIET this system is virtually noiseless

In the end I got ASUS P4-P5n9300
e5200 with a stock cooler
4gb of RAM
and 1.5 TB hard drive

It is very quiet (more quiet than my old xbox) and it does the job. The configuration is probably an overkill but I did not want to take any chances. The only problem so far is that I wasnt I able to use the inbuilt IR receiver but to be honest I didn't really try and started to use my xboxes IR reciver from the begining

Thant ASUS barebones looks interesting! Can you tell me if the pci-e expanasion slot will take a fullsize card or just a half height one? Also if any ventilation holes would be blocked if it was laid on its side?
Cant find much info on it so fi you have any link please post them!

got the manual off the ASUS site. Its a pity the S/PDIF-out takes up one of the pci expansion slots...

Scruffie Wrote:Thant ASUS barebones looks interesting! Can you tell me if the pci-e expanasion slot will take a fullsize card or just a half height one? Also if any ventilation holes would be blocked if it was laid on its side?
Cant find much info on it so fi you have any link please post them!

got the manual off the ASUS site. Its a pity the S/PDIF-out takes up one of the pci expansion slots...

Expansion port will only take half hight cards and you can lay it on its side without any problems ( ventilation holes will be on top of the case) but then you will have a plain metal side to the case

koscica Wrote:Expansion port will only take half hight cards and you can lay it on its side without any problems ( ventilation holes will be on top of the case) but then you will have a plain metal side to the case

How about HDMI audio, does it work?

I am running XBMC on two of the Zotac IONITX-A-U boards (Same guts as the ASrock) and I don't have any problems running Aeon Auriga. The new background loading feature of XBMC seems to level the playing field.