Need opinion on new HTPC
#1
Planning on getting a new HTPC with following configs:
Zotac IONITX-Atom 330
Seagate HDD 320 GB
Kingston 2 GB RAM
DVD writer lite-on

Better than Acer Aspire Revo? (Besides glossy box)
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#2
Any case suggestions (<$40) ? (One available in India)

How about the Apex MI-008
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#3
Apex MI-008 is about the only decent case in that price range. Competing cases cost much more.

I think personally that such a setup would work great, I have something similar.
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#4
Thanks, few more queries i'd liked clear:

1. How about handling HD?
2. and Bluray?
3. Flash online (youtube) from and outside XBMC?
4. Some Gaming (PS1 emulation and XBOX emulation)?
5. General speed of loading thumbnails (posters and fanart)? (Currently on my P4 with no GPU it take a loooooooooooong time)
6.Just a question what image size is good for movie posters and fanart (To maintain balance b/w speed and quality for the HTPC that i plan on building)?

Thanks a lot,
Mohit
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#5
I like This Case over the Apex MI-008. It is a lot easier to work with, and has better airflow. I'm using a Zotac IonITX-G-E mobo with 2gb ram and a 500gb WB green drive, and my GPU maxes at 120 degrees fahrenheit.
1 and 2.Handles full 1080p and blu-ray just fine.
3. I've never tried flash or gaming on it, so I can't say for sure.
4. Should handle PS1 emulation no problem, not sure about xbox emulation.
5. Can be just a bit slow loading thumbnails sometimes, but this could be fixed with more ram.
6. I go with whatever the scraper downloads.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Public...r=11912385 That is my exact build, except I got the ram and HD locally.

The only issue I ran into with that case is that the optical drive door tends to stick a little bit. If you remove the front panel and take apart the door assembly you'll find that there is a tiny lip on the inside edge of the door that makes it stick. A little bit of filing with a round file took care of it.

For Blu-Ray playback under linux check out this thread.
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#6
Thanks for the reply, I like the case but newegg doesn't ship in india

Everything seems pretty similar.

I'd like to know more about lag in loading thumbnails and fanart on my setup and flash playback through firefox

And yes I'm setting this on windows Xp (or should i go for 7), which is more resource friendly.
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#7
Sorry, missed the part about it going to India. The lag isn't that bad on mine (XBMC-Live), it just takes a second or two sometimes when I scroll through the list quickly. I should also mention that transmission and Sabnzbd+ run fulltime in the background, so that may have something to do with the lag.
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#8
Hey.

Just wondering how you run transmission in the background?

Do you exit XBMC everytime you want to check on transmission or do you use the web client?
CPU:Intel 2100 3.1 Ghz RAM:Corsair 4 GB DD3-133 Mobo: Gigabyte H67M-D2-B3 mATX OS HDD: Corsair Nova Series 32GB SSD Storage HDD: WD Green 2 TB Video Card: ASUS EN210 SILENT ODD:
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#9
marcozd Wrote:Hey.

Just wondering how you run transmission in the background?

Do you exit XBMC everytime you want to check on transmission or do you use the web client?

web client+autotrans plugin for firefox. I right click a .torrent file on my desktop and send it to transmission on my htpc. I barely use transmission though, mostly sabnzbd. I'm using the XBMCfreak live disc, so transmission was already set up.

Sorry to thread jack OP.
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Need opinion on new HTPC0