[Bram77]

Hey guys and girls . Finally, after staying loyal to the XBOX for ages, I'm building a HTPC and I'm struggling with what components I should use. I'm not as up-to-date as I used to be regarding the latest hardware.
So my hope is you will help me pick the right components for the cause...


What I want globally
I'll be using the machine for XBMC developement and testing, so I'd like to be able to add hardware components and expand a bit if required for testing. I like the all in one solutions a lot (especially the pricing and small cases), but these options just won't do it form me.

Case
- It needs to have a hardware volume knob and integrated infrared.
- A small display (for XBMC to display info on) would ne nice, but not required.
- If the case is silver metal, great! but not required.
- It needs to have a full sized optical drive slot (initially for DVD later for blueray)

Motherboard
- If I understand correctly a ION board would be the best choice a.t.m. Or should I choose a ION2 board?
- Are there boards available that support RAID (would be nice, not required)
- Integrated optical audio output
- Atom N330 (is this the best choice; performance/power consumption wise?)
- SATA300 (for SSD drive)
- HDMI + VGA output
- preferrably integrated wifi
- Pcie for optional expansion (tv-card, wireless upgrade, etc.)
- Preferrably multiple RAM slots

PSU
- Must be capable of the above of course

Remote
- I've used a Logitech Harmony for quite a while, but I think I'll rather use a dedicated remote for this one. Any suggestions? Maybe for a RF remote?

Silent / low power usage
- I don't want a noisy system. If it makes less noise then the XBOX (on 2% fan speed) I'm happy
- Power consumption is not as important as performance, the noise or expandability. But a nicely balanced system would be great

I'll be using the HTPC with Linux (and XBMC obviously). I'm not sure which branch of XBMC would be the best to use (Linux, Linux Live of Linux Live ION). I want to update from the SVN PPA on a daily basis.
My TV is a Samsung LE40B654.

Any advise would be very helpful! Thank you in advance

[ion_man]

For ION boards have a look here:
http://www.linuxtech.net/features/nvidia...rview.html

[Bram77]

Thanks! That's helping

The...

Zotac ION ITX-F-E
Zotac ION ITX A-E
Asrock A330ION

...seem solid. The asrock is quite a bit cheaper but doesn't have wifi onboard. I don't have any experience with Zotac. Is it a A-brand? Do they make reliable boards?

The Zotac ION ITX-F-E seems to be the best choiceat first sight.

[Bram77]

Does anyone have experience with the Thermaltake DH202 orThermaltake DH101 casings. They look great, have a volume knob, integrated IR with remote and a little display. About perfect although the color is black.

Will the LCD display of these cases and the remote+volume knob work with XBMC for Linux?

[aptalca]

I don't mean to hijack this thread or anything, but I've asked this question many times on many different forums, but never have I gotten a clear answer.

On ion (original), under win 7, with flash 10.1, how well does "Hulu Desktop" work with HD shows such as Legend of the seeker?

Please, I am only looking for an answer from someone who owns an ion box and uses it to watch "Hulu Desktop" (not in a browser, not through playon or boxee) on windows 7 with flash 10.1.

Please excuse my persistence, but every time I asked this question, I only got answers from people speculating or telling me what they heard, or simply giving me answers for other circumstances such as on linux, or with pre10.1 flash, or 320p feeds etc.

Thanks in advance

[ion_man]

I don't have any experience with Zotac. Is it a A-brand? Do they make reliable boards?

The Zotac ION ITX-F-E seems to be the best choiceat first sight.

Zotac is very popular for HTPC use, I have seen very few reports of defective boards on forums so I would consider them reliable, at least as much as AsRock.

Of course both AsRock and Zotac are probably not as reliable as Asus or Gigabyte, but they are not far behind either.

Even 'Point of View' should be fine since their boards are really made by Pegasus which is an Asus spin-off company.

[NotShorty]

On ion (original), under win 7, with flash 10.1, how well does "Hulu Desktop" work with HD shows such as Legend of the seeker?

Aww, poor little guy; your google must be broken. Hulu HD 720p - Legend of the Seeker. Is this good enough?
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2876/2

NS

[Zemy]

Thanks! That's helping

The...

Zotac ION ITX-F-E
Zotac ION ITX A-E
Asrock A330ION

...seem solid. The asrock is quite a bit cheaper but doesn't have wifi onboard. I don't have any experience with Zotac. Is it a A-brand? Do they make reliable boards?

The Zotac ION ITX-F-E seems to be the best choiceat first sight.

Hi Bram,

I have had this board (Zotac ION ITX-F-E) in htpc use with various XBMC systems including full desktop with Lucid. Currently using latest XBMCFreak version installed on SSD drive. I am very pleased with it.

Though I am wired to network and not using wifi to ensure the data flow from the NAS, where all the media is stored.
Some sound (HDMI) and display problems were encountered with previous versions. Now with current alsa (1.0.23) and Nvidia drivers (256.35) problems can be solved. Also this forum is great
and You will most certainly get all the needed help from here by searching and asking. Ofcourse this my opinion and comments is about Linux use not
any thoughts about the board with Windows-systems.

Zemy

[aptalca]

Aww, poor little guy; your google must be broken. Hulu HD 720p - Legend of the Seeker. Is this good enough?
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2876/2

NS

Well, Mr. SmartyPants You have done the exact thing I begged people not to in my original post.

Rather than providing first hand account, you have provided a link to a review. A review I have already read a long time ago. A review from 11/09/2009, long before 10.1 final was released.

The problems with that review are:

1) They are using a pre-relase beta of flash 10.1 (many people reported significantly increased cpu utilization in ion throughout betas, I don't know about the final version, but may very well be worse than the pre-release used in the review)
2) Legend of the Seeker was tested in a browser, not Hulu Desktop (I am not entirely sure if the one on Hulu Desktop is also 720p or not, but looks a lot better than other shows on Desktop)
3) They merely provided a cpu percentage (that seems pretty high at between 55-70%) and a single comment that is "watchable". No further explanation. (On my ATI3200HD and AMD x2 64 5000, Hulu Desktop is watchable, but there is quite a bit of tearing due to high cpu utilization, which annoys the hell out of me. On the other hand, Youtube HD trailers at 720p through xbmc-Youtrailer script play flawlessly with no tearing at all, and they did before 10.1 as well)
4) In this review, they show higher cpu utilization with Hulu in a browser compared to Desktop, using the same video. It seems weird, because many other reviews or witness accounts I have read mentioned the browser utilizes less cpu than Desktop. Several reviews also mention that browser works fine, but Desktop stutters every once in a while.

These conflicting reviews are the exact reason why I asked for a first hand account. All I expected was a simple comment like "Oh I watch Hulu Desktop on my revo 3600, it works well, except for a little tearing when the camera pans" or something like that so I would feel comfortable pulling the trigger on getting one.

With that said, I give up on my quest to get a simple answer. And I apologize for my rant in your thread, I will bother you no more.

[Bram77]

Thanks for the useful responses I'm pretty sure it'll be Zotac ION ITX-F-E that I'll purchase.

Any suggestions on the case choice? I think I've made my choice, but I'm still hoping for a answer regarding the Thermaltake DH202 LCD display and remote....are they working with XBMC? And if the remote does not fulfil my needs, could I use the IR port on the case for other remotes (like a M$ MCE remote)?

[cowfodder]

As far as dependability, I can comment on that first hand. I have the ionitx-G-E, and my first one died on me the day after Newegg's 30 day return policy was up. Basically, the grapics card died on me. It took Zotac less than a week to send me a brand new board. This one has been going strong for months now, running 24-7. I understand that sometimes there can be defective products, and I am more than happy with their service.

[burritoboy9984]

Why is a hardware volume knob a must? imo, it is much easier to use the tv/surround system to control the volume...

-Erik

[nickritus]

I'm also in the Zotac camp. Love mine and it runs XBMC and windows 7 like a charm. 1080p is no problem as long as you get DXVA(2) going.

I also have an antec case with a volume knob. It definitely looks the part having the A/V equipment style face. In practice though, I rarely use the knob. Also don't forget, if you use SPDIF the volume knob will not work for anything other than stereo output (i.e. dolby or dts) as it's passed through. So most of the time for me, it's ornamental at best.

[smalla]

why go back in time i am thinking o buying the ASUS AT5IONT-I http://www.outsidecomputers.nl/at5ionti-...-5363.html

it is ion 2, next month the "deluxe" version should be available with IR, WIFI and bluetooth

and it has usb 3.0 and ddr3

[burritoboy9984]

Here is a VERY good deal on one fitting your requirements...

-Erik