[thomasf]

I'm looking for a new htpc - it should only run xbmc and nothing else. So I would prefer if it runs xbmc live without any problems.

Next it should be as quiet as possible. I don't need any harddrives or optical drives. Fanless would be great - if there is a fan inside it must be extremly quiet. I'm really sensitive when it comes to fans/noisy systems - I Just returned the boxee box and the wdtv live hub because of their fans.

At the moment I only found the shuttle xs35. The downside is the missing gigabit network and no optical out. But I could just attach my little usb stick sound card which has a optical out which works under linux.

Are there any other/better options? In my ideal scenario I would buy the box, attach my usb soundcard (if necessary) and my usb mce ir reciever and everything works.

[poofyhairguy]

OMG if you returned a WD Live because it is too noisy then the shuttle xs35 is really your only option.

Don't worry about the lack of gigabit. I have a few Blu Ray rips that maximize the standard and they all stream perfectly over a 100mbs lan.

[thomasf]

OMG if you returned a WD Live because it is too noisy then the shuttle xs35 is really your only option.

the WD TV Live Hub - not the normal WD TV Live.

[mr.sparkle]

don't mean to hijack but "Blu Ray rips that maximize the standard"

which ones and how so?

[poofyhairguy]

the WD TV Live Hub - not the normal WD TV Live.

Oh.

Either way I still say Shuttle. It is the current "in" system for its fanlessness. USB sound card work perfectly in Linux.

[poofyhairguy]

don't mean to hijack but "Blu Ray rips that maximize the standard"

which ones and how so?

What I mean by that is there is a couple Blu Rays that fill an entire dual layer BD rom without almost any extras on the main disk. I consider these to max the standard because you can't fit anymore on a disk.

As for examples, Avatar always comes to mind...