I'm confused... which hardware platform to chose?
#1
Ok guys, so many announcements in the past few weeks that it's getting difficult to decide which hardware platform to go with.

Up to a couple of weeks ago I was planning on building my own HTPC with Intel-I3 and a dedicated GT 430 to leverage HD audio, HDMI 1.4 and future 3D capabilities. But then at CES Intel announced their next generation CPU's which supposedly natively supports HD audio, 3D and HDMI 1.4. So that meant that I wouldn't need a dedicated GPU.

Now all the sudden I see the announcement of XBMC being ported to Apple TV2 ($99).

With all these options I'm ever more confused now. I definitely want an XBMC but I want the best bang for the buck. HD audio, HDMI 1.4 and future support for 3D are important.

So what are your thoughts? If you were shopping for a new HTPC which route would you take?
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#2
The Appletv is out- it is the most basic platform.

Anything using an Intel gpu is out, they never live up to promises

Best plan is where u started- custom box with GT430.

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#3
I tend to agree with that advice! The only time I would consider an ION nettop (~$200) or the ATV2 ($99) would be for additional rooms beyond my main home theater setup.

Those would make nice, small, client machines for streaming to a bedroom or other rooms. The reason I like the custom-built HTPC for my main room is control, upgradability, flexibility, and a sense of being more future-proof. Wink
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#4
bmcclure937 Wrote:I tend to agree with that advice! The only time I would consider an ION nettop (~$200) or the ATV2 ($99) would be for additional rooms beyond my main home theater setup.

Those would make nice, small, client machines for streaming to a bedroom or other rooms. The reason I like the custom-built HTPC for my main room is control, upgradability, flexibility, and a sense of being more future-proof. Wink

Is like you read my mind. I recently bought a Zotac for my bedroom and is simply amazing. Ticks all the boxes, small, quiet, boots fast, plays everything etc.

For the living room however, the i3 PC feels better suited for the job, I can't really explain why but it does. Perhaps for the same reasons you listed above.
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#5
bmcclure937 Wrote:I tend to agree with that advice! The only time I would consider an ION nettop (~$200) or the ATV2 ($99) would be for additional rooms beyond my main home theater setup.

Those would make nice, small, client machines for streaming to a bedroom or other rooms. The reason I like the custom-built HTPC for my main room is control, upgradability, flexibility, and a sense of being more future-proof. Wink

I know this machine would lack in what you outlined above - upgradability, flexibility, and future-proofy-ness... but what else could you need over a ~$200.00 machine like this Zotac if you're running XBMC live and streaming from a NAS of some sort?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856173005
I am trying to figure out if there is any reason to believe that any of these nettop's hardware is lacking in ways that I cannot see for XBMC today - aside from 3D (which I believe this machine may do - Poofy?).
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#6
The only differences I could see between the Zotac and the i3 setup was a slight delay on loading the background artwork on the reFocus skin and that it takes a bit longer to fill the images in thumbnail browse mode. Difference was marginal however, say i3 does it in 0.5s where the atom take 1 full second. Nobody noticed it besides me.

This is to be expected since the i3 is way more powerful than the silly atom and the skin rely on the CPU for rendering.

Video playback however was a lot better on the Zotac compare to the i3. nVidia card is clearly a lot better than the i3 GPU, this is why I ordered an upgraded nVidia card.
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#7
I understand the i3 is more powerful than the atom chip, but did you try the processor in that machine linked above:
Intel Atom D510 CPU (1.66 GHz, dual-core)
I was just curious if that was what you were specifically referring to.
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#8
For the record, I consider no ION box able to do 3D, and that includes that damn Asrock ION 3D box.

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#9
jdwoods Wrote:I understand the i3 is more powerful than the atom chip, but did you try the processor in that machine linked above:
Intel Atom D510 CPU (1.66 GHz, dual-core)
I was just curious if that was what you were specifically referring to.

My Zotac has the Atom 330 which is 1.6GHz dual-core.
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