Cheap and little 1080P box

coffeeman Wrote:any reason why you went with such a low powered GPU with an i3 cpu?
I mean you could of easily went with a high powered gpu and made this thing play pretty much any game you threw at it?

+1, why go for i3 when the gpu is for g530? It's out of proportion!

Eskro,
I followed your guide and built this XBMC box. I installed XBMCbuntu on it and booted it up. I have it connected via an hdmi cable to my TV. When I view the screen, it doesn't fill the entire screen. I can't seem to find anywhere to adjust the resolution on the box. I have tried the screen adjustments in XBMC, but they still limit the amount of the screen it will fill. Does Linux support this GT 210 GPU? Also, does the card require that I connect the SPDIF from the GPU to the Motherboard? I don't have audio yet, but that is common in my experience with a new system in XBMCbuntu. If I don't need the SPDIF, I'll follow my previous threads to correct the audio issues.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

SirScott13, which TV do you have? If it's a newer TV, see if it has a 1:1 or "Scan" picture mode.

It is a Vizio 55" LCD/LED. I checked the settings on the picture modes and I have the option to set it to Normal, Stretch, or Wide. I have always used normal when setting it up in the past. This new box is replacing a unit which connects perfectly fine and is formatted correctly. Also, I don't think this has any effect on the situation, but the box connects to my AV receiver and that passes through to the TV.

hello all. I've been using an acer revo 3700 running windows 7 for my xbmc for a year or so, and i am mostly happy with it. however, i wanna upgrade to something with both more power and flexibility. i am looking for what i guess would be a group 6 in eskros guide, i have a budget of 500ish not including ssd and i would like to get the most bang for my buck (light gaming and streaming mkv) my only requirement is that the htpc case be black so it matches the rest of my rack. thanks in advance

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if the onboard/integrated graphics that comes with the ASUS P8Z68-M-Pro would be good enough to do 2D 1080p? (the resolution is supported but I dont know if it will be good enough)

I have this board sent in for repair but bought a Z77 board in the meantime and was thinking about dropping an i3 on it to make a replacement for my ATV1 media PC when it comes back.

any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.

hello all.. been reading this forum and it's been a lot of reading.. and lots of good info.. i'm planning to build an htpc for the first time.. and decided this set up is the one i like... i'll keep you guys updated... any tips, tricks, suggestions before i get started?

hello again.. so i came up with a shopping list based on this thread and item availability ..

what i want:
- OS is linux (researching on this now.. any inputs are appreciated)
- plays 1080p movies with HD Dolby/DTS (both from mkv's and using the blu-ray drive)
- connect to a receiver (harman kardon avr 1650) via 1 hdmi cable without a loss of audio/video
- connect this to some kind of central storage system where i store all my movies, music, pictures (not sure what to do here yet, any suggestions?)

questions:
- is this set up enough / too much?
- if i were to get a mobo with HDMI, is a GPU needed? which one yields better result?
- would this set up play 1080p with HD Dolby/DTS?
- can this set up plays music without any loss in quality?
- can this play 3D 1080p ?

components:
[CPU] Intel Core i3-2120 Dual-Core Processor 3.3 GHz 3 MB Cache LGA 1155 ($121.98)
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i3-2120-Dual...004KZDV8E/
[mobo] ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM R2.0 LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard ($69.99)
http://www.amazon.com/P8H61-M-LE-CSM-R2-...008NA1K0S/
[GPU] GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP ($55.99 - $10 MIR)
http://www.amazon.com/Express-ENGT430-1G...005LJWISW/
[case] SilverStone Aluminum/Steel Micro ATX Media Center/HTPC Case ML03B ($52.99)
http://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Alumin...004GGUAUE/
[PSU] Corsair CX Series CX430 430W ATX12V / EPS12V ($49.99)
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CX500-Cros...B0092ML0MY
[SSD] Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s ($72.99)
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial%C2%A064-2-...004W2JKWG/
[RAM] Kingston Technology HyperX Blu 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM ($24.99)
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technolog...B003NWWM30
[Bluray] LG Electronics UH12LS29 ($44.99)
http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-UH1...007HO548U/

Total is about $494


Any inputs/suggestions are appreciated.. thanks!

btw, there a good deal (i think) on a kingston 120GB SSD ($99 - $35 MIR)
http://www.buy.com/prod/kingston-hyperx-...06365.html

valid only on 9/13 - 9/14

IMO I think what you have there is too much for what you seem to want it to do.

For CPU, it isn't too much persay, but you could get the cheaper i3-2100.

GPU, there is no need for a discrete GPU unless you are planning on gaming. The iGPU and onboard HDMI will do everything.

Mobo, personally I would look at something like the ASRock H77M, but I don't know exactly what you want in terms of functionality on a motherboard.

You didn't list a HDD, are you going to store all your media on the SSD? If not, then even a 32Gb SSD would suffice for Linux, the 64GB Crucial M4 is a good choice. Personally I try to stay away from SandForce controllers (too much reliability issues in the past, there has been patches to fix those issues but still.. makes me uncomfortable lol)

The ML03 has a PSU depth restriction of 140mm and a ODD depth restriction of 170mm, while the parts you selected fit within those restrictions, be mindful about it because it will be a tight fit for connectors.