[jp123]

Hello!

I've spent the last couple of weeks getting a bit of information overload reading all the (excellent) recommendations on hardware for XBMC. I've been using XBMC for a couple of years as I used to live overseas until recently and had no english language TV so a way of organising downloaded content was a godsend.

Still, I'm running off a very basic setup - an old asus eee 1000h netbook with Win XP, xbmc, sickbeard + Couch potato connected with an RGB cable to my shiny new 37" LCD TV. As my library has grown the interface has started to creak and I'm obviously unable to play any full HD videos. Media is served from 3 external USB drives.

Tho I'm not really a frequent gamer I recently got a new i5 laptop for work which came with a radeon mobility 5450 which has whet my appetite - new games look very nice indeed even on low-medium settings + resolutions, and my wife has expressed an interest in games we can play together on the sofa.

I recently saw that Wii games can be emulated on the PC (which looks like a good option for 2 player games) and wondered whether it makes more sense to build a beast of a microATX machine that will handle modern games, emulation of recent consoles, plus all the tasty media that XBMC offers, or to build a nice quiet miniITX atom+ion rig for media only and maybe at some point put games elsewhere.

I had been thinking I might build a seperate desktop computer for work with some power for some gaming but actually I'm quite happy with the performance of the laptop for work and would like to avoid cable spaghetti if I did want to play games on a big screen hence the idea of integrating the two, but there seems to be very little discussion of this sort of build vs a media specific box.

So I guess my options are:

1. Acer Revo or similar, plus my just laptop or maybe even a console or something
2. i3 / AMD x4 with a GTS 450 or so for casual gaming
3. i5 2500 K with a GTX 460 for something that will last a long long time

1 is obviously simplest + cheapest
2 is not bad but i wonder if I'd feel i'd skimped too much if I did want to do more gaming
3 is probably overkill for something that will sit under the telly most of the time but could be good for some cinematic gaming experiences. Heat + power consumption may also be an issue tho it looks like Sandy Bridge is much less energy hungry than the early core i processors?

Any thoughts on what you would do? One big beast of a box that does everything except make you tea, or seperate tools for seperate jobs?

any advice would be much appreciated - cheers

[poofyhairguy]

I recently saw that Wii games can be emulated on the PC (which looks like a good option for 2 player games) and wondered whether it makes more sense to build a beast of a microATX machine that will handle modern games, emulation of recent consoles, plus all the tasty media that XBMC offers, or to build a nice quiet miniITX atom+ion rig for media only and maybe at some point put games elsewhere.

Personally I would rather have a ION system + a real game console any day of the week. To effectively emulate a Wii you need to dump about the same $ into hardware (so like $700) and it will be a incredibly wife-unfriendly experience (which I know from experience). Emulators and wives don't mix.

I did want to play games on a big screen hence the idea of integrating the two, but there seems to be very little discussion of this sort of build vs a media specific box.

High powered consoles like the 360/PS3 killed the market.

[jp123]

Personally I would rather have a ION system + a real game console any day of the week. To effectively emulate a Wii you need to dump about the same $ into hardware (so like $700) and it will be a incredibly wife-unfriendly experience (which I know from experience). Emulators and wives don't mix.

Ok, thanks - thats a useful bit of perspective

I was wondering if I could use something like the Advanced Launcher plugin to make using the games much smoother - browsing by cover, clicking and launching it - but theres still a fair bit of fiddling to do to get it all working.

I also quite like the idea of some of the PC games available but..

High powered consoles like the 360/PS3 killed the market.

To be honest I've been away a good few years - don't think I've even seen a PS3 or 360 in action. Perhaps I should
I do like some of the shiny gfx I've seen in the pc games I've played but I'm sure it would be more sensible to get a machine that it better suited to two player games - am I right in thinking that would be the Wii or are the ps3 + 360 also good at multiplayer games (split screen, not online) ?

Thanks!

[poofyhairguy]

Ok, thanks - thats a useful bit of perspective

You are welcome. My hobby is that I find out what works and doesn't with HTPCs so others don't have to waste their money. My wife doesn't always like it, but then I remind here that she too gets more toys than most (iPad2 on the way for her) so she has learned to accept it!

I was wondering if I could use something like the Advanced Launcher plugin to make using the games much smoother - browsing by cover, clicking and launching it - but theres still a fair bit of fiddling to do to get it all working.

You can, especially for older emulated games that works pretty well (SNES, Genesis, etc.). With modern games, not so much. Any ole ION system can play the classics.

I also quite like the idea of some of the PC games available but..

That is the thing though- to play recent PC games decently you need real hardware. The stuff I recommend all the time in this forum that I call the high end in HTPCs- GT430s and AMD X2- are the low end of gaming PCs. Like light gaming at best.

For a real decent gaming experience in 1080p you on average need to speed about $300 more (MINIMUM) on a better GPU, CPU and more RAM than needed for a HTPC. And that thing will be LOUD compared to any ION system, which is not the kind of thing most people want in their living-room.

To be honest I've been away a good few years - don't think I've even seen a PS3 or 360 in action. Perhaps I should
I do like some of the shiny gfx I've seen in the pc games I've played but I'm sure it would be more sensible to get a machine that it better suited to two player games - am I right in thinking that would be the Wii or are the ps3 + 360 also good at multiplayer games (split screen, not online) ?

I play multiplayer games on my 360 all the time with my wife. In particular she loves the kinect, which is an experience PCs don't even have yet.

With both a PS3 and a 360 the graphics are pretty good. Both machines have decent power in them even today, its the Wii that is the laggard. The damn Wii has Xbox1 level hardware, which skews the market some.

Overall I think by far the best non-online multiplayer experiences are to be had with consoles. In particular they are to be had with the 360 and the PS3 and their Kinects and Moves respectively. Even though the Wii hardware-wise is sadly just an overclocked Gamecube, its controller changed gaming forever. Nothing adds fun to gaming for the opposite sex than these motion based controllers- women often just don't have the same love for keyboards and joysticks that we men do. PC gaming is almost all about the keyboard and online play which goes against your core mission!