[SteveC]

I've always hoped XBMC would go full circle and evolve into something that was put into a standardised box that could have been fully supported with few driver headaches and every last Hz of power drawn from it effectively.

Doesn't look like that's going to happen now though, does it? So I'm thinking of buying/putting together a HTPC to replace the xbox. I've priced the following one up at abou £230, can anyone pick holes as to why I woudln't be able to use this to completely build a PC that was capable of getting 1080p HD out of XBMC?

• Shiny Black Media Center MicroATX Case With Silver Trim and LCD Display - No PSU 150275 291 in stock £24.99
  
• Extra Value Micro ATX 300W PSU - 20+4pin, 1x SATA 125004 50 in stock £14.10
  
• AMD Sempron LE-1250 Socket AM2 L2 512KB 2.2GHz Energy Efficient 45w Retail Boxed Processor 134749 138 in stock £24.99
  
• ASUS M3N78-VM GeForce 8200 Socket AM2+ VGA DVI HDMI 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard 152752 117 in stock £52.49
  
• Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 GT Socket 754, 939, AM2, AM2+ Processor Cooler 150982 41 in stock £6.64
  
• Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB SATAII 16MB Cache 7200 RPM - OEM 124735 281 in stock £37.32
  
• LiteOn 16x DVD Rom IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM 087664 34 in stock £7.49
  
• Cyberlink Media Center Remote Control - With Mini USB IR Receiver 129977 34 in stock £5.75
  
• Crucial 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL6 Lifetime Warranty 139662 2 in stock £19.99
  

This might even be a useful reference point for others in the same boat as me. For what it's worth, savings can be made by removing the HDDs (and network booting) and by canaballising your old PCs for things like the DVD. This has some whistles and bells, such as a reasonably nice case, but generally it's as low as I could go!

Comments please?!

[xnappo]

Comments please?!

This is very similar to my setup. There is a minor problem with VDPAU and the 8200 - but there are work-arounds for it as well as one particular release that had a fix. Long term fix should be here soon anyway.

For reference here is my setup:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=287...tcount=141

I actually ended up using an old HD and DVD drive... The retail box of the processor usually comes with a fan, unless you are buying that other one for noise reasons - because VDPAU barely uses the processor it never spins up very high.

xnappo

[DDM123]

I have a small suggestion. Don't buy an IDE drive, not so much because of the performance, but because IDE cables are a pain to deal with in small cases. I still use an IDE DVD-RW drive, but only because I had a spare one from a dead computer. Also I am very happy with my mATX Asus motherboard, but I have a P5N7A-VM.

[SteveC]

Any specific comments about the sound from the Asus -VM motherboard? Has anyone got this and have it working, specifically in my case with optical out.

[volenin]

Have this board, but not in mini-ATX case (I've got mini-tower). Works good.

BTW, what are the problems with 8200 chipset with VDPAU? I haven't been running HD content yet (no use - my TV is still old resolution), but just curious... So far haven't seen any adverse effects on SD video.

[johan77]

Any specific comments about the sound from the Asus -VM motherboard? Has anyone got this and have it working, specifically in my case with optical out.

I've recently upgraded my system based on an Asus P5N7A-VM. It works very well with XBMC, including optical SPDIF out (PCM). The GPU can run a little hot on this board if you use non stock Intel cooler and/or a cooler running on low speed. I'm contemplating putting a 40 mm fan on the GPU, since it idles at around 70 C.

[xnappo]

Have this board, but not in mini-ATX case (I've got mini-tower). Works good.

BTW, what are the problems with 8200 chipset with VDPAU? I haven't been running HD content yet (no use - my TV is still old resolution), but just curious... So far haven't seen any adverse effects on SD video.

See this thread:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...fullscreen

Have you tried 'artbeats' and/or 'killa'? You *definitely* won't see it on SD video, only high bitrate 1080p. There are three work-arounds:

1. Select 1080i (doesn't really run in 1080i, it is really 1080p) this does not work for everyone.
2. Select 'auto' as resolution. Select 'test'. Restart XBMC. Select '1080p' as resolution'. Select 'test'.
3. Run with vdpau SVN 18670 - it has a 'safe fullscreen' option

Hopefully the fix with be in the main branch soon.

xnappo

[SteveC]

on IRC, also discussing how loud this would be because of the restricted airflow in the uATX case and no particularly quiet components.

[xnappo]

on IRC, also discussing how loud this would be because of the restricted airflow in the uATX case and no particularly quiet components.

I am running without a case fan with no temp. issues (~45C average).

My power supply fan is quite and the CPU fan never spins up much. However with no other noise in the room, yes you can hear it - but it quite acceptable.

xnappo

[SteveC]

I find when I'm using the HTPC there's a LOT of noise in the room The only thing is that I'm contemplating this box having a alter-ego as a NAS, though one that would generally only be accessed as a nightly backup and by multimedia played by itself and possilbly some old xboxes dotted around the rest of the house.

[s7mx1]

• To reduce the noise
  
  • The PSU is largely responsible for a noise pc, you can have a complete silent solution with
    
    • 12V/120W or lower power supply for latptop (no fan)
      
    • 12V to ATX power supply converter
      
      
    
    
  • I would suggest using the following CPU cooler: NORTHQ 3392
    It's very quite and efficient.
    
• To reduce the heat
  • An amd CPU running at 1.8G HZ is more than enough to play 1080p, so you could throttle it at 1.8G
    
    Code:

    echo 1800000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
echo 1800000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq
  • If you gonna play all your stuff over lan, then you probably don't need a hard drive. You can net boot your htpc over aoe or iscsi.
    

My desktop is more quiet than the laptop on the market proving that the fan on the laptop rotates.


Finally you need to choose the right version of XBMC with vdpau support. Unfortunately no one call tell you which revision will work or not work on your system, you have to try it yourself.

My system (gefore 8100 with AMD 64X2 5000+) works great with xbmc-vdpau @r18436. If you don't want to compile from source you can try my binary here

xbmc-vdpau svn@18436
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5WOFMSK6

You should wait for ion if you are patient enough. Good Luck!

[s7mx1]

If you have the old xbox remote, it's cheaper to re-use than buy a new remote (you need a special usb cable, can be found on ebay).

If you have a centralised audio server (pulseaudio) like me, you can stream the audio via local network. Less cable to hang around and plus you have the bonous of "bit-perfect" playback (between audio server and htpc).

[mr.b]

No one has mentioned it yet, but with that particular board, there is a bug with ALSA and the onboard optical SPDIF doesn't work. I have found one person that does have it working and am still trying to get back in touch with them to find out the specifics of how they did it. For now, I'm using a coax spdif connection using a cable connected to the header on the motherboard. The bug is reported here: https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-b...hp?id=4330

[adrian]

I bought the m3n78-vm specifically for the the optical out and I have not gotten it working yet. There other threads on this and an alsa bug ticket (4330) with no resolution yet. I have been using the analog outs for now, but I will probably build something that connects to the onboard spdif connecter, apparently these work. I was a little dissapointed because this seemed like the perfect (price/performance) motherboard for xbmc, but with the 8200 issues and the optical audio not working I would probably choose a different mobo if I was doing it again.

[mr.b]

I bought the m3n78-vm specifically for the the optical out and I have not gotten it working yet. There other threads on this and an alsa bug ticket (4330) with no resolution yet. I have been using the analog outs for now, but I will probably build something that connects to the onboard spdif connecter, apparently these work. I was a little dissapointed because this seemed like the perfect (price/performance) motherboard for xbmc, but with the 8200 issues and the optical audio not working I would probably choose a different mobo if I was doing it again.

I used this guide -- it was very easy : http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=997533