[troykshafer]

Ok, if i go with something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealD...mbo.271094 install Ubuntu, plug an external drive to store my movies, etc... will that setup work?

will it play HD? Nvidia's site says the 9600 will play HD but who knows if Ubuntu or XBMC have something funky where it won't output in 1080..

I just want to make sure i have a solid setup when i spend $$$ for a barebones system. If anyone has a setup they know works well with ubuntu i'm open to suggestions.

oh i'm not a linux n00b. I run OpenSuse 11.1 so i'm familiar with it.

[CrashX]

I don't think you can add PCI card to the case ..

[ccMatrix]

The Nvidia 9600 GPU will definitely play 1080p on a Linux system. But I don't see any slot for a dedicated GPU. The system runs an onboard Intel GMA 950 chip which has hardware accelerated video decoding but XBMC cannot use it on any platform. If, in the future, XBMC will be able to utilize DXVA in the DirectX builds on Windows, this can change. But as of now this system is hardly extensible and probably not capable of full high-bitrate 1080p playback. The included Atom CPU should be able to handle 720p and lower bitrate 1080p though.

At the moment the Nvidia ION boards are the preferred choice because of the onboard Nvidia chip but this system might become more interesting and useful once XBMC can take advantage of the hardware video decoding features of Intel chips.

[badmoviesnbeer]

It seems a bit odd that newegg is selling those as combo packages when there isn't any way to use the video cards in the machines they are selling them with... at least that I can see.