[SteveC]

I read tomshardware's Nvidia Ion review earlier and it does appear to be very tempting to wait for it. The problem is that the first version is likely to be expensive and unsuitable, then a further wait, etc...

Hey ho, never easy this is it? Thanks for all the comments, I think my hope of a ~£150 xbmc 1080p PC is still a bit off. Maybe next week

[mr.b]

looks like there's one coming soon....
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/31/ion-b...-playback/

[oldnemesis]

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 use this motherboard for my media center; works fine, including HDMI audio. Make sure you use recent (Oct 2008+) Linux distro, and at least 1.0.18 alsa.

It has one COM port, but there is only internal connector (and you supposed to buy a socket connector if you want it). Go to a friend who has old Pentium motherboards, he has to have a lot of them

One caviat is that it only has one IDE connector, so if you'll better get either SATA hdd, or SATA DVD.

[dtviewer]

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?!

Did u build this? If so-are you happy with the performance? Just trying to get an idea from others on what works good and what doesnt.

Looking to do a low power build myself with HDMI and optical out for sound. Thinking of using the Celeron 430 1.8Ghz 35 watt for my CPU, but would go with the Sempron you picked if the AMD motherboard is better suited.
BTW, this would do XBMC only and replace an xbox running xbmc. No files would be stored, no burning or ripping, and everything is on a network server. No game play either.

Thanks

[EMK0]

i thought VDPAU needs 512Mb video memory to work? this only has 256Mb i have this mobo and would like to know if it will work fine with just 256Mb so i can try linux

[EMK0]

this is so confusing does the igpu have 256 video memory and uses 256 shared memory? because i see in my nivida control panel it says memory 512MB.

[Ture]

Maby this one ?

=======================================================================
1 1453 AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050E AM2 processor. A 63.90e 0kpl
1 13570 Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA 3.0 Gb/s-k 85.90e 0kpl
1 14546 Origen 320W MicroATX-PSU. Erittäi 44.90e 0kpl
2 18894 Kingston 1024MB 800MHz DDR2 NON-ECC DIMM 23.80e 0kpl
1 24766 Aerocool M40 MicroATX-case, musta.Ulko 61.90e 0kpl
1 36885 Asus M3N78-EM -mATX-emolevy.Huippuominai 77.90e 0kpl
=======================================================================
Totals: 358.30e

Has asus M3N mobo which has Geforce 8300 integarted ( supporting vdpau ) and optical spid. And this setup has really nice mATX form factor. I think the processor would be enough to decode 1080p but we would be missing the point then .

[derwood]

PC CHIPS A15G (V1.0) AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX Motherboard - $40
Rosewill R102-P-BK 120mm Fan MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $20
AMD Athlon 64 LE-1640 Orleans 2.6GHz Retail Box - $36
Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 800mhz - $14
ASUS EN8400GS SILENT/HTP/256M GeForce 8400 GS 256MB - $33
LOGISYS Computer PS480E12 480W ATX12V Power Supply - $18
Western Digital 160 gig SATA - $40.00
LiteOn 16x DVD-RW - $21

Total cost $222.

Replaced the case fan with quieter coolermaster I had in spare parts reserve.
Enabled cool n quiet in BIOS with stock heatsink. CPU is 45w, and has never gone over 113 F

Works great up to and including 1080i

[Haggy]

this is so confusing does the igpu have 256 video memory and uses 256 shared memory? because i see in my nivida control panel it says memory 512MB.

The IGP itself normally has no RAM at all. BIOS simply reserves xxx mb of System RAM for the IGP. You may tweak that in your BIOS. As for very recent nvidia drivers (since 185.19) there's a possibility to grab additional system ram for vdpau if the reserved mem is not enough. This only works for IGPs so far, not for add-on cards.

[pshepherd]

I have been through a similar upgrade and ended up with:

- Travla C138 mini-ITX case - (had to replace the psu with a 120W picoPSU)
- Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi Mini-ITX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 MOBO
- Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.50GHz
- Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory
- Western Digital 320GB 2.5" Scorpio WD3200BEVT SATA
- Samsung SN-S083A/BEBE Slimline Internal DVDRW Black SATA - OEM
- Cyberlink Media Center Remote Control - With Mini USB IR Receiver

Probably overspeced (and overpriced) but does what I wanted ie runs XBMC/vdpau/1080p and at a reasonable temp 45C - will probably replace the stock fan with AKASA AK-955 Intel Cooler.

good luck, paul

[scrp]

I have been through a similar upgrade and ended up with:

- Travla C138 mini-ITX case - (had to replace the psu with a 120W picoPSU)
- Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi Mini-ITX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 MOBO
- Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.50GHz
- Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory
- Western Digital 320GB 2.5" Scorpio WD3200BEVT SATA
- Samsung SN-S083A/BEBE Slimline Internal DVDRW Black SATA - OEM
- Cyberlink Media Center Remote Control - With Mini USB IR Receiver

Probably overspeced (and overpriced) but does what I wanted ie runs XBMC/vdpau/1080p and at a reasonable temp 45C - will probably replace the stock fan with AKASA AK-955 Intel Cooler.

good luck, paul

Have you tried "killer sample" on that box? I might buy the same components as you that's why i want to know...

[Pvt_Ryan]

SteveC: Can you post links to where you are buying from.. I need a case (if i go mATX a PSU too). But your prices look brilliant.

[pshepherd]

Have you tried "killer sample" on that box? I might buy the same components as you that's why i want to know...

Yes it plays fine with a very low CPU loading.

paul

[ylagace]

I have just started following this forum after learning of the breakthrough with VDPAU. Before I build my own HTPC I would like to resolve the followings:

I have been using XBMC on XBOX for years until I had to switch to PCH for Blu Ray movies two years ago. The PCH (A-110) does one thing real well: bitstream the HD audio as is to my audio receiver over HDMI. I have been searching the forum to find out if XBMC for Linux (Babylon) can bitstream the HD audio over HDMI now? I really cannot tell since most people appear to re-encode in mkv with FLAC.

The PCH cannot handle the Blu Ray subtitles (PGS) but FFMPEG have been handling them for quite a while (e.g. Media Player Classic). Can XBMC (Babylon) handle PGS subtitles directly from the m2ts file? Again most people talk about idx and srt support, I never see any mention of native PGS support.

If someone could point me to a thread that cover theses two subjects or confirm that these are supported it would be really appreciated.

[gui]

would the 120W picoPSU handle a Asus P5N7A-VM GeForce 9300 Socket 775 + LG Electronics Blu-Ray +Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz Socket 775?
would be ok
thank you