[Evanrich]

I'm gonna go ahead and ask the dumb question here, but...

If I want to be able to play 1920x1080 rips on my tv, will this board be fine enough if I run the linux build, so i get the graphics acceleration? all i want is a yes or no... I've got all my media stored on another atom based system, running freenas, so I'd just be streaming data to the box.....my q6600 desktop is running up 330+ watts of power just to watch movies, I'd take this 38 watt board anyday but i don't want it to be jerking on high deff playback.

[matt_cyr]

Not sure if anyone has tried personally, but reading the reviews the dual-core versions of the board should be able to play 1080p content no problem.
Take a look at this page on hothardware
http://hothardware.com/Articles/Zotac-NV...rd/?page=4

Edit:
And according to the review, they were using media player classic Home Cinema which uses gpu acceleration on the nvidia chipset, so I would assume gpu acceleration in linux would be possible.

Not a yes or no answer, but a probably

[rossgemuend]

I'm gonna go ahead and ask the dumb question here, but...

If I want to be able to play 1920x1080 rips on my tv, will this board be fine enough if I run the linux build, so i get the graphics acceleration? all i want is a yes or no... I've got all my media stored on another atom based system, running freenas, so I'd just be streaming data to the box.....my q6600 desktop is running up 330+ watts of power just to watch movies, I'd take this 38 watt board anyday but i don't want it to be jerking on high deff playback.

Yes.

It will play full 1080P very smooth as long as you're using the linux build and choose VDPAU in the video player options.

[Geeba]

By the look of the clip on HotHardware Windows Vista will play 1080p very smoothly too... external player trick for XBMC?

[Bob___]

How smooth is the use of AEON Auriga with XBMC on a Zotac ION-PC? Is the showcase-mode a "show-stopper" because of to high performance requirements?

[ashlar]

my q6600 desktop is running up 330+ watts of power just to watch movies

What?!? My Q6600 server, with an ATI 3850 and seven hard drives goes to 150W top, 167 if I don't underclock and undervolt it (which I usually do when I don't need it for encoding stuff).

[Evanrich]

What?!? My Q6600 server, with an ATI 3850 and seven hard drives goes to 150W top, 167 if I don't underclock and undervolt it (which I usually do when I don't need it for encoding stuff).

Q6600
Gigabyte GA-P35-ds3l
8GB ram
1 HD/Bluray rom drive
1 20x dvd burner
3 Hard drives
EVGA 260 SSC video card overclocked even higher
Soundblaster xfi gamer card

It peeks around 330 watts under load, my NAS file server is an atom 330 with D945GCLF2 board, 1GB ram, 4 1TB Hitachi drives, and a 3ware 9500S-4LP raid card...it draws about 40-50 watts under load....huge difference. My Q6600 computer is my main desktop, that I use for gaming mostly, but since I have it hooked to my 46" Sharp Auqos TV, I use it for HTPC stuff as well.

I hate having to have it on all the time for gaming and tv/movie watching, so I'm definately interested in this new atom/ion board if it can deliver the goods. I have been wanting to build a dedicated HTPC to just watch tv/movies, so as long as this board can play without hicups using linux and VDPAU, I'd get it in a heartbeat, even if it costs 180$, as it will draw a considerably less amount of power being left on most of the day.

Edit: actually its more around 230...got it mixed up by 100 haha sorry, but still 230 vs 40 is a huge difference in power savings

[TREX6662k5]

Has anyone who pre-ordered received an email regarding the dispatch of the first batch of the Atom330 motherboards from mini-itx.com? I can't wait another 2 weeks

[toast]

newbie here, interested in this product

if i were to purchase this mobo when it became available and build it as an htpc, xbmc wouldn't be able to take advantage of the video card to play 720/1080p mkv rips unless it was installed with a linux os instead of xp?

just trying to make some sense out of this... thanks

[natethomas]

newbie here, interested in this product

if i were to purchase this mobo when it became available and build it as an htpc, xbmc wouldn't be able to take advantage of the video card to play 720/1080p mkv rips unless it was installed with a linux os instead of xp?

just trying to make some sense out of this... thanks

You have it correct, sir. Due to certain API limitations, GPU acceleration of video is currently only available through Linux. At the moment, Windows depends entirely upon the CPU to decode video. Currently at least one coder is attempting to fix this, but, as yet, there is no working method.

If you still want to go the Zotac mini-itx route but want to stick with Windows, I would recommend this board, which can accept your Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad CPUs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813500022

[toast]

You have it correct, sir. Due to certain API limitations, GPU acceleration of video is currently only available through Linux. At the moment, Windows depends entirely upon the CPU to decode video. Currently at least one coder is attempting to fix this, but, as yet, there is no working method.

If you still want to go the Zotac mini-itx route but want to stick with Windows, I would recommend this board, which can accept your Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad CPUs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813500022

Thanks for the quick reply! That's unfortunate... is this GPU acceleration limited in ALL of Windows or just when using XBMC?

And thank you for that link... I was actually looking at this board earlier today... I was thinking about a PCH but the XBMC GUI is so visually appealing I can't seem to stray away from it...

[grajea]

PCH is a linux-powered device. If you don't have problems with PCH, you will can easily manage ubuntu+xbmc.

Try it in your desktop Pc. You will see it's easy (as easy as under windows, at least)

[toast]

PCH is a linux-powered device. If you don't have problems with PCH, you will can easily manage ubuntu+xbmc.

Try it in your desktop Pc. You will see it's easy (as easy as under windows, at least)

Well, I'm debating on whether to get a PCH or build an HTPC. I have a tower in my bedroom that houses 4TB and just need a way to stream to my family/living room.

It would be nice to have an XBMC interface because it looks/performs so well. I've heard PCH cannot match in the visual department but can play anything under the sun.

[gwood007]

Installed XBMC from the live setup and it works great with VDPAU on.

Personal test is a rip of my bluray of 28 weeks later during the chase scene near the start - 50mbps+ H264 and flac lossless = frame perfect video + a total of around 20% CPU (15-25% one thread, ~5% the other).

Not bad for a crappy in-order 1.6GHz single core ;-). Now all I need is the drivers to be fixed to get 7.1 lossless out of the HDMI ...

[Starstream]

gwood007 could you check something out for me with the Zotac board.

It doesn't support wake on usb but it was mentioned in theory that if a powered usb hub is plugged into the zotac usb port that will allow wake on usb to work as the hub delivers the power to the port.

The device that wakes it up over usb mouse/keyboard/remote etc must be plugged into the usb hub.

Is that something you could try with XBMC and see if it wakes from sleep mode.