[steved61]

I would like to build my XBMC PC with the following components.
Thermaltake Element Q VL52021N2U Black SGCC / Plastic Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 200W SFX Power Supply
ZOTAC IONITX-F-E
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
LITE-ON Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA
Internal Blu-ray Disc Combo Model iHES208-08
Microsoft MCE IR
Microsoft MCE Remote
Microsoft MCE Keyboard ?

Am I leaving anything out ?
Will the above components work well together ?
My main use will be XBMC, with the possible addition of Hulu or Boxee, for streaming later.
Does 4 gigs of ram give me any advantage or should I stick with 2 gigs?
From my reading the MCE remote and IR should work, how about the MCE keyboard?
I will be using XBMC live unless there is a good reason to use a full Ubuntu install.
Any ideas, options or help is greatly appreciated.
Steved61

[FrequentRain]

I would like to build my XBMC PC with the following components.
Thermaltake Element Q VL52021N2U Black SGCC / Plastic Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 200W SFX Power Supply
ZOTAC IONITX-F-E
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
LITE-ON Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA
Internal Blu-ray Disc Combo Model iHES208-08
Microsoft MCE IR
Microsoft MCE Remote
Microsoft MCE Keyboard ?

Am I leaving anything out ?
Will the above components work well together ?
My main use will be XBMC, with the possible addition of Hulu or Boxee, for streaming later.
Does 4 gigs of ram give me any advantage or should I stick with 2 gigs?
From my reading the MCE remote and IR should work, how about the MCE keyboard?
I will be using XBMC live unless there is a good reason to use a full Ubuntu install.
Any ideas, options or help is greatly appreciated.
Steved61

Hi,

I'm a newbie but have done a lot of testing with different versions of XBMC on different platforms. I'm primarily from a windows background so i will stick to my scenario using this.

I use the XBMC Live Beta 2 on a HTPC (intel core 2 duo 1.86ghz, 2gb RAM and 80GB SATA). I previously run Windows 7 on this with XBMC installed, but i found that Windows would take a large chunk of RAM and CPU usage away from the movie. This would be a problem and sometimes saw my movie jumping whilst playing from my Home Server so i opted for live. It has been installed to the HDD and is absolutely amazing.

I too have the MCE remote and keyboard. I have found that the keyboard will only operate as a remote so you cannot use the keyboard, i have to plug in a USB keyboard for this. Alternately you could get a Harmony remote as i have for crimbo and use that for everything!

[steved61]

After a little more research and some advice I changed some of the parts to get a more powerful system. How does this look ? I have not decided on Windows 7 or XBMC Live yet. I think I will give them both a try and see which I like better.
SteveD61

nMEDIAPC HTPC 1000B
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12 V2.2
Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
DFI LP JR GF9400-T2RS
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache
LITE-ON Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA
Internal Blu-ray Disc Combo Model iHES208-08
Microsoft MCE IR
Microsoft MCE Remote
Microsoft MCE Keyboard