[geosmack]

I just thought I would share my newest HTPC build. I'll try to get a link to a newegg wish list up soon.

I used an M3N78-VM open box mobo that was $50 paired with a Semrpon 140, Crucial 2x1GB DDR2 800 sticks of RAM, and an IDE to CF adapter with a Ridata 4GB 233x CF Card. For the case I found a small hec brand case with a 200watt PS.

My primary goals were to have the total build under $250 shipped. My total came to about $232. I already have a NAS for storage, so I wanted something small and quiet that would play the newest builds of XBMC Live with VDPAU support.

I already own an M3N78-VM and tested the VDPAU support by down-clocking the quad core cpu to 1200MHz and running XBOX Live. I was able to play 1080P MKV, WMV-HD, and M2TS files with only 3% CPU usage. I think at that point the CPU is just handling network I/O and not much else. I was very impressed.

That's it. If anybody has any thought or questions, feel free to post.

Thanks.

[geosmack]

So...I really screwed up on the case. I bought a mini-Itx case and a mini-Atx mobo. Luckily I had an ATX case laying around and an extra Power Supply. Also, the IDE to CF adapter needs to plug straight into the mobo and the IDE port is set perpendicular to the mobo instead of at right angles. No problem . Some tin snips made enough room.

Once everything was installed I used UNetbootin to copy the Live ISO to a flash drive and chose the HDD install from there. It took maybe 15mins or so to install XBMC to the CF card.

After some tweaks in the BIOS to minimize boot times, I was able to boot into the initial XBMC screen in under 30 seconds. I don't know the exact time, but it was a little longer than waiting for an XBOX to load into XBMC. Next I enabled VDPAU and then served up some 1080P material. No issues whatsoever....this rig sliced through it like butter. There were a few dropped frames while queuing up the video, but after that it has been rock solid.

Right now I am only hooked up to an old VGA monitor and usage is dcpu: 1% acpu: 3% and vcpu:1% while playing a 1080P WMV-HD file. Next I'll hook it up to the HDTV and my Yamaha receiver.