2011-07-16, 15:35
I am looking for advice on either a net top or an HTPC build. This will purely be an XBMC machine for my media center(s). I have about a 10TB NAS (unRaid) on a wired GB network. I have wireless N as well, but why bother when I have wired available.
I will mainly be using the XBMC to play movies and music. I want 1080p support (including Blueray). I would prefer a Linux setup to avoid the windows licensing cost. I would also prefer something that isn't a real pain to assemble and support. Netflix streaming capabilities would be nice to have as well. I would also prefer the fan noise not to be too bad. Silent would be great, but I can live with quiet. I ran old xbox's with xbmc, and the noise level was a bit distracting.
I want to stay relatively low cost since I need to get 4 of these up and running.
On one of the units I will need to be able to control it via a Crestron controller. Unfortunately I have an older Crestron that does not have the ethernet capabilities. So I will need to control through IR. So I need a box that comes with IR built in, or a recommendation on adding IR support.
I know there are like a million posts on HW recs, but all of them tend to be for specific needs. So I figured I'd post my specific needs, and see what everyone thinks.
I will mainly be using the XBMC to play movies and music. I want 1080p support (including Blueray). I would prefer a Linux setup to avoid the windows licensing cost. I would also prefer something that isn't a real pain to assemble and support. Netflix streaming capabilities would be nice to have as well. I would also prefer the fan noise not to be too bad. Silent would be great, but I can live with quiet. I ran old xbox's with xbmc, and the noise level was a bit distracting.
I want to stay relatively low cost since I need to get 4 of these up and running.
On one of the units I will need to be able to control it via a Crestron controller. Unfortunately I have an older Crestron that does not have the ethernet capabilities. So I will need to control through IR. So I need a box that comes with IR built in, or a recommendation on adding IR support.
I know there are like a million posts on HW recs, but all of them tend to be for specific needs. So I figured I'd post my specific needs, and see what everyone thinks.