[ThomasE]

Hi everybody,
I am currently running XBMC on an AMD X250 with 4GB DDR3, G210 Graphic Adaptor, 1TB WD Green HDD and it works like a charm.
My plan now is to use the X250 along with its board and the 4GB RAM for my primary workstation and downsize the HTPC to an Intel E3500 with 2GB DDR2 RAM.
The HTPC is used for Video-Playback up to 1080p (HDMI, BluRay and MKV, no Flash), MP3 and Still Video only.
Will this mean any disadvantages to my HTPC?
Will the Intel Setup consume less power or more?
Will the startup time increase?

The next thing I would like to try would be a cheap 8GB or 16GB SSD for the Linux System. This will decrease startup time, right? Any other advatages?

Thanks for your comments,
Thomas

[ion_man]

As long as you get a Nvidia card for the HTPC (even a G210 is ok) you will be fine with Linux.

[eskro]

no issues in Downsizing your HTPC like u wanna do,,,

Intel E3400 is perfect and really cheap!

2GB of RAM is enough for a HTPC!

[claypigeon]

if you want to go minimal, you don't need a disk at all, and if you are primary doing xbmc, you only need 1G or less of ram.

On my linux based systems they have 1G of ram and only use about half to a little over half of that ram, and they only have usb flash drives, only because I have been too busy or lazy to configure PXE.

Based on what you are doing you dont need a SSD, you could use usb or SD, or no local storage at all you could just use PXE to boot.

[eskro]

heck if you wanna run OpenELEC version of XBMC,
you can simply buy a USB Flash Drive!
($16) http://ow.ly/1ty7is
no SSD need here....

and then yes, 1GB of DDR3-1333Mhz RAM will be enough
($14) http://ow.ly/1ty7dd

[ThomasE]

Thanks everybody!
so I will go for an E3500 with a cheap board and take 2GB Ram from the box in the cupboard.
The SSD was intendet to decrease the boot time as I switch off the htpc when not in use, so using an USB Stick instead of booting from HDD will not really help me, I think.
OpenELEC is certainly an option.
Any hints about power consumption and noise? I am planing to use an Arctic Alpine CPU Cooler, which does a good job in my actual HTPC.

Thomas

[eskro]

Intel E3400 is perfect and really cheap!
http://ow.ly/1tyMA1

ABout noise well,
all you have is the PSU fan and the CPU Fan that can make noise...

a popular cooler is the Scythe Big Shuriken!
http://ow.ly/1sUpYD

And those fanless Pico-PSU are really popular too!
http://ow.ly/1tyMJc

[claypigeon]

Thanks everybody!
so I will go for an E3500 with a cheap board and take 2GB Ram from the box in the cupboard.
The SSD was intendet to decrease the boot time as I switch off the htpc when not in use, so using an USB Stick instead of booting from HDD will not really help me, I think.
OpenELEC is certainly an option.
Any hints about power consumption and noise? I am planing to use an Arctic Alpine CPU Cooler, which does a good job in my actual HTPC.

Thomas

fyi, it takes about 20 - 30 seconds to boot from a USB flash disk, I dont know if you consider that a lot of time or not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBLXIxPSI1Q boot starts from the POST as is booting off a USB flash.