[nostic]

So waaaaaay back in the day I modded my original xbox with xbmc and fell madly in love, years passed and I moved on from the original xbox to the 360, ps3 and wii. With xbmc missing from those three (in any usable fashion) I resorted to using media center extender and ps3 media server.

I have since found my way back home and can't believe I ever left. Love Dharma!

So now to my question, Would I be better off going with a Intel® integrated GMA HD Graphic chip along with an i5 or a dual core 1.8 atom ION system?

I would like to be able to do nothing but watch movies.

I know, I know, I can watch 1080p on a 1.6 atom with no issues, however my rebuttal is I want to ALSO run heavy skins such as Aeon mq2. I have searched and found some people showing videos of atoms rockin mq2 pretty fluid...but not sure how many tweaks needed to be made.

Currently I'm running a Atom D525 on openelec custom build using Fernet Menta tweaks and its running Aeon nox flawlessly. I would like to add a second and possibly a 3rd media center and don't want to have to pick and choose skins based on what my pc can handle.

So...back to the question, is an i5 with intel graphics better than an atom with ion. I'm guessing that the processing power the i5 can kick out makes up for the loss in graphics power...anyone have any input?

Here at the 2 htpc's in question as what I'm looking at:

i5 with Intel Graphics
http://www.giadapc.com/products/minipc/s...s/i50.html

Atom d525 ion
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

Also a close runner up is
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

[Kirky99]

Atom w/ SSD = Amazing! I'll try to get you a Kill-O-Watt number tonight, last I checked it was around 25W and that was with a hard drive playing back a 1080p movie.

[nostic]

Atom w/ SSD = Amazing! I'll try to get you a Kill-O-Watt number tonight, last I checked it was around 25W and that was with a hard drive playing back a 1080p movie.

Agreed!

I'm currently running a Jetway Atom D525 with a SSD and it does run fantastic. I am using openelec and a custom build mainly because I read a few people complaining about dropped frames with 1080p and this build supposedly fixed it for them.

Basically I'm just looking for the most power I can get in the smallest box. Money isn't really an issue so long as it's under a $1,000.00 however seems like all the boxes I like the size of are Atom's.

My Atom is running great, just curious if an i5 with GMA would out perform an ion.

[eskro]

ION apart, i heard to stay way from Intel® integrated GMA Graphics....
Mainly due to their drivers (especially Linux)....

[numb7rs]

If you're planning to squeeze the most performance out of some lightweight hardware, openELEC is the way to go. As this is a Linux distro, I definitely recommend an nVidia GPU, like the ION, over an Intel or ATI chip.

[teaguecl]

If you are serving your media over a network, look into Atom + OpenElec + USB thumbdrive. It will save you the expense of a SSD, and from most accounts runs the same.

[MidnightWatcher]

Go with the Zotac ND22 if you opt for a netbox. See the ND22 link in my sig below to see why.

[SpectreX]

Intel Core i3 2100T. Enough said. 4-5 times the CPU processing power of that POS 4 year old tech Atom (you`ll never ever see lag in the XBMC interface, no matter what skin and OS you are running). HD audio bistreaming + 3D Blu Ray support. And power consumtion equal to than the ION/Zacate platforms. And the Intel HD2000 graphics handle 1080p content just fine, that`s what they were designed to dom unlike those older GMA ones that were a piece of crap

[macer]

ION apart, i heard to stay way from Intel® integrated GMA Graphics....
Mainly due to their drivers (especially Linux)....

eskro, Sandy Bridge Linux drivers are very good
And there is even VA-API for hardware acceleration
Bitstreaming is no problem too

And drivers are 100% open-source

[nostic]

So I'm still waiting for an answer as to which would perform better.

Assuming I use openelec, would the i5 sandybridge out perform the ION? Is anyone running a Giada i50?

[Zon2020]

eskro, Sandy Bridge Linux drivers are very good

That's the problem. The i3/i5 Giada systems identified by the OP use Arrandale mobile processors with the older Intel HD graphics, not the Sandy Bridge HD2000/HD3000 chips. Not only that, they use the "ultra low power" UM chips which underclock those GPUs.

If they make one of these eventually with a Sandy Bridge processor, it will probably be a good solution. I don't know how well these current ones will work, but they certainly aren't up to Sandy Bridge standards. It would be nice to see them make one of these with an i3-2310M.

[Kirky99]

So I'm still waiting for an answer as to which would perform better.

Assuming I use openelec, would the i5 sandybridge out perform the ION? Is anyone running a Giada i50?

Sorry, I understood the question as would the i5 be overkill.

That answer is yes, but if you're only asking if the i5 would outperform the ION, that answer I believe is yes too.

[claypigeon]

So I'm still waiting for an answer as to which would perform better.

Assuming I use openelec, would the i5 sandybridge out perform the ION? Is anyone running a Giada i50?

Is the i5 a bigger, faster, more powerful CPU? Yep. Will that translate into being a better environment if you are just using openelec? The benefit is likely marginal if any at all, and the cost for equipment will be higher. I dont have an i5 running openelec, but it works fine on a atom 330/ion. Video performance is a function of the GPU and drivers, things are rather solid with nvidia and the ion used in the atom. There is a lot of FUD about the so called heavy skins, I posted a video of the MQ2 skin on an atom 330 showing that it works fine, at least on openelec. I keep seeing pro/con, issue/no issue stuff with the intel only stuff, and I dont have first hand experience but you might check on the openelec forum to see if there are any issues.

I sort of look at it this way. If your goal is to have a xbmc front end, and watching up to 1080P video, the atom /ion works fine. Assuming the drivers are working right for all platforms, the problem it is like a tack you want to hammer in a wall, you can use a tack hammer (the atom ion), you could use a sledge hammer (the i5) or hell a jack hammer (i7), you will get your tack hammered, but what is the right job for the task at hand.