[publicENEMY]

im interested in building the smallest yet powerful enough(smooth and fast menu navigation) xbmc system. i have come to two options, nvidia atom and amd apu. Im thingking 2gb ram and 60gb ssd.

system im currently interested are
1. Intel Atom
2. AMD APU

Which one is better? In terms of
1. CPU speed for fast menu navigation
2. GPU for 1080p playback (just being able to play 1080p is enough)
3. Heat produce. I dont want bluescreen when playback movie.

i heard that some skins require more cpu/gpu power. which of these builds that have no problem even with the most demanding skins?

if you think this configuration is not enough. feel free to suggest.



thank you.

[Kirky99]

I believe the AMD would be your better choice. Although I'm running Aeon MQ3 on an Atom/ION off a USB stick (OpenELEC pre-EDEN) and I'm not complaining. Under Win7 heavy skins sometimes become problematic.

[beytarj]

1. XBMC dont use gpu for menus, so its the same for each cpu. MQ2 kills both cpu's.

2. For windows - AMD
For Linux - Intel
3. No problem on this systems.

P.S.
AMD Support HD Audio, if its must.

[no1john]

Even a low end sandy bridge G540 would be enough to handle any XBMC skin + you would have better upgrade options in the future.
with it being a socket 1155 processor.
As for GPU that can handle 1080p, This well priced Geforce 8400GS should do the trick.

Hope this helps.

[eskro]

For windows - AMD
For Linux - Intel

APU stronger then ATOM

[publicENEMY]

thank you guys. im gonna test installing on my friend atom(not ion) just to test the performance. will report back.

[MidnightWatcher]

Which one is better? In terms of
1. CPU speed for fast menu navigation
2. GPU for 1080p playback (just being able to play 1080p is enough)
3. Heat produce. I dont want bluescreen when playback movie.

You should consider the Zotac ND22. It has a much faster CPU than an Atom and the ION GPU will guarantee 100% compatibility with Linux. See link in my signature.

[eskro]

+1 for the ZOTAC ND22!! http://www.provantage.com/zotac-zboxhd-n...OTC071.htm

[Orclas]

My 5 cents would be that XBMC Live (Dharma, standard skin) works flawlessly on my Atom D510/Ion2 barebone, with 4Gb RAM and a 40Gb SSD (I exclusively stream from my NAS via LAN or play DVDs). Have yet to see any delays or other problems with menu or HD playback (mkv's).

See signature for barebone details. I may add that it's absolutely silent since it's fanless (aye, still works, also for HD).