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vasyapupkin1 · 2012-10-25, 01:17

Which one should I get? Shuttle? ASRock? Zotac?

My requirements are simple - it should be a complete system ready to run XBMC. As far as hardware goes, I don't mind installing RAM and HDD, but that's it - I expect the system to have everything else. I'm perfectly capable of building the system myself, just lazy Smile

USB, HDMI, Ethernet, Wi-Fi. Bundled remote is a plus. Optical sound output is a huge plus. It should be reasonably quiet and cheap.

Any suggestions? There are too many choices and I'm afraid that researching them all will take too much time, so I hope to use XBMC forum collective wisdom here.

**thethirdnut** · (This post was last modified: 2012-10-25, 05:17 by thethirdnut.)

I'd advise against anything ION...too damn old.

Go for an Intel i3 or AMD E350 type system instead.

deibit · 2012-10-25, 08:30

I have a zotac d2700 ITX (atom 2,13ghz dual core) with integrated gt520 and it works perfectly well with Linux (openelec) and windows 7.

Including frodo builds in both platforms (HD audio and so on)

It doesn't feel old at all (I bought it last year when it came to the market)

**thethirdnut** · (This post was last modified: 2012-10-25, 16:31 by thethirdnut.)

@deibit

Your GT 520 > ION 1 or 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Ion#...dia_Ion.29
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-...ifications

Point I'm trying to make is that for a similar price-point you can get something much newer. Your GT 520 for instance isn't technically an 'ION' system - it's more powerful - that would be a GT 218 type GPU instead.

deibit · 2012-10-25, 17:30

Ah ok I get it.. I always thought that all those ITX-Atom motherboards were all different variations of the ION platform.

In Openelec I'm using the ION variant (which is the one that best fits to my motherboard) so that makes things more confusing :lol:

**thethirdnut** · 2012-10-25, 17:35

The whole Nvidia GPU rebranding makes things very confusing.

Trying to sort out difference between GT 4xx, 5yy and 6zz parts that are all the same vintage, but different SKU's is very frustrating.

spencers · 2012-10-26, 15:43

If you can pick up an Acer Revo 1600 for cheap, that's a perfect ION system.
Though you'd have to do without the wifi.

vasyapupkin1 · 2012-10-26, 22:48

It looks like I'm not up to date with the recent HW developments and XBMC support. Looks like I can get an ARM based Android system for half the price of an ION system, connect an HDD via USB and get the same functionality.

Opinions?

thezfunk · 2012-10-27, 02:09

I don't think the Android platforms will pass through HD audio?

**BLKMGK** · 2012-10-27, 02:28

Zotac Makes some and Asus also made a very nice one. The new Android hardware seems pretty good in my testing but you'll want Linux on that too IMO. Look at the Pivos.

As for age, so what?! All of my Ion systems - 3+ - are running well on high bitrate media. They draw about 15watts at 100% usage. GL doing that with an i3...

charlie0440 · 2012-10-27, 10:08

(2012-10-26, 15:43)spencers Wrote: If you can pick up an Acer Revo 1600 for cheap, that's a perfect ION system.
Though you'd have to do without the wifi.

Get a revo 3700 instead. Then you have hd audio as well. Pretty sure the wifi works fine, mine is wired into my lan

vasyapupkin1 · 2012-10-27, 11:59

(2012-10-27, 02:09)thezfunk Wrote: I don't think the Android platforms will pass through HD audio?

What would be the downside of pass through not working? I guess HD audio output should still work, and decoding/encoding should not affect the sound quality if it is done digitally...

vasyapupkin1 · 2012-10-28, 01:18

(2012-10-27, 02:09)thezfunk Wrote: I don't think the Android platforms will pass through HD audio?

Can you elaborate more on this?

thezfunk · 2012-10-28, 01:24

(2012-10-28, 01:18)vasyapupkin1 Wrote:
(2012-10-27, 02:09)thezfunk Wrote: I don't think the Android platforms will pass through HD audio?

Can you elaborate more on this?

I put the question mark with the hope someone else who knows more would chime in. I was going to try one of those android boxes but I read a couple reviews where the comment was made that because of android kernel limitations, they only support 2.0 audio. I will try and find where I read that.