[Lumpsack]

Hi,

I know these pop up from time to time and a search didn't really give me the current feel as to the cheap solution.

Of course like all cheap threads I'm looking for a top of the line system for 29p

Or slightly more realistically whats the decent cheap option to run 720p, preferably as a single purchase and for you guys most annoyingly from the UK - so no G-Box, newegg etc

Its to replace my old AppleTV (v1) that my daughter has just liberated from my bedroom, so I'm not looking for all that powerful, just something that doesn't think for five minutes before moving to the next menu item, one thing I had considered was a Raspberry Pi (edit: such as this one) but I'm not sure how well it will work, plus once I've loaded on a box, remote etc it may not be all that cheap.

Any help would be great.

Cheers.

[Ned Scott]

Replace an ATV1? I'm rocking two of them and love them. Have you added a Broadcom Crystal HD (wiki) to it yet and installed a linux based OS (very easy, boots right into XBMC) like Crystalbuntu (wiki)? It really gives the box a whole new life. Handles 1080 videos with ease (outputs in 1080 too, instead of upscaled 720 like the original ATV OS does), the interface is really snappy, and you can even install a PVR backend and USB TV tuner for live TV support. It will be a lot more responsive and stable than a Raspberry Pi, and it will even be more powerful than an Apple TV 2 (assuming you use the BCHD chip).

[esk1]

You can look into the Intel celeron 847 mobile sandy bridge if you are wanting to run openelec. I have a biostar box already but am waiting for this board to hit the market any day now for my next one:

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/C847MS-E33.html.

70 bucks for cpu + board. Just add a case, psu, ram, and a usb stick.

[Lumpsack]

Cheers, I'll try and track the board down (the link went 404).

Ned, it wasn't really entirely my choice about the ATV - my daughter got a TV for Christmas so I let her have the ATV as XBMC is much much better than my backup media box which I'm using at the moment - a WDTV - media and wireless are fine, but the damn thing just won't keep track of what I've watched and keeps forgetting where the media is - okay but annoying for me - a total showstopper for my daughter (she's 5)

[Dougie Fresh]

This is the one I am looking forward to: http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-...id=4444#ov

I don't know why so far Biostar is the only mini-ITX with HDMI. What was ASUS thinking?! At least the Gigabyte 847 will have HDMI too.

[Lumpsack]

Looks interesting, the bulk of the stuff there, would need box, quiet PSU & a remote but thats not too bad.

Is it out yet - I searched over here (UK) and cannot see a seller.

[Dougie Fresh]

The Biostar has been out a while and I am using it in these little boxes quite nicely.