[mbso]

HI everyone, I'Maurizio from Italy, future Group #6 or 7 and
I'm sorry for my bad english.

I'm looking for a linux HTPC, for running XBMC and our OpenRemote controller (domotic controller); I read the forum for some weeks and now I need some suggestions.

I will connect the HTPC to our DENON AV-4310, our TV and our projector are both connected to the AV via hdmi. We han a QNAP NAS, wired connected, where We saved all our multimedia.
Movies: BD 1080, DVD, tv series, mp4 for iPad, some Mkv, files mov, etc...
Music: mp3, flac etc...
Pictures: jpg... Etc...

Our Goals:
See all our multimedia with XBMC
AUDIO HD, DTS HD or DTS MA (sorry but I can only watch BD with HD AUDIO)

this is the Htpc:
Case Silverstone LC20 Black Smooth Aluminium Case + 450W PSU
Processor (CPU) AMD A10-5800K Quad Core APU (3.8GHz) & Radeon™ HD 7660D Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® F2A85-M: (M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 12x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Sound Card ONBOARD 10 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities WIRELESS-N (150Mbps) 3dBi HIGH GAIN USB ADAPTER
USB Options 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Firewire 3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card

OS: Linux i'd like to use DEBIAN, now Is already installed in a old Celeron, whith Java jdk6 and eibnetmux and our Domotic controller works fine

Remote: We use iPhone, iPad, iPadMini, Android panel with the xbmc apps or We can use our Openremote panels, (We already use a panels with, denon, BD-dune, appletv, sat decoder, projector sending the ir commands with the great IR-TRANS)

PS and OFF TOPIC: OpenRemote is a great project, Open Source Automation Platform, www.openremote.org


Thanks for any suggestions, do you think the htpc could be' noisy ?
Do you think is enough to play AUDIO HD ?

[Dougie Fresh]

The strength of an AMD CPU lies in the GPU, not the CPU. Since you're going to use a discrete GPU, I would pair it with an Intel CPU. At the $129 price point that's likely a i3-3220. It's going to run cooler, quieter and consume less power going more towards your goal of being quieter.

E.g.: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?op...itstart=12

"If you need your PC for CPU performance more than GPU performance, or if you are planning on buying a nice GPU for gaming, then you should probably look at the Intel Ivy Bridge i3 CPUs"

"The A10-5800K came very close to the Intel i3-3220 in terms of performance. Very close indeed. In the pure CPU tests, it even surpassed the i3-3220 a couple of times. For the most part, however, it fell slightly behind. Not by much, mind you, but it was behind"

If you weren't using a discrete GPU it'd be a different story.

[mbso]

Htpc alternative

Case Silverstone LC20 Black Smooth Aluminium Case + 450W PSU
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3450S (2.8GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-M: MICRO-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 650 - DVI, mHDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 12x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD
USB Options 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Firewire 3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card

Do you think is better for my Goals ?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[bluray]

You'll have the most powerful Linux HTPC in this forum. I'm recommending a USB wireless adapter better than 150mbps though. These "Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Adapter and Edimax 450 Mbps 802.11a/b/g/n DualBand USB Adapter. I like your other specs very much though. Since I graduated from E350 chip, I preferred powerful HTPC too.....

For most users; they are very happy with their Intel NUC for Linux HTPC- Intel NUC - HTPC possibilities......

For sure, you'll enjoy your powerful A10+GTX 660 Linux HTPC......

---

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3450S (2.8GHz) 6MB Cache

Since you included a discrete gaming GPU, i5 will be a better choice than A10....

[AndoX]

You'll have the most powerful Linux HTPC in this forum. I'm recommending a USB wireless adapter better than 150mbps though. These "Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Adapter and Edimax 450 Mbps 802.11a/b/g/n DualBand USB Adapter. I like your other specs very much though. Since I graduated from E350 chip, I preferred powerful HTPC too.....

For most users; they are very happy with their Intel NUC for Linux HTPC- Intel NUC - HTPC possibilities......

For sure, you'll enjoy your powerful A10+GTX 660 Linux HTPC......

---

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3450S (2.8GHz) 6MB Cache

Since you included a discrete gaming GPU, i5 will be a better choice than A10....

Don't you Need Windows 7 or 8 + XBMC to play HD Audio with those Hardware?

[Dougie Fresh]

I'd check out the i5-3350P processor too -- 69W TDP, $20 less, faster than the i5-3450S, no integrated GPU.

[mbso]

Please bluray , for my Goals,
What htpc is better for me ? The one with amd a10 or the alternative with i5 ?
Could i have HD audio with linux OS ?

Thanks for any suggestions

[AndoX]

Please bluray , for my Goals,
What htpc is better for me ? The one with amd a10 or the alternative with i5 ?
Could i have HD audio with linux OS ?

Thanks for any suggestions

No HD in Linux..

Unless you buy the suggested hardware.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=AudioEngine

[bluray]

Please bluray , for my Goals,
What htpc is better for me ? The one with amd a10 or the alternative with i5 ?
Could i have HD audio with linux OS ?

Thanks for any suggestions

As far as hardware, i5+GTX 650 is better than a10+GTX 650.....for Linux HD audio question, you will get better answer from these guys- Linux AudioEngine testers - Linux only....