Win Using a laptop as a portable HTPC running XBMC
#31
The typical knee jerk reaction to using a laptop like this is usually about the cooling, which you seem to not have a problem with. Problems might start if you were to try to use it as a server as well, with weeks of uptime.

I have used a laptop to feed movies and shows to a tv in a hotel I lived in for two months, but that was a new machine.

I scrounged a desktop when I lived in France and Morocco, parts there are old and expensive, importing is difficult, so I took what I could get for free, put crunchbang linux on it, and had a download box/media server that fed my raspberry pi and tablets. I've cobbled together other desktops, also successfully, usually for a single purpose (document servers on the oldest, photo and video servers midrange, basic day to day for recent stuff).

I have access to four laptops right now, from 2007-2010 (a friend gets a new one every year for Christmas and puts the old in storage) but with two kids under 3, I just don't feel the time investment to be worth it, when a raspberry pi or a pogoplug can do all the hacky, server-y stuff I would do on an old laptop, and because most laptop motherboards seem less friendly even to linux installations. Running from a stick is ok for testing, but for long term, the difference is noticeable.

Older, scroungeable laptops will also struggle with HD video, and the older HDMI cards didn't put out audio. With tablets under $200, I stopped recommending building from used parts for friends and family.
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#32
Great feedback ^^
Thanks!!
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#33
I got a 2007 based HP desktop with a dead hdd in for repair and the ownere never picked it back up after I told them the HDD was dead and they would habve to pay for a new one so I slapped in a much smaller one I had and a weak gpu and installed PCLinuxOS and XBMC ontop of that for HTPC use and for running sites like hulu free that only work on a desktop/laptop/x86 machine. Specs currently are 2gb of ram an intel pentium e2180 at 2ghz a NVIDIA GT 220. I do want to replace the midsized tower with something a lot smaller and maybe relagate this one to the extra bedroom as a guest internet machine. I have a small 20" monitor I can use for the thing already and with PCLinuxOS already up and running I won't have to do anything there. While in XBMC i tend to use the offical XBMC android remote app on one of my extra android devices which works perfectly fine. I have a few older android based devices that are several years old and still run Gingerbread that function perfectly fine as a dedicated xbmc remote.
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Using a laptop as a portable HTPC running XBMC1