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I built a box for this just recently:
ABIT AN-M2HD AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7050PV HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 Brisbane 2.3GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADH2400DOBOX - Retail
Transcend AxeRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TX800QLJ-2GK - Retail
SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Microsoft A9O-00007 WinXP Media Center Infrared Remote Control
At first the 2400 could play 720 h.264/mkv stuff okay... very little stuttering full cpu usage though completely unplayable with vsync (audio was fucked). I overclocked it about 10% and that got it down to flawless playing even with vsync @ about 100% cpu. I then overclocked it to 20% and it plays any 720p content @ 60% cpu with vsync and all. Also despite it being overclocked 20% it still is running on stock retail cooling very quietly 2 32 degrees celcius.
All around this is a great chip and a great system. I just need to add in a quiet sata dvdrom for watching dvd's and I'm set. Even set it up so it boots directly to XBMC so the wife can use it.
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My old Xbox is on its last legs; it intermittently refuses to start up, flashing orange and red lights. I give it a shake and mess around with the cables and it resusitates, but clearly I've got to move on. So it's time for XBMC-Linux. I was thinking about the following configurations from newegg, using an old EIDE hard drive I've got lying around for storage. I stream most stuff from my desktop over SMB anyway.
$099 CASE: antec NSK2480
$065 MOBO: MSI P6NGM-FD GeForce 7100 micro ATX
$130 CPU: C2D E4500 2.2Ghz
$048 RAM: 2GB DDR2-800
$030 DVD-R: sony 18x DVD+-R
$039 REMOTE: MS MCE remote + IR receiver
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$411+shipping total
or this config with AMD
$099 CASE: antec NSK2480
$075 MOBO: biostar tf7050-m2 AM2 geforce 7050PV micro ATX
$120 CPU: Athlon64 X2 5200+ AM2 2.7Ghz
$048 RAM: 2GB DDR2-800
$031 DVD-R: pioneer dvr-212dbk
$039 REMOTE: MS MCE remote + IR receiver
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$412+shipping total
Which one would work better for XBMC-Linux? And does XBMC really need this much horsepower to play HD material? These aren't exactly low-end computers. Obviously the cheaper the better, but I want to get something that really works.
Speaking of which, is XBMC on linux really usable yet? I've built computers from scratch for years and I've worked as a linux sysadmin, so those aren't issues for me. I just need it to stream media and reliably play everything that XBMC on xbox does. Reliably being an important point.
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Nobody answered my question though-- is XBMC/linux really usable on a day to day basis yet?
Again I'm not asking if I should setup a XBMC/linux box at grandma's house. This is for me, and I'm highly tech literate.
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Most things work. It can coredump from time to time, but the linux devs are making great progress. I suggest simply trying it for yourself and seeing whether it's usable enough for your needs.
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OK, I'll give it a shot when my xbox finally meets its maker. I figure if XBMC isn't ready yet I can live with dualbooting to vista MCE or mediaportal for awhile. MythTV really sucks for media uses.
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yuvalt
Retired Team-Kodi Member
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I'm using it in my living room instead of the XBOX. Working very well.
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I'm using it in my living room as well. Plays 720p content great.. 1080p uses too much cpu so it can drop frames (on my 6000+ amd).. everyday SD xvids work great. so overall, it's way better than the xbox version!
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1nd Question:
i was wondering what about the Intel processors? I only see the AMD named here
from about which type will 1080p be supported under linux?
will the Intel Core™ 2 Duo E4400 be enough? (2x2000mhz / 2048 kB)
or will we be looking at an Intel Core™ 2 Duo E6750? (2x2666mhz / 4096 kB)
I'm running Vista on an Core 2 Duo E6400 and it runs the 1080p .mkv's flawlessly at 30 - 40% without any framedrops. Wondering is this is lowenough to ensure that the E6750 will run the 1080p files on linux under FFmpeg flawlessly too?
2nd Question:
Does the FFdshow-codec compare to the linux FFmpeg? or is there another way to play a 1080p on a windows PC with the decoder from linux? (hope this question makes a little sense, Well my goal is to see whether the E6400 would do fine under linux, without installing linux)
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Perhaps mplayer for win32 will bypass using the hw acceleration?