[Livin]

To try to reduce the number of very related to nearly identical hardware posts I thought it might be good to start a running FAQ.

Please post additional info related to specific & unique hardware issues you have encountered.

Thread Rules:

1. DO NOT post Questions... only ANSWERS to questions already asked in other threads or problems you have figured out.
   
2. DO NOT post "model XYZ works fine" posts.
   
3. ONLY POST specific hardware work-arounds as related to XBMC
   

The Basics...

1) What CPU to I need?

Video playback is most intensive (compared to music or menu gui) so most recent CPUs from Intel & AMD (Intel Pentium 4 / Pentium M, AMD Athlon XP/64/Opteron) will work fine for most video content playback.
If you intend to play 1080p content it is recommended to use a multi-core CPU produced in 2007 or newer.

2) What motherboard will work?

Any compatible with your CPU

3) How much RAM do I need?

See your specific OS requirements, XBMC requires very little ram to run. In general, a minimum of 1GB is recommended.

4) What Video Card (built-in or add-on) will work?

ATI, Intel, or NVIDIA (recommended) cards which supports OpenGL 1.4 or later (2.0 recommended). Card that support DirectX version 9.0c or later usually meet these requirements.

• ATI... Radeon R420 (X800) or newer supported, ATI Radeon R700 (HD 4000) or newer recommended.
  
• Intel... GMA 950 (945G) or newer supported, Intel GMA X4500HD (G45) or newer recommended.
  
• NVIDIA... GeForce 6-Series and newer supported, GeForce 8-Series and newer recommended.
  

5) What remote controls are support?

NONE NAIVELY. There are several that are usable via 3rd party applications such as Event Ghost, IR Server Suite, or custom software. See this thread for more info.

6) Does a video card or motherboard's native HDMI output work?

Yes

7) I have a DVI port on my video card, can I connect to my HDMI TV?

Yes. You will need to buy and DVI to HDMI adapter.