[ItzMar]

Hello to all reading this!!

I used to use my PS3 and convert all my movies to vob or avchd (mkv2vob, multiavchd) but lately my PS3 looks like it is on its way out.

When I came across XBMC i could not believe that I did not have this program for this long.

Anywho, I was thinking about replacing my PS3 with a HTPC. I however have little knowledge in 'building' computers so I think a nettop would be easiest.


What I want from the machine IF I BUILT IT:

• Run XBMC (Aeon Stark skin) in Win7
  
• Run emulators with no lag up to 5th/6th generation consoles
  
• Small but doesn't need to be tiny
  

If I go the prebuilt route which would be best for my needs as above?

ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID11-U

Acer Aspire Revo R3610


p.s. do either of these or any nettop play 1080p files with a high bitrate (say 30Mb/s) flawlessly?



Thanks in advance to all who help me

ItzMar

[fshagan]

You might consider running xbmc-Live on a nettop with Nvidia graphics; reports are that they do well with 1080p content (I only stream standard def DVD rips right now). You can save the ~$110 cost of Windows 7 that way.

Do a search on xbmc-Live and ION to see some of the low cost build solutions. The other option is a used Acer AX1300, AX1700 or AX1800; they are a small form factor PC that works well, most have HDMI output, and are pretty quiet.

[ItzMar]

You might consider running xbmc-Live on a nettop with Nvidia graphics; reports are that they do well with 1080p content (I only stream standard def DVD rips right now). You can save the ~$110 cost of Windows 7 that way.

Do a search on xbmc-Live and ION to see some of the low cost build solutions. The other option is a used Acer AX1300, AX1700 or AX1800; they are a small form factor PC that works well, most have HDMI output, and are pretty quiet.

Thankyou very much for replying! I hadn't seen these Acer models and they look ok. I looked at the AX1800 and it seems to come with a NVIDIA GeForce 7100, is this card any good for the emulators i stated? or to have GPU acceleration?

[Hannes The Hun]

seems to come with a NVIDIA GeForce 7100, is this card any good for the emulators i stated? or to have GPU acceleration?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Pure...HD.29_GPUs

no VDPAU, stay away

the acer revo comes pre-built by the way, only the 2nd gen atom Zotac you mentioned is a barebone

[ItzMar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Pure...HD.29_GPUs

no VDPAU, stay away

the acer revo comes pre-built by the way, only the 2nd gen atom Zotac you mentioned is a barebone

Thanks for replying

I was looking at both those units as prebuilt, but thankyou for the useful VDPAU information!

[fshagan]

On the Acers, it depends on the year of the model. For instance, this AX1300 on eBay has a Nvidia 8200 (link will die after auction ends): [url=
http://cgi.ebay.com/Acer-AX1300-U1801A-D...1a798]eBay AX1300[/url]. (That wiki chart is very handy, by the way!)

There are a lot of threads on getting the Revo up and running, and a couple on the Zotac boxes.

[ItzMar]

Just reading through all the different types of Nvidia VDPAU Feature Sets (A,B,C and VP1,VP2,VP3,VP4) on wikipedia again and getting more confuzed by the minute.

THIS Acer Aspire X5900-M has a decent i3 proccessor but has a nVidia G210 (512MB DDR2).


Can somebody tell me if this build is good? overkill? wrong components? or what?

Thanks

[Hannes The Hun]

That wiki chart is very handy, by the way!

yeah I love it, actually have it bookmarked

@itzmar: specs for the acer look good but IMHO way too expensive and overkill regarding HTPC-use only

I'd still go for the zotac MAG or ZBOX, an acer revo, or this new foxconn box

[ItzMar]

yeah I love it, actually have it bookmarked

@itzmar: specs for the acer look good but IMHO way too expensive and overkill regarding HTPC-use only

I'd still go for the zotac MAG or ZBOX, an acer revo, or this new foxconn box

Would you reccomend any of them three others for emulation? maybe upto PS2 games?

[Hannes The Hun]

the PCSX2 is the only PS2 emulator I'm aware of and AFAIK still has huge compatibility problems, also it is recommended to use a quadcore CPU for it; so no, forget about PS2 emulation with an atom system. other emulators such as PSone, dreamcast, N64 and so on should run just fine though.

[ItzMar]

the PCSX2 is the only PS2 emulator I'm aware of and AFAIK still has huge compatibility problems, also it is recommended to use a quadcore CPU for it; so no, forget about PS2 emulation with an atom system. other emulators such as PSone, dreamcast, N64 and so on should run just fine though.

Thanks for the reply Hannes! I am very close to buying an acer revo 3610.

I still have one or two questions and it would really help if someone could answer them. They are HERE

[poofyhairguy]

1. Will the revo (with parts stated above) play 1080p files with a high bitrate
over usb with this setup?
I have an AVATAR rip at 20Mb/s and NEED it to run files like this flawlessly.

Yes, an ION revo should be able to play the pure Avatar Blu Ray rip (my Zotac box does), no it can't over USB.

USB2 is too slow for such- my Avatar rip stuttered on me when I tried. Same rip plays fine streaming over my gigabit network from my Unraid server. So it is a USB limit, not a Revo limit.

Just as a note: this was for my pure 43gb Avatar Blu Ray rip with HD audio. A 12gb rip I got from the net plays just fine over USB.

I have seen an issue where xbmc adds files twice and on my current pc I have
had this issue which I think happens when you move the files after they have been added to xbmc.

You just have to be diligent about cleaning your library and making sure everything is named properly.

2. Would the above happen if I conect my external drive to another
pc, load the media content and reconnect to the revo on a daily basis?
Would this cause the revo to rescan everything every time i connect?
(as in EVERYTHING (replicating this error) or only the new added content)

No, once you set up a library it stays that way until you manually clean it. If the external device is not hooked up, then you just can't play that video.

[ItzMar]

@poofyhairguy
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and also give your opinion based on a similar pc, mucho appreciated.

What kind of Server/NAS do you have? As this is also something I am thinking about investing in (currently use external hardrive connected to ps3 which no longer forfills my needs (XBMC))

[poofyhairguy]

What kind of Server/NAS do you have?

UnRaid.

Anything else wastes too much storage space on redundancy (looking at you WHS), requires expensive RAID controller cards and IDENTICAL drives (RAID 5,6) to get decent speeds, or prevents you from easily growing your array (RAIDZ).

I balked at paying for Unraid at first, but now I can't wait to build my second Unraid server.