[Tobas]

I'm Planning to buy this hardware for a HTPC system with XBMC on it.

I just want a system that is powerfull enough to play anything i want and reacts directly when i select a menu.
For movies i want to play pure Blu-ray rips on the highest bitrate without hick-ups., and no sound problems (HD audio)

I steam everything from my home server

I want this to be a system that i dont have to upgrade in the next 2 years

CPU: Core i3 530 2.93GHz LGA1156
CPU Cooler: Stock cooler
Motherboard: ASRock H55M/USB3 LGA1156 Intel H55 chipset microATX
Memory: G.E.I.L DDR3-1600 2 x 2GB Kit.
HDD: OCZSSD2-1ONX32G (32 GB) Solid State Disk 2,5 inch SATA.
PSU: Corsair VX450W CMPSU-450VX 450W.
Case: Antec Fusion Remote Black microATX, with LCD/IR receiver/remote.

Maybe a graphic card instead of the intergrated one ?

[Geeba]

CPU could easily crunch through just about anything you could throw at it... a £30 nVidia gt210 would nail it completely.... personally I'd go for a better than stock heatsink... they can be noisey.

[poofyhairguy]

Agreed, that CPU alone can play 1080p.

Get a Nvidia GPU if you want some of the VDPAU upscaling or color correction features.

[Tobas]

And will it be supported in linux ?

[Flomaster]

tobas yes Nvdia 22x GPU is very well supported in Linux in the linux world Nvidia is the only way to fly

-=Jason=-

[poofyhairguy]

I don't know what you are asking.

Nvidia GPUs are 98% supported in Linux with XBMC (only divx upscaling doesn't work, but you can still CPU decode divx).

That computer without an Nvidia GPU will "work" in Linux thanks to its powerful CPU but it won't be supported as in its features that work with Windows 7 (such as GPU decoding or HD Audio bitstreaming).

HD Audio bitstreaming doesn't work in Linux with any hardware. Us Linux types use multichannel PCM over HDMI for HD audio.

[Flomaster]

from the research I have done your TrueHD and DTS HD audio formats are converted to PCM inside your amp before you head the sound anyways. so sending PCM is just making things easier

-=jason=-

[Tobas]

I don't know what you are asking.

Nvidia GPUs are 98% supported in Linux with XBMC (only divx upscaling doesn't work, but you can still CPU decode divx).

That computer without an Nvidia GPU will "work" in Linux thanks to its powerful CPU but it won't be supported as in its features that work with Windows 7 (such as GPU decoding or HD Audio bitstreaming).

HD Audio bitstreaming doesn't work in Linux with any hardware. Us Linux types use multichannel PCM over HDMI for HD audio.

Sorry for being not clear enough.
I just wanted to know if the hardware is supported by XBMC Live or Ubuntu with XBMC.

That i dont be dissapointed with the hardware i am going to buy.
I just want a HTPC that is capable of doing the things i want with it.
It just have to play al of my movies (.mkv, .wmv, .mt2s, DVD-iso, etc.)
And al of my music.

I dont want a system that downloads or have to store all the media files.
Now i have a HDI Dune Base 3.0, but the menu's are ugly and slow and it has some flaws that the developers still didnt fix.
But it plays almost everything.
So i dont want to give in, i want to get a better system then the one i have.

I have enough experience with Linux so that is also something i like about a HTPC with Ubuntu or XBMC-live.

[compcentral]

I agree with all of what was said, however personally I would just use a traditional hard drive. Since you are streaming content from the server anyway, the only thing an SSD will help with is boot times and since you'll probably leave it on most of the time (at least I do) that won't mean much.

Also, the CPU is probably overkill (provided you get a decent video card). I can stream 1080p content in any format from my server to my XBMC box using a low-power AMD Dual-Core 2.5Ghz CPU. I'm assuming of course that you will have a gigabit connection from your server to your XBMC computer.

[poofyhairguy]

I agree with all of what was said, however personally I would just use a traditional hard drive. Since you are streaming content from the server anyway, the only thing an SSD will help with is boot times and since you'll probably leave it on most of the time (at least I do) that won't mean much.

Not true at all. A SSD makes the interface faster, as it loads locally stored fan art and covers faster.

[poofyhairguy]

Sorry for being not clear enough.
I just wanted to know if the hardware is supported by XBMC Live or Ubuntu with XBMC.

Yep, that hardware should work fine with the XBMC Live Dharma beta.

As far as a comparison to the Dune: XBMC's interface is much better, but XBMC can't load BD ISOs.

Good luck!

[Tobas]

Yep, that hardware should work fine with the XBMC Live Dharma beta.

As far as a comparison to the Dune: XBMC's interface is much better, but XBMC can't load BD ISOs.

Good luck!

Thanx

I hope the BD iso thing is in the future.........