2011-01-27, 02:00
Hi all -
I have an old htpc which I'm thinking about upgrading and putting on XBMC as I already have sufficient HD, optical drive, case, power, etc. Just want to replace the motherboard/CPU, graphics and memory.
I found this motherboard which has hdmi out, and an onboard ATI Radeon HD 4200 GPU. It also has gigabit LAN which is nice. From what I've read, this GPU is perfectly capable of doing 1080 playback, etc. but I've read that Linux driver support for it is spotty.
Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm thinking of either a) installing XBMC on top of Windows to save myself some headache, or b) getting a separate (nVIDIA?) graphics card which I understand plays nicer with Linux.
The reason I wanted to go with Linux is that Windows is a resource hog, and I had terrible experiences with XP Media Center years back. If I do go the Windows route, is there a guide of what services, etc I can disable to make it as lightweight and fastbooting as possible? I'd also like it to boot right to XBMC.
One other related question - it would be nice to be able to play Blu-Ray discs as well (assuming I install a BD player of course). Will the Windows route allow me to do this easier?
Thanks for the help!
MoBo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131595
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103687
I have an old htpc which I'm thinking about upgrading and putting on XBMC as I already have sufficient HD, optical drive, case, power, etc. Just want to replace the motherboard/CPU, graphics and memory.
I found this motherboard which has hdmi out, and an onboard ATI Radeon HD 4200 GPU. It also has gigabit LAN which is nice. From what I've read, this GPU is perfectly capable of doing 1080 playback, etc. but I've read that Linux driver support for it is spotty.
Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm thinking of either a) installing XBMC on top of Windows to save myself some headache, or b) getting a separate (nVIDIA?) graphics card which I understand plays nicer with Linux.
The reason I wanted to go with Linux is that Windows is a resource hog, and I had terrible experiences with XP Media Center years back. If I do go the Windows route, is there a guide of what services, etc I can disable to make it as lightweight and fastbooting as possible? I'd also like it to boot right to XBMC.
One other related question - it would be nice to be able to play Blu-Ray discs as well (assuming I install a BD player of course). Will the Windows route allow me to do this easier?
Thanks for the help!
MoBo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131595
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103687
