I’m looking to build an XBMC PC as a Christmas gift this year but want to spend as little as possible ($100-$150?) I don’t want to build a full PC from scratch because I find them too big and noisy, the goal would be to get one of those mini PC’s.
I have been using the Acer Revo 1600 for almost 3 years now and I purchased that for $200 (way back).
Just like the revo ive been looking at dual core Atom CPU’s; ram, hd… im good with all that stuff but I don’t know which boxes have a good enough GPU to handle 1080p. I know my revo has the NVidia chipset which makes its 1080p playback possible.
I have seen some mini PC’s with “Intel GMA 3650” on board cards but I don’t know if that’s good enough for 1080p playback. Or am I just old/outdated and pretty much everything handles 1080 now?
This is newegg’s cheapest mini PC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856205007
Once I throw in $20 worth of ram and an old laptop hard drive I should be good to go, no?
Any advice would be appreciated, the revo’s have treated me VERY well but they are a little out of Christmas gift price range, anyone have success with cheap units?
Thanks,
-aPeg
ohh and i would be running xbmcbuntu on the unit, i know OpenELEC is setting the bar low when it comes to system requirements but from what i have read it requires a little too much tweaking to be given as a gift.
Thanks agian
GMA36x0 is not well supported (if at all) by the Linux flavors of XBMC. Probably the cheapest you'll find are the Foxconn barebones with AMD E-350 which I've found works well enough with OpenELEC as long as you don't want to get too fancy. You don't even need a hard drive -- just pick up a cheap 16GB USB stick. As for OpenELEC tweaking -- you can pre-tweak before giving it. Mostly the tweaking is around getting audio and setting up the media libraries.
The Raspberry Pi looks like an interesting choice, the price is right and seems like a nice challenge... but i don't think i fully understand the Licenses issue?
XBMCbuntu cant be installed on this device? i have to go with the pre-compiled ISO or OpenELEC? and both of those have codecs locked down? $5 is peanuts but will i have to buy new codecs down the line? h.264, mpeg-2 & VC-1 sound great but does that cover all the major compressions out there? how come i dont have to worry about this on my revo's?
Is there an advantage/disadvantage going with the ISO provided by raspbmc.com over OpenELEC?
Thanks Pobjoy, also thanks Dougie i didnt know GMA36x0 had issues,
-aPeg
(2012-12-11, 02:29)adihash Wrote: [ -> ]Is it worth looking at? http://www.microcenter.com/product/39602...13_Mini-PC
Which one is better Zbox SD-ID13 or Foxconn NT-A3500 ?
Thanks
the SD-ID13 is running the Intel GMA 3150, the computer I originally asked about is using the Intel GMA 3650 which Dougie responded is not supported. if i had to guess i would say support for the 3150 is probably the same as the 3650
I would go with the AD12 over the AD11... its the same system with slighter stronger CPU and more ram capacity.
The big question is how good the "AMD Radeon HD 7340" is at 1080p, and i don't know the answer to that. My experience is only with nvidia and so far those have treated me very well ( back to the acer revo's, but they start @ $300 now
)
Personally I have decided to give the Raspberry Pi a shot, i like a challenge and have already done a boat load of reading about it... for anyone else considering this;
THIS SITE tells you just about everything you need to know.
I have already ordered all the needed components and didn't crack the $100 mark! Exactly what I wanted to spend.(ohh wait i will crack $100 when i add the $5 for the codec's)
All prices include shipping:
- unit cost me $59 with optional heat sinks as I plan to over clock (looks like the PI's are in high demand so getting it for the suggested $35+shipping may be hard if you don't want to wait over a month)
- wireless N usb adapter $7
- plain clear case $8
- HDMI cable $2.50
- Power plug $8
- SD 8GB class 10 $8.5
- USB power wire $3 (this isnt needed but there is a chance of powering the entire unit right off the TV's USB port, if that's possible i would like to do it)
That's it, from what i have read this is all i will need... i probably wont have everything for a few weeks but i will post results once done.
Thanks for all your help on this guys, especially to Pobjoy for the Raspberry Pi suggestion!
-aPeg
Thanks for the over clocking recommendations Pobjoy, i wasn't sure exactly how high to go but knew to keep it on the low side.
- Im not worried about the audio limitation as its intended use is the built in Samsung TV speakers
- No FF/RW works for me, i always do the 30 second/10 min skip anyhow
- I intend on using the Quartz skin without fan art (the loss of the fan art hurts but small price to pay for $100 grand total)
- If the wifi becomes a problem i'll switch over the powerline networking (i hear they have 1gb now!)
- Powering form the TV is my plan, but i don't want to boot the box every time i turn the TV on/off so i still have to test out the TV (its ok to leave the PI on 24/7, no?)
- Too bad about the heat sinks, guess i paid the mark up for nothing
My plan was to go with OpenELEC just because the guide i posted above is so detailed... but do you recommend Raspbmc instead? You got me a little worried about the codec issues, 100% of the use will be downloaded TV shows, 720p movies and the occasional 1080p blockbuster... how often do you think i will run into a codec problem?
Thanks,
-aPeg
wow, just wow
The box arrived in record time and it went from out of the box to playing a 1080p video in under 20min!!! it took me 10x that to get my revo to the same point.
I have the default confluence skin on there and its running smooth as butter (slow down if i have a video playing in the BG while going through the menu... no big deal) and that's not even overclocked yet. depending on how good the ReFocus or the Quartz skins are i may not bother with overclocking. It even got my TV remote working via CEC without me doing anything.
Hands down this is one of the smoothest/cheapest computer components i have purchased in years, i cant thank you enough Pobjoy!
- for anyone else out there like me... r12699.img is Frodo RC1
Apeg, care to expand on your experience? Which distro did you go with? Any problems with playback or GUI navigation? What accessories have you hooked it up to?
I was on the fence between this and a G-box/Pivos (like you I have a Revo1600 that serves has my main HTPC, file server, torrent box and RDP server for android devices needing access to windows programs), but I was looking for something cheaper for the bedroom. I ended up pulling the trigger on this since it's about half the price of the android equivalents and while the appeal of having angry birds on the bedroom TV was intriguing, I couldn't justify double the price.
@
jakejm79
More detail on HW:
- RbPi v2 512mb
- 8GB ScanDisk (30 mb/s) SD card (this is $9 on ebay and i noticed a performance difference over an old 2gb class 4)
- stick with
this page if you want to get a different brand (there is also a 95mb/s card that works!) but i think anything above 20mb/s the RbPi cant take advantage of it, so i went with the 30 and saved myself $10
- Cheap case.... i don't think this really matters, ebay has them for $8
- Wifi adapter as per the site that made my setup so simple
Here
- i went with the Leguang LG-N18 150Mbps for $10 on ebay
- I have mine running on a USB cable from the TV, but you can use a plug in cell phone charger if you dont want it to turn off with the TV (boot takes about 30 seconds)
Setup:
- currently running OpenELEC the latest build from
here r12735.img.zip
- they do update pretty quickly so im sure by the time you read this there will be a newer one
- i am overclocking to the max (without voltage increase) which is 850 (not the RbPi recommended but i get 50 more mhz without voltage change)
- for skin i have chosen Confluence v.2... it has everything i need and seems to run very smooth (post overclock)
- i didn't have to bother with any overscan issues on my LG
- CEC remote key mapping worked out of the box, which blew me away! depending on your TV you may have to make some keymap changes
I think that's everything, don't get me wrong it doesn't compare to my revo running Aeon-Nox but considering the price its damn good!
Let me know if there is something i missed,
-aPeg
If you want try Raspbmc. You may be surprised with the performance. The setup process is slower cause it connects to the net then starts the download but It recognized my IR receiver and wifi adapter without problems (couldn´t get them to work on OPENELEC).