Helloooou,
i was thinking about replacing my crystal 200 GByte Xbox simply because of the lack of HDD Storage. A friend offered me about 120 € for my Xbox inkl. Accessoires. So, here's the plan: Build a Linux PC, as quiet as possible, as energy-saving as possible for max. those 120 €.
This is what i chose so far:
Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF 38.99 €
micro ATX
i945GC
Intel Atom 230 / 1.6 GHz
L2 - 512 KB
UDMA100
Serial ATA-300
Ethernet
Video
HD Audio
TECHSOLO 6.99 €
5.1 6C
32bit PCI Bus
PCI 2.1 compliant
HITACHI Deskstar 7K160 22.99 €
80GB HDD
7200rpm
pATA IDE
8MB cache
RoHS compliant
SAMSUNG SH-D162D 9.99 €
16x 48x DVD ROM
IDE
BUFFALO 11.99 €
1GB DDR2
PC2-4200
533MHz
- - - - - -
90.95 €
So, I'll still have about 30 € for a cheap small case for some HiFi component that I'd turn into case myself.
What do you guys think? My main focus on this is that i have still 2 S-ATAs left that i can fill up with 2 x 1 TByte HDDs but i would also love this piece to play all 720p content flawless (No need for 1080p content within the next years for me). Any chance for that?
Thanks in advance.
If that's a single core Atom you'd probably be on the edge for 720p playback.
I pretty sure that will not be able to play any 720p H.264 videos at all as XBMC will not be able to off-load any video decoding to the GPU so the CPU will that the full load of that, see:
http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f22/i...nds-44465/Quote:The Atom 230 (1.6Ghz) is as fast/slow in SuperPi as:
- Pentium 4 Wilmetta @ 2125Mhz
- Pentium 3 @ 1517Mhz
- Athlon Tbird @ 1616Mhz
- Pentium M 745 @ 1804Mhz
- Pentium 4 Nortwood @ 2.4Ghz
- Duron 600@1069Mhz
The SuperPi 32M result is even worse, as it's not even able to match Pentium 3 1Ghz CPU ( http://hwbot.org/listResults.do?cpuModel...&limit=100 )
There is an asrock board with an nvidia 6100 integrated that cost ~ 40€, and an intel E2xxx cost around another 40. So won't excess your budget and will work for 720p
Intel atom for ultra-laptops only ;-)
Alright, here's what I've found so far to complete this little project:
ASUS TS-6A1 37,32 € (New, eBay Auction, already bought)
ABIT AN-M2HD HDMI AM2 NFORCE 7050PV 48,53 €
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2x512kB (2000MHz) 35W Windsor Tray 36,72 €
1 GB DDR2 RAM NONAME 12,99 €
SAMSUNG SH-D162D 16x DVD-ROM, black 12.99 €
80 GB Seagate Barracuda (local retailer) 22,99 €
--
148,55 €
I might actually use that exact DVD-ROM Drive from my current PC and a spare 160 GB Samsung, so that'll be 112,57 €.
I think this is pretty much as cheap as it goes,A 2x2000 Mhz CPU with a TDP of only 35W, an integrated Geforce 7050, designed for Blu-ray & HD-DVD playpack and a HDMI port.
Will this machine be able to handle whatever i want to watch?^^
Oh, btw ... all the above prices already include shipping.
Probably best to get a little faster Athlon 64 X2 CPU just to be sure but otherwise it looks good.
...the part about Geforce 7050 being designed for Blu-ray & HD-DVD means nothing to XBMC.
I think at least one person has claimed success using an AMD CPU in the "best hardware" thread. Before choosing an AMD CPU of any stripe I'd be looking at the results posted there to see how fast a CPU is going to be required. Intel C2D really do seem to be working best IMO.
yeah, i know that ... but to be honest, it's just way out of my budget. i'm going to buy a new pc by the end of the year, this is just a little side-project and it just doesn't feel right to put so much money into it. the cheapest C2D i could find was the about 80 € incl. shipping. and that was a 65W cpu.
If you do not care about 1080 playback and really just want better SD and 720P playback then save the money but if the higher resolution is important don't cut corners. There for awhile my media PC was faster than my desktop too!
Damn, this one has gotten way off topic.
BLKMGK Wrote:I think at least one person has claimed success using an AMD CPU in the "best hardware" thread. Before choosing an AMD CPU of any stripe I'd be looking at the results posted there to see how fast a CPU is going to be required. Intel C2D really do seem to be working best IMO.
Not one AMD CPU has been able to play the killer sample without issues. Only Intel C2D so far
cejstrup Wrote:Not one AMD CPU has been able to play the killer sample without issues. Only Intel C2D so far
I can't even come close to playing the killer sample with my Athlon X2 5200+... but other than that, I can play everything else fine, including 720p.
Hmmm fill me in on the Killer sample?? would mind trying it on my brute!
