[zwat]

i was nanometers away from buying the asrock ion 3d, just had to check the release date to see how old it was and if there was time for a newer model soon. saw some comments and had to search for more info.

what i need is: small form factor in solid black finish, play 1080p with xbmc, dualboot ubuntu and win7 <--- ion works fine
what i wish for is: hd audio bitstream, tv streaming like sopcast, <--- ion still fails on this?
what i don't need, but can be in the bundle: dvd or bluray drive, 3d support

questions i have is:
what i understand is a problem for the intel gpu is the 23.976 Hz issue. do the asrock coreht with sandy bridge have same issues?
the specs for asrock ion 3d states "7.1 CH HD Audio with DTS". what about dolby soundtracks?

i could build my own htpc but want the box to be small as the asrock.

can someone help me with this?

[PatrickVogeli]

well... I'd say you are looking for the Asrock Vision 3D.

[zwat]

but isn't it the asrock vision 3d that has issues with 23.976 hz?

[eskro]

well the ASROCK VISION 3D uses NVIDIA® GeForce GT425M Graphics,
so answer is No, no 23.976fps issues!

[zwat]

ahh right. i shouldn't sit up late at night asking these questions. should have noticed that the vision 3d had gforce and the coreht had intel gpu.

[eskro]

Right-On!!

[zwat]

any thought on going for i3 or i5 cpu?

[PatrickVogeli]

i3 is fine. I doubt you'll notice the difference in HTPC usage.

[zwat]

the shop only had one i3 left of the vision 3d so i secured that one. now i just hope i can reuse my win7 enterprise 64bit license and that the ubuntu installation goes smooth.
come to think about it i might not even need ubuntu on it. i3 should be powerful enough for smooth 1080p video.