[23tux]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, maybe you can help me. I'm planning to build a HTPC with xbmc on an Ubuntu system. But I'm not sure if the hardware I've selected is suitable for xbmc:
https://www.mindfactory.de/shopping_cart...3065276c10
I've read sth, that on Linux only NVidia chipsets are supported for hardware acceleration. On the mainboard I've selected is an ATI Radeon HD 3000 Graphics, is it enough for 1080p? Or should I buy a better CPU like the i3 (which has sth like Intel HD Graphics 2000 integrated; could anyone explain me the difference? on which graphic chip are the videos rendered? On the onboard graphic card or at the cpu?). Or should I buy a seperate graphic card?

Maybe someone could have a look at my configuration and can tell me if xbmc runs well on it.

thx!
tux

[Rachel]

get a zotac id80. or if you want to build, a zotac d2700 itx board and the necessary extras (case, ram, disk).

Intel HD graphics have some issues - specifically you can't get smooth playback from movies at 23.976fps, only exactly 24fps. You will notice the differences as it repeats a frame every 40-something seconds. :-)

[23tux]

Thx for your answer. But I havent heard of this brand before, i'd rather buy a asrock or a asus mainboard. Any other recommendations for good hardware for xbmc?

[Rachel]

essentially go for something with an nvidia GT520 (M or not). Dual-core is good but even that probably not essential. Yes, XBMC works on a wider range of hardware than that, but nVidia probably really does have the best support.

Zotac are a good brand; also some XBMC devs actually use that specific machine, so if *they* have problems, they'll get fixed. :-) I've only used a GPU from them before, personally, but no qualms about using them.

My current XBMC box is actually a standard (actually too-high-for-XBMC) spec PC with an Asus fanless GT520; and while its playback is basically perfect, I have some issues with that card, which a little googling suggests are specific to the *Asus* model. (Specifically, you need to enable persistence-mode so the driver doesn't unload when you log out, as it causes the machine to crash during that driver unload, Then having that persistence mode enabled causes an XBMC crash when the system boots directly into XBMC - OK if goes via login screen first! Those with other GT520 cards - including Zotac - aren't reporting this issue.)

[Rachel]

btw, lesser nvidia cards may well be sufficient. For instance, I was perfectly happy running XBMC on a 2010 mac mini (running linux), with an nvidia 320M until i was persuaded by xbmc devs who seem to like the way i report bugs that i had to get Temporal/Spatial deinterlacing working properly in full HD. The 320M wasn't quite up to it, but in other respects was perfect. Similarly for a GT218.

[23tux]

Hmmm... I want to buy a mini ITX board with onboard graphic card, and I couldn't find any with a newer NVidia Card onboard. What about this mainboard http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.p...etail.html with an AMD Radeon HD 65XX? It's neither NVidia nor Intel, but at the Wiki (http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBMCbuntu) it says that a Radeon HD 4000 or newer is recommended (I guess that 65XX is newer than 4000

[Rachel]

well, the zotac d2700 *is* a mini-itx with a gt520m on board, and i know a dev who's getting exactly that, with a streamcom case. And yeah, there aren't too many like it, which is why that model is a favourite. It's almost exactly the same board as in the zotac id80 , but in bare mobo form. (Some small differences like, the board has a displayport interface on it, that sort of thing.)

I can't speak to any of the radeons. I do know that better support for it is coming - in fact, nvidia or radeon, I'd say, use the xbmc-xvba ppa as that has the most recent improved support for *both* radeon and nvidia.