[Popeye]

Hi!

I got a VIA EPIA-EN12000EG mini-itx card and I know it got no possibilities what so ever to play or even start XBMC in its vanilla state. Now I'm considering either getting a ASROCK Nettop ION 330 or being cheap and just complement the epia card with a nvidia 8400 PCI card like this.
My question, will I be able to play 1080p mkv (if I run XBMC for ubuntu 9.04) with this cheap card? My understanding is that the cpu should be quite ok with the VDPAU thingie going

[ion_man]

It could well work, there are reports of people that have used that a PCI 8400GS on old Pentium III PCs successfully with XBMC.
I have that card and tried to use it on a 12 year old Pentium MMX-233 (just for the challenge ) but the BIOS failed to recognize it as a graphics card. I managed to boot in a dual graphics card setup along an old ATI card and Linux was actually able to see the 8400GSGS but then I had trouble with the PSU (only 200Watts nominal probably much less real power, not ATX but AT so can't replace it easily) flaking out so I gave up.

Anyway, as long as your PSU is powerful enough and the BIOS recognizes the card then it should work.

[Popeye]

Thanks for you answer and the tip about the PSU. This might be a problem. I'm quite sure the bios will recognize the card. The Asrock is a sure bet but 5-6 times more expensive ...
EDIT: No it didn't get recognized. A warning to anyone thinking about doing the same. Go for a Zotac Ion instead