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I think this thread should be made sticky.
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Sorry in advance if im posting this in the wrong place.
I am looking for suggestions on a 2nd XBMC live box to build for my living room. I currently have the Zotac Ion 330 (1.6ghz with 4gb ddr2 ram) which I plan to move to another room. I want to build or buy something more robust that can still run xbmc live and output 1080p 120hz with fiber audio. I will be using a ssd for the OS and have all my content on a custom FreeNAS box on my gigE network. I want a solution with more power for browsing fanart and the menu but only use my htpc's for HD video content. I would also like something as quiet as possible with relatively low power consumption. If I have to build something with full size fans that is a little louder to get better performance running a long hdmi cable to a closet could be an option but I would prefer not to.
I say some people commenting on the different NAS solutions and I just wanted to say I have had a GREAT experience with FreeNAS for about the last 2 years. I am currently running the latest version and have 2 raid sets set up: 5 1tb drives in raid 0 for performance and 2 2tb drives in raid 0 acting as my main raid backup. I know its a little overkill but I don't trust the software raid and had most of the drives and equipment laying around from old projects. The great thing about FreeNAS is you can use it with just about anything you have laying around or if you want supreme redundancy you can order a $1200 raid card...
Anyway thanks for any advice on the new build!
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Unraid is nice but if I remember correctly its not free, I saw the posts about FreeNAS and noticed no one said anything about it so I just wanted to give it a bump. Its a great OS, I have it running on a 2gb compact flash card with other services set up other that just smb shares (ftp, rsynch server ect).
I saw both posts about all the different options for building a new xbmc box I was more or less hoping to hear from someone who had a nice quiet system already set up that could make a good suggestion. I am leaning towards just going with a core i3 and 430 but am weary because of power consumption and noise from fans.
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The 3 disk version is free, but that's only good for 1 parity and 2 data drives.
If you only use XBMC to watch movies, an i3 would be overkill. Even a Sempron 140 or Celeron/Atom, etc would work wonders for you. If you really need the 430 you can use that as well. AMD Zacate boards are also a great choice.
I run a large heat sink on my main PC, but I removed the fan and it still idles at around 33C and full load at 40C. As long as your case has decent airflow you can sometimes get away with no fan on the heatsink.
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Thanks for the info. I just want something thats a little faster than my current zotac ion. Don't get me wrong the ion runs content great its just a little lacking when trying to do things in various menu's while watching content. Are the AMD Zacate boards currently supported with xbmc live? Do you think I would see a performance improvement with it? Thanks again.
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Have you tried overclocking the Atom you already have? I also don't see why the Zacate boards wouldn't work for XBMC, I've read several reviews on Newegg of people using them for this.
EDIT: Have you tried turning on debugging so you can see CPU usage while you're going through menus while also playing content?