[onefuckedupgeek]

Hi everyone,

I've got a couple of questions, so I try to ask as organized as possible. Here's the situation:

XBMC on my XBox still works great. But as time passes, more and more HD content becomes available and unfortunately the XBox isn't capable of playing HD content due to its limited CPU power.

I've still got an Mozart SX lying around and I thought it would be pretty nice for my living room. As more and more onboard GPUs are capable of decoding HD content and therefore relieve the CPU I decided to design the HTPC as energy efficient as possible.

So, which mainboards and CPUs became my choice?

1.) AMD 780G / 790G with AMD Athlon X2 4450e or similar.
2.) NVidia GeForce 8200 with AMD Athlon X2 4450e or similar.
3.) NVidia GeForce 9400 with any Core 2 Duo

All of these chipsets will mostly be coupled with a HDMI output on the mainboard.

Question 1.) Considering the board will be connected to the TV via HDMI, do all Linux drivers - NVidia as well as AMD - already support the output over HDMI, especially at 1920x1080?

Question 2.) When playing HD DivX or similar content (h.264, etc.), do the chipsets really relieve the CPU?

Question 3.) Considering XBMC shall be installed on Ubuntu, is it possible to install Ubuntu without any desktop and nethertheless run XBMC (in graphical mode) from the command line?

Question 4.) If it runs without any installed desktop from the command line, will it be possible to start XBMC automatically when the system is started?

Question 5.) Here's a good one: Do the suspend to ram or suspend to disk modes run fine with Ubuntu and one of these chipsets?

Question 6.) Does the Linux Version of XBMC (and Ubuntu itself of course) work with any remote? Any recommendations?

Question 7.) Would it be possible to post information to an LCD-Display which is connected to the mainboard via USB while using XBMC on Linux?

Question 8.) Finally, if one was assembling a TV-Tuner card into the HTPC, would it be possible to view and record free TV with XBMC (maybe any approved AddOns)?

I'll really be regardful if anyone can answer to most of my concerns.

Greetings, onefuckedupgeek