[hart.240]

I am just starting to play with XBMC and I am hooked. I purchased a ATV1 and upgraded it and though I like it, it is not without its bugs and limitations. I am planning on building or purchasing a HTPC but not wanting to make the investment at the moment since I have a Mac Mini as a family computer but it rarely gets used. So in the mean time before getting a a "real" HTPC I am going to use the Mac Mini. I am looking for suggestions on what upgrades to make to it to help get better performance.

It is a 2010 model
2.4 G Intel Core Duo
2G 1067 Mhz DDR
Nvidia Ge Force 320m
320 GB HD

Also wondering the advantage of running XBMC on windows as opposed to Mac OSX.

What I am looking for is watching HD videos 1080 as much as possible. Mainly DVD, Navi-x, Hulu. Will also like to connect homerun PVR.

Looking forward to your suggestions.

[rcoltrane]

I have several Mac Mini 2010 systems, that I use for XBMC. They have the same specifications that you listed. I find it makes a great media center PC. I use Linux on them, as I prefer Linux to MacOSX. The Mac Mini 2010 plays all my 1080p content well when using hardware acceleration. I use Fernet Menta's XBMC tree, as in my experience his patches produce better playback, especially for my 1080i content from my camera. It seems the Mac Mini 2010 is not quite able to play 1080p/50fps content that some cameras produce, although I dont have one of these.

I've had problems with the latest XBMC 12 Frodo Beta2 - no sound and very low frame rate, like slow motion. However Fernet Menta's version runs without a problem. Overall, I love the Mac Mini 2010 - low noise (near silent), low power consumption. It is the last Mac Mini with NVidia and I'll stick with at least until Intel sorts out the 23.976 problems , hopefully the sucessor to Ivy Bridge.

[aaronb]

I have one of those, it's a great XBMC box, no upgrades needed

[bry]

I have one of those, it's a great XBMC box, no upgrades needed

+1

[lrusak]

No HD audio, that's about the only difference