[andel]

Hi all, I've been an XBMC user for a while now but recently my Acer Revo 3700 nettop dramatically died and won't even p.o.s.t
Im trying to decide what to buy as a replacement and would just like some other opinions really .
I live in the uk and have been looking at the Fire Tv but all the native features would be useless unless behind a VPN .
My other option is to build a M-itx system. Anyone got any thoughts? Thanks

[jammyb]

Budget?

[andel]

I don't need to buy a hard drive as I have dome here so do t really want to spend more than £150 on case, board, ram ect

[Mark142]

Hi andel

I have just bought the following and plan to build this weekend. Will be my first ever time building but from the research I have done it should be a very capable box for xbmc.

Mobo £47
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IM...UTF8&psc=1

Case £51
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GU...UTF8&psc=1

RAM £30
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005L...UTF8&psc=1

Total cost is £128 and like me I have an SSD from previous device that I'll use.

I am no expert and others may tell you different so do your research also. For M-ITX check out the Baytrail thread of peoples experiences with the new motherboards

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=184930

Alternatively the new AMD M1 thread

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=191880

I did also buy the new Bay trail NUC which is also a very good box.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-nuc...313mhz-gpu-
http://www.ebuyer.com/614389-nuc-boxdn28...n2820fykh0

You will need to add only RAM and HDD to the NUC.

I hope I helped

[MediaPi]

Mark looking forward to your review!! Very nice case to

[Mark142]

@MediaPi, build is complete. It was easier than I thought. Bit of a struggle fitting the board into the case due to the position of the power connector on the board but overall I'm pleased.

Had to change some settings within xbmc to get smooth playback from the settings on my previous amd fusion build but playback is very smooth full 1080p with no issues. And it is completely silent... Not even a beeb when it boots. I thought I had something wrong but it works.

I will try and take some pics but I'm also planing to test Ubuntu as well to see if it can be used for other stuff than xbmc.

[MediaPi]

Wow I'm jelous! I cancelled my order because of funds (I'll stick to my Pi for a little longer) Post your Pics in the baytrail thread Mark. I want one now does your case have a fan? because the motherboard is fanless so it should be silent LOL looking forward to pictures! . Seeing how easily you set yours up makes you think why everyone is so scared of "building" their own build. You def get more bang for your money and get the look you want!

[andel]

@MediaPi, build is complete. It was easier than I thought. Bit of a struggle fitting the board into the case due to the position of the power connector on the board but overall I'm pleased.

Had to change some settings within xbmc to get smooth playback from the settings on my previous amd fusion build but playback is very smooth full 1080p with no issues. And it is completely silent... Not even a beeb when it boots. I thought I had something wrong but it works.

I will try and take some pics but I'm also planing to test Ubuntu as well to see if it can be used for other stuff than xbmc.

thanks for your info Mark its been very useful. im still digesting it though!

[andel]

Mark, out of interest what is the minimum wattage PSU recommended for the gigabyte board?

[MediaPi]

Andel you might want to check out this thread to. I've written a post to give user experience of this board and a few pictures from people to.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1705261

[Mark142]

MediaPi the case came with an internal fan attached to the side but I removed that as I don't think it is needed.

andel. I'm not sure the minimum, the case I bought came with 120w psu and it works so that's all I care about. I don't think it uses much power so should be plenty. I'm on my phone at the moment but when I am home and some time I'll post some pics.

[t2ffn]

Do you know if this does HD audio passthrough?

[Mark142]

I don't have it connected to an amp. Just my TV. I'm very old skool. I'm sure someone in baytrail thread could answer. Before hijacking this thread any more I'm going to post a review and some pics in the baytrail motherboard thread.

[RaggSokk3n]

@andel: buy the same as Mark142
@t1ffn: all of the new Intel it boards with HD graphics should fully support HD pass through

Keep in mind that none of the current soc from Intel support hdmi 2.0 so 4k is a no go as far as I know.