I need a decent build for next to no money...

[MikeBeecham]

So, I want to look at building or getting a linux box...making the leap from xbox to linux.

I really dont have a lot of money, but I have the hardware know-how, so I dont mind building. Sourcing the parts, however seems a bit of hard work...it's an area I've not looked into before.

The end result has to be pretty small or at least tidy looking, and I'm not sure about having a keyboard and mouse lying around in the living room...so anything around that would be great.

Any thoughts or advice would be gratefully received.



Mike

[icekiller]

i'm not going to do all your work sorry,
but i'll tell you what to look for
motherboard with onboard HDMI && gbit, spdif out is a plus.
CPU: E8200, some people like the AMD BE serie because of the powerconsumptie, but the intel E8x00 series is nice too (if your low on money you can always buy a e6750 cheap now a days, second hand)

case... thats the prob.. Most 'good' cases start at around 120euro.. and some of the nicer ones will put you back 200euro. It depens on how much you care about it...

If your not going to use the box as a storage unit then go for an usb stick instead of a harddrive or a 16gb SSD hd (50a60euro the cheaper ones) these are quiet.. and fast.

Powersupply, don't cheapen out.. what good is a mediacenter thats under 20db if the fan makes +30db noise.. If you have the money passive, or one of those psu power adapters (you know the one mini psu don't know about powersupply and usage of the pc)

Bluray drive isn't really that hot seeing as xbmc can't play it yet so a normal dvdrom is doable.

ram: >512mb, but seeing as its pretty cheap get 2gb or even 4... (its cheap so..)

[icekiller]

d'oh forgot something, go for onboard nvidia, but try to have a pcie slot just incase you want to upgrade orsomething...

[siDDis]

I recommend getting the cheapest of the cheapest, you can play 1080p content just fine!

Example:
E21XX as CPU around $50
Asus MicroATX with onboard intel video, I especially like the G33 model as it's also a nice overclocker.

For the other parts you can choose whatever you like, it doesnt matter if you go for 512mb memory or 8GB memory.

[jerkychew]

Here are my suggestions - They're somewhat generic but hopefully will help:

For a board, if space is a factor look towards mini-ITX. I'd recommend a socket 775 board with a Dual-Core pentium chip. The dual-core Pentiums are cheap as hell and with a socket 775 you can upgrade to a core 2 duo or even a core 2 quad as prices come down. As for networking, onboard gig is nice but not a necessity unless you're streaming HD over your network.

With RAM, more is always better but 512 should be ok if you're not doing anything crazy.

I'd stay away from ATI - Nvidia drivers tend to play nicer with Linux and ATI hasn't been that Linux-friendly these days. I guess Intel opened up their driver code for the GMA chipsets but I'm no developer so I can't say for sure. I just know what I read on the Mythtv mailing lists and XBMC forums. Fanless GeForce cards are cheap, I think I got mine for 30 bucks on NewEgg.

[Gamester17]

if 720p native playback of H.264 videos but 1080p skin and video upscaling to 1080p is enough then get a used (intel core2 duo) Mac Mini to install Linux XBMC on.

[rodalpho]

The 2Ghz C2D mac mini should handle a lot of 1080p too. I wouldn't say it'll handle pretty much anything like a 2.4Ghz C2D, but it'll run most stuff.

[dizzey]

I got an asus m2n-hdmi mainboard and a amd x2 4600+ and 1gb ram
in a nice hipper case http://www.hipergroup.com/English/products/hmc-1x53x.html

the mainboard has support for hdmi and has a integrated nvidia 7050 and i can add a better card later with a riser but i dont think that i need to.

ok the cpu is probobly to slow to play most 1080p but i dont know since i havent tried. but the cpu i got was really really cheap and my plan is t wait 1 year and then get a cpu upgrade becus by then a really cheap cpu should be able to handle 1080p

[niko7865]

What is the lowest nVidia video card you need to play 1080p? Would any of the 7xxx series do? Or would I have to go with an 8500 or 8600?

[snappz]

What is the lowest nVidia video card you need to play 1080p? Would any of the 7xxx series do? Or would I have to go with an 8500 or 8600?

I'm using an integrated 7150 with no issues at all. I am playing streaming 1080p mkv's (full res and bitrate) over dvi at 1360x768
I believe I have heard of the 6xxx series being acceptable also.
Plenty of CPU is the main thing ATM if I understand it correctly.

[icekiller]

motherboard
P5N-EM HDMI nForce® 630i, 2xPCI, 1xPCIe x1, 1xPCIe x16, 3xDDR2, Sound, Gbit LAN, VGA shared, S-ATA II RAID, HDMI onboad geforce 7100 53,90euro,

cpu
Core 2 Duo E7200 Sockel 775, FSB 1066, Wolfdale, 64bit, Dual Core, box 119,90euro
OR
Pentium E2200 Sockel 775, FSB 800, Allendale, 64bit, Dual Core, box 68,90 euro

Memory
EXME1G-DD2N-800S50 1GB DDR2 800, PC2-6400, CL5 19,90 euro

or twice the above.. this is what i ment with cheap as hell...

case
NSK2480-EC 380W, Micro ATX, 2 Lüfter, silber/schwarz 89,90euro
isn't the best looking case but pretty nice for its money


optical

if you have the money:
GGC-H20L Blu-ray/HD DVD-Combo, 6x BD-ROM SL, 4.8x BD-ROM DL, 3x HD DVD-ROM, DVD+/-R/RW/DL/RAM, S-ATA, schwarz, bulk, inkl. Software 114,90euro.

else
SH-S202H 20x DVD+/-R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 16x DVD+R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, IDE, schwarz, bulk 29,90euro


harddrive
Supersonic 8GB, USB 2.0, 150x, weiß 25,90 euro
or HD252KJ 250GB, 7200U/min, 16MB Cache, 8.9ms, S-ATA II 41,90euro

[BLKMGK]

What is the lowest nVidia video card you need to play 1080p? Would any of the 7xxx series do? Or would I have to go with an 8500 or 8600?

Suggest you do some further reading - decoding is being primarily done via the CPU not the video card. There is little acceleration being done by the card.

[althekiller]

As of now (and the foreseeable future) so long as you have OpenGL 2.0 or better and Pixel Shader model 3.0 or better you should see no performance increases.

[bdanger]

I tried to do what you're doing. I'm pretty good with computers and hardware, but after spending around $280 on newegg + a $100 mini-itx MB I found that getting everything to work seamlessly with eachother using linux(hardware-wise and software-wise) was a huge pain in the ass. On top of that I couldn't find a case that didn't look ugly in my living room.

So I returned everything and spent a little more on a Mac Mini core 2 duo. I don't have to worry about getting all the hardware working correctly because It's all already in place. XBMC has been tried and tested on it, and it supposedly pushes out 1080p. Most of all it's tiny, it looks great sitting anywhere, and the remote is included!

so that's my 2 cents.

[shuhari]

motherboard
P5N-EM HDMI nForce® 630i, 2xPCI, 1xPCIe x1, 1xPCIe x16, 3xDDR2, Sound, Gbit LAN, VGA shared, S-ATA II RAID, HDMI onboad geforce 7100 53,90euro,

cpu
Core 2 Duo E7200 Sockel 775, FSB 1066, Wolfdale, 64bit, Dual Core, box 119,90euro
OR
Pentium E2200 Sockel 775, FSB 800, Allendale, 64bit, Dual Core, box 68,90 euro

Memory
EXME1G-DD2N-800S50 1GB DDR2 800, PC2-6400, CL5 19,90 euro

or twice the above.. this is what i ment with cheap as hell...

case
NSK2480-EC 380W, Micro ATX, 2 Lüfter, silber/schwarz 89,90euro
isn't the best looking case but pretty nice for its money


optical

if you have the money:
GGC-H20L Blu-ray/HD DVD-Combo, 6x BD-ROM SL, 4.8x BD-ROM DL, 3x HD DVD-ROM, DVD+/-R/RW/DL/RAM, S-ATA, schwarz, bulk, inkl. Software 114,90euro.

else
SH-S202H 20x DVD+/-R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 16x DVD+R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, IDE, schwarz, bulk 29,90euro


harddrive
Supersonic 8GB, USB 2.0, 150x, weiß 25,90 euro
or HD252KJ 250GB, 7200U/min, 16MB Cache, 8.9ms, S-ATA II 41,90euro


I love this hardware list, it really gives me something to base my decisions on. But Where does a remote control fit in... is there a remote control that's better supported under Linux than the rest?

[icekiller]

the case i mentioned has USB @ the front.. so you could make a nice silver dongle.. the IR eye is overal the same now adays.. as long as LIRC supports it.. you can program LIRC to do whatever you want on the button push...

owyeah that motherboard has geforce 7300 .. OpenGL 2 & Pixel shader 3.0 (looked it up)

[icekiller]

http://www.usbgear.com/U1-FIR-IRDA.html
something like that,i'll try to score that one on ebay orsomething.. and tell you how it works..

[rodalpho]

As of now (and the foreseeable future) so long as you have OpenGL 2.0 or better and Pixel Shader model 3.0 or better you should see no performance increases.
I've heard some conflicting information on this. Someone (I think Pike?) said that video card capabilities past the base OGL2.0/SM3 do make a difference, just a smallish one. This was in a thread where another poster could play the birds clip on this 3Ghz C2D with an 8500GT while I couldn't on my 3Ghz C2D with a built-in 7150. What's the final answer?

[dizzey]

My guess is that there will be a difference if the card has it's own ram instead of sharing. with a card that uses systemram there could be a bandwith issue with 1080p sampels alot of reading / writing to system ram. best way to test this would be to try the system with diffrente speed on integrated ram.

[BLKMGK]

Lirc fires up in minutes flat with the Microsoft MCE remote setup. I'm shocked that a search didn't find that since I've stated it about 20 times now. Costs about $25 on ZipZoomFly too.

[snappz]

This was in a thread where another poster could play the birds clip on this 3Ghz C2D with an 8500GT while I couldn't on my 3Ghz C2D with a built-in 7150. What's the final answer?

I can play the bird clip with a C2D 3ghz and inbuilt 7150. Sometimes it will drop frames all the way thru but if I stop and start again it plays fine.
I play a lot of bluray and hddvd remuxed to mkv without any problems.

[succo]

hmmm... right now i'm on a c2d 3ghz and 7150 and have many dropped frames in bird clip... it's an oc E4700 @ 3ghz, the video memory is set at 256MB (on an EVGA 630i-7150 hdmi) and the bird clip goes at something like 20 fps with many audio stutters... still have to try some other hd video :)

[Gamester17]

I've heard some conflicting information on this. Someone (I think Pike?) said that video card capabilities past the base OGL2.0/SM3 do make a difference, just a smallish one. This was in a thread where another poster could play the birds clip on this 3Ghz C2D with an 8500GT while I couldn't on my 3Ghz C2D with a built-in 7150. What's the final answer?http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=XBMC_for_Linux_specific_FAQ#Why_is_a_OpenGL _2.0_compatible_graphic-controller_the_recommended_minimum_for_XBMC.3F

Always the last place you look, right? :rolleyes:

[rodalpho]

That doesn't address the question. My built-in 7150 is fully opengl 2.0 compliant and yet someone else's 8500GT ran the birds clip faster on nearly identical hardware.

[dizzey]

Try to set different memory speeds in the bios on your mobo then we will know if it is becus the memoy is taxed

[icekiller]

should we maybe make a separate section with your homebuild specs+pics? would be kinda nice..
(and overal score)
please ignore below this line
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with number



caps maybe?

[BLKMGK]

That would be me that was playing it no problem. Not tried it on a recent build but am watching Transformers now - will try it later and report on current build.