Arctic MC001-N HTPC (XBMC & OpenElec Compatible) Barebones - $99 Shipped

You can use VGA and 3.5 (maybe SPDIF), but the lack of HDMI kind of sours the deal. Only my Main TV could integrate something like this smoothly and if it was for my main TV I'd get something with more power
Correction: Seems it does have HDMI.

Quote from bonkman : If you think you need an i3 or greater for DVR and hulu/netflix, you are clearly deluded. I'm running an Athlon XII 4050e and it works fine -- even recording three channels simultaneously and streaming to another computer.

Sure you dont, except i3 is a more efficient cpu (35W TDP vs 45W of 4050e) and, best of all, has an integrated GPU on the chip which is more than sufficient for HD playback

Quote from EK100 : You can use VGA and 3.5 (maybe SPDIF), but the lack of HDMI kind of sours the deal. Only my Main TV could integrate something like this smoothly and if it was for my main TV I'd get something with more power.

It does have HDMI.
http://www.hitechreview.com/uploa...ia-PC1.jpg
From the specs: "7.1- Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio (HDMI)"

Quote from endlessgwing : Which of the openelec builds will be best for this? I have a couple of sodimms and an SD card, that should be enough to complete this system right?

yor looking at an ion build

Just bought one. Got a hard drive and some memory from NewEgg and for under 200 bucks shipped i've got something that will do just fine as my basic HTPC (movies and hulu).

Yes, for $100 bucks more i could get *this*, or for 200 bucks more i could get *that*. But for $100 barebone nettop this is a good deal!

Thank you OP!!

Many years ago I had bought an Asrock ION 330 and XBMC used to run great on it, but after recent XBMC update, I started getting a lot of frame drops while playing videos.

I began to look for an alternative hardware, but in the end tried openelec on the same hardware and what a difference that made. This hardware is much better than Asrock ION 330 and so should be more than enough for someone looking to stream music, movies, pictures, from a NAS or another pc. If I had not found openelec workable and this was available at this price, I would buy it in heartbeat. This is impressive pricing for such a box.

This may not be the box for running windows. If you absolutely need netflix and hulu, stay away from this as the plug in support for xbmc is community drive and stops working often.

Quote from bonkman : Uh, what? If you can't get W7 to work smoothly on a D525 with >2gb RAM, the problem is you not knowing how to optimize windows. Not the computer.

This thing is barely faster than a 8 year old Pentium D, it doesn't matter how much I optimize Windows...the hardware is physically lackluster.

I rather put $30 more into a Core2Duo and walk out a winner.

Quote from nrg : Buy a 25 dollar Raspberry Pi and load raspbmc on it. there ya go, cheapest way to get xbmc for your tv. your tv remote will control xbmc and it will stream everything you want. i was running 1080p mkv with 5.1 DD last night with it.

http://www.raspbmc.com/about/


can you run a dvr on a Raspberry Pi?

Quote from enriguep : Many years ago I had bought an Asrock ION 330 and XBMC used to run great on it, but after recent XBMC update, I started getting a lot of frame drops while playing videos. I began to look for an alternative hardware, but in the end tried openelec on the same hardware and what a difference that made. This hardware is much better than Asrock ION 330 and so should be more than enough for someone looking to stream music, movies, pictures, from a NAS or another pc. If I had not found openelec workable and this was available at this price, I would buy it in heartbeat. This is impressive pricing for such a box. This may not be the box for running windows. If you absolutely need netflix and hulu, stay away from this as the plug in support for xbmc is community drive and stops working often.

I had this too after installing the newest xbmc on a ion 330 this weekend. Did you try changing the settings. Go to Settings -> System -> Video Output -> Change to Full Screen.

I think the default setting is Windowed which give frame drops. Let me know if that solved it.

Regular Price: $99.99
On Sale For: $89.95

Quote from nxsfan : It does have HDMI. http://www.hitechreview.com/uploa...ia-PC1.jpg From the specs: "7.1- Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio (HDMI)"

I went off the manufacturer's description looking for HDMI and they didn't have it.

I assume that's what this line probably meant which could have also meant the VGA port, so I dismissed it.
"HDTV interface x 1"

Quote from cgigate : Regular Price: $99.99 On Sale For: $89.95

This site charges tax and it also comes out to $99

Which begs the question, should i buy it from the site that has it for $89 OR from ebay for $99 (does this merchant on ebay charge tax?)

EDIT:
Pics of motherboard
This is the BD version; i believe its the same board but this comes with a bluray drive and a 500GB internal HD; nonetheless same Mobo.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pa...iew,5.html

Quote from vickh : http://www.raspbmc.com/about/ can you run a dvr on a Raspberry Pi?

Yes and no. From my research, it's not completely seamless and XBMC's PVR/LiveTV functions are still not ready for prime time. It also seems to take a lot of trial and error to get it even marginally working.

That said, an Atom isn't going to do any better, they're simply just to underpowered. Being able to decode 1080p .264 in hardware doesn't help anything in the GUI that is done in software. If you want a solid DVR setup, do it right and put together a Celeron or i3 system (which can be built for ~$200) with WMC. That machine will run your DVR, XBMC, web browser, Hulu, Netflix, Youtube, everything, without issue.

Quote from cardboardbox : I'm thinking I'd rather wait for the Ouya.

That's what I was thinking. If XBMC is your focus, then the Ouya should be a great media player that also plays games.