Thinking of upgrading my HTPC- To a more greener & silent option

[Opti]

Currently its a Q6600, 4gb ram on a P31( I think/ can't remember ) Gigabyte board, 8400GS etc etc. I was thinking of upgrading to a more silent, power friendly option as it gets used all the time.
So, what are these Mini-ITX all in one jobby's like?
Such as this : http://www.warcom.com.au/Motherboard...bc6b96b36f45d8
I currently play 720p and 1080p mkv's that are all on a NAS. Are these good for this. I don't have a bluray player but wouldn't mind getting one aswell but are a bit concerned about the performance.
Or is there something else I could/should look at?

Thanks.

[Pemalite]

For movie playback it will be perfectly fine even at 1080P.

Asrock has a version out for only $145.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=16940

However... You might miss out on a few things like Vector Adaptive De-interlacing, but I doubt you would be even getting that with your current Geforce anyway. (They just aren't fast enough.)

Also MKV's are just the container, it's not what the actual movie is encoded with.
Some codecs it might struggle with I'm not sure, haven't played around with one yet. But my Atom n470 Tablet does 720P fine with only an Intel Decelerator 3150, the Fusion chips are substantially quicker than them.

[Talaii]

My e-350 plays 1080p h264 files perfectly. I don't have a bluray drive for it yet - should arrive in the next few days, so I'll test then - but after looking at online reviews for the board it should play them fine. Just make sure that you're using a player that supports DXVA; personally I use XBMC for windows, though I may play with TMT5 + Windows Media Center when my TV tuner and bluray drive arrive.

One small note, though, is to do with operating system: IF you want to run linux on it, you'll need to invest in something nvidia-based (Ion/Ion2 rather than fusion), since the ATI video decode support in linux is unstable at best. VDPAU (the nvidia alternative) works much nicer, and has a lot more support from player software.

[Opti]

Originally Posted by Pemalite

For movie playback it will be perfectly fine even at 1080P.

Asrock has a version out for only $145.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=16940

I chose the Asus as it has no fans, I want to go real silent this time...

Originally Posted by Pemalite

Also MKV's are just the container, it's not what the actual movie is encoded with.
Some codecs it might struggle with I'm not sure, haven't played around with one yet. But my Atom n470 Tablet does 720P fine with only an Intel Decelerator 3150, the Fusion chips are substantially quicker than them.

Yeah i realise that MKV's are just the container. Thats how I store my movies that why I said it...

Originally Posted by Talaii

My e-350 plays 1080p h264 files perfectly. I don't have a bluray drive for it yet - should arrive in the next few days, so I'll test then - but after looking at online reviews for the board it should play them fine. Just make sure that you're using a player that supports DXVA; personally I use XBMC for windows, though I may play with TMT5 + Windows Media Center when my TV tuner and bluray drive arrive.

One small note, though, is to do with operating system: IF you want to run linux on it, you'll need to invest in something nvidia-based (Ion/Ion2 rather than fusion), since the ATI video decode support in linux is unstable at best. VDPAU (the nvidia alternative) works much nicer, and has a lot more support from player software.

I'll be running W7 X64 on my htpc...
Plus I will get a SSD for it aswell...Whats the smallest psu I could use on this? One of those 200W mini psu's? As I have one in my cupboard.

[pshnfry]

I'm interested in this discussion as well. See sig for my current set up, running probably 18 out of 24 hours. The only real issue I have with noise is the Seagate 7200rpm 2Tb drive. Fan noise is practically imperceptible while watching movies, the Antec case is the goods with quality 120 fans fitted. And temps are good even with the Phenom 9550.

But, I'm conscious of needing to reduce the power consumption.

Have looked at some of these newer integrated solutions, but most are itx which creates problems with 2 twin tuner cards, wifi card and wanting to move to a dedicated quality sound card.

The Asus board you flagged has 2 PCIe, has HDMI and optical out, and so would suit my current set up but not leave me with a PCIe for future sound.

I'm also thinking about moving to ATX 775 E8200 with a passive graphic card because I have this board sitting around which has never been used:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=2840#ov

Not sure how much power would be saved though, and I would need to move to another HTPC case. But also concious of running 4 tuners and an xbox extender in another room - and moving to Blu Ray player shortly, I might need more grunt than the integrated solutions.

Has anyone really maxed these AMD and Intel Atom integrated solutions out in a review? I'm going off for a look now.

[trash]

I have an Asrock ION330 HTPC (Details). It is an Atom330/ION combination.

I have used this with XBMC and Windows 7 Media Centre. I have played 720p MKVs under both OSs and it was perfect. 1080p in XBMC was fine, but with very high CPU usage - 75-80% during scenes where there was a lot going on.

Under Windows 7 Media Centre all was good with the exception of heavy 1080p scenes. Only slight jaggies and on the occasion when fast forwarding the audio would be out of sync. Again high CPU usage for 1080p.

The 1080p problems may have been caused by streaming across network (100 and slow QNAP Box). 1080p Blu-Ray DVDs played fine.

Hope this helps.

(Currently using this box as a server until I decide on new server hardware)

[FAL]

Originally Posted by trash

I have an Asrock ION330 HTPC (Details). It is an Atom330/ION combination.

I bought one of these just the other day, it's almost setup... I haven't watched anything on it yet.

FYI don't spend a day trying to install Win7 on it only to remember the installation you're using is x64, x86 for these guys only.
Ubuntu doesn't work so well on either.

[cheddo7]

Originally Posted by trash

I have an Asrock ION330 HTPC (Details). It is an Atom330/ION combination.

I have used this with XBMC and Windows 7 Media Centre. I have played 720p MKVs under both OSs and it was perfect. 1080p in XBMC was fine, but with very high CPU usage - 75-80% during scenes where there was a lot going on.

Under Windows 7 Media Centre all was good with the exception of heavy 1080p scenes. Only slight jaggies and on the occasion when fast forwarding the audio would be out of sync. Again high CPU usage for 1080p.

The 1080p problems may have been caused by streaming across network (100 and slow QNAP Box). 1080p Blu-Ray DVDs played fine.

Hope this helps.

(Currently using this box as a server until I decide on new server hardware)

Maybe try CoreAVC as it will offload to the GPU, worked ace on my old 1201n ION 330 laptop. I sound like an employee but it really does make a difference on lower spec HTPCs.

[Opti]

Well as per usual the items I chose no-one had in OZ. So I bought all this for my new setup :
CPU :I3-2100T Mobo :Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 Ram: 2x4Gb Hdd : OCZ Vertex II SSD Case : Antec ISK310-150
Using my old HVR2200 tuner and storage is 4TB in a DNS323. I soon realize the SSD was not big enough as TV recordings need temporary space. I don't know what its exactly called. So I had a spare 80Gb 2.5" drive I chucked in for that. I tried to use the NAS for temp space but I could not get 7MC to use it.
Not as green as I wanted but its dam quiet and dam fast. I think the SSD makes the difference. I hit the sleep button and its around 2seconds and its all asleep.
Codecs I used is FFDShow, Haali and AC3filter.

[RyoSaeba]

Good choice. I was going to say that atom solutions will work ok, but coming from a Q6600, you'll find that it's not as snappy. Response can be a little slow at times with an Atom CPU and if you have wide variety of codecs etc, you'll need to find ways of playing all of them differently on the Atom. It'll play ok, but some files will simply not play under one player or another.

I went with i3 solution after owning an Atom board and find it much snappier and can play 99% of stuff in XBMC without issues. Some files simply won't render the subs for some reason, but will play fine in MPC.

Have fun with the new toy

[Opti]

Yeah i'm quite happy with it. I'm still ironing out the last issues. One is that when I turn on the htpc and goto watch a ripped movie from my NAS. The htpc says it can't find the selected drive. I go into "my computer" and open the network drive and then the htpc will play the movie. This only happens when first turning on the htpc. Its because the NAS is asleep. I'm tring to find a way of making the htpc wake the NAS when it turns on but yet to find it. Not that I've had much time to look lately...

[cheddo7]

Originally Posted by Opti

Yeah i'm quite happy with it. I'm still ironing out the last issues. One is that when I turn on the htpc and goto watch a ripped movie from my NAS. The htpc says it can't find the selected drive. I go into "my computer" and open the network drive and then the htpc will play the movie. This only happens when first turning on the htpc. Its because the NAS is asleep. I'm tring to find a way of making the htpc wake the NAS when it turns on but yet to find it. Not that I've had much time to look lately...

I had the same issues with a DNS-323, I ended up building a server out of old bits for more storage and don't miss the slow transfer speed and hassles that came with the 323.

[Dropbear]

Originally Posted by Opti

Well as per usual the items I chose no-one had in OZ. So I bought all this for my new setup :
CPU :I3-2100T Mobo :Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 Ram: 2x4Gb Hdd : OCZ Vertex II SSD Case : Antec ISK310-150
Using my old HVR2200 tuner and storage is 4TB in a DNS323. I soon realize the SSD was not big enough as TV recordings need temporary space. I don't know what its exactly called. So I had a spare 80Gb 2.5" drive I chucked in for that. I tried to use the NAS for temp space but I could not get 7MC to use it.
Not as green as I wanted but its dam quiet and dam fast. I think the SSD makes the difference. I hit the sleep button and its around 2seconds and its all asleep.
Codecs I used is FFDShow, Haali and AC3filter.

Im thinking of the exact same system for my HTPC..

Does your system passthrough DTS-MA etc via hdmi without a dedicated GPU?

[bigmaxy]

Originally Posted by Opti

Well as per usual the items I chose no-one had in OZ. So I bought all this for my new setup :
CPU :I3-2100T Mobo :Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 Ram: 2x4Gb Hdd : OCZ Vertex II SSD Case : Antec ISK310-150
Using my old HVR2200 tuner and storage is 4TB in a DNS323. .

I've been thinking about moving away from a system based on a E6600 and had pretty much decided on something with almost the same specs.
How are you finding it? Anything you would change?

Also for everyone. I'm planning on making this my fileserver also, any problems with running Raid5 with 3 disks rather than an external NAS solution?

[Opti]

Originally Posted by cheddo7

I had the same issues with a DNS-323, I ended up building a server out of old bits for more storage and don't miss the slow transfer speed and hassles that came with the 323.

I worked out the issue. I just made the drive available offline... Transfer speed isn't the best but its fine for what i need. Other than that the 323 is a great little unit.

Originally Posted by Dropbear

Im thinking of the exact same system for my HTPC..

Does your system passthrough DTS-MA etc via hdmi without a dedicated GPU?

I think it does but my amp doesn't have HDMI so I have my sound via optical....

Originally Posted by bigmaxy

I've been thinking about moving away from a system based on a E6600 and had pretty much decided on something with almost the same specs.
How are you finding it? Anything you would change?

Also for everyone. I'm planning on making this my fileserver also, any problems with running Raid5 with 3 disks rather than an external NAS solution?

Nothing I would change. Maybe changing the slow and old lappy drive i had to put in there because the ssd wasn't big enough for the O/s and the temp TV recordings...but thats being picky. I goes great, its silent, and best of all its soooo small.
The only bitch I have about it is the case. The silver front looks nice but it's made of plastic. For some reason i though it was metal. But again, getting picky. Also the optical drive flap on the front doesn't shut itself like my old LC14 did. I have to get of my ass to do it