I’ve built the HTPC (it was a pain in the ass, but we’ll talk about that in the future).
The “real Rock’n’rolla” of FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU is the Ubuntu/Linux support for the Intel HD4000.
After 2 days of cursing, I have now set up a working desktop (with MATE :/), I still have no audio during video playback on xbmc (but there’s audio anywhere else – even in xbmc’s menus!) and h.264 decoding is choppy as hell (video stuttering even scrolling a web page in firefox)…
I am going to build a new HTPC for my family.
My current setup is this:
Aspire Revo R3600
[CPU] Intel Atom 230 (1.6GHz, 1 core, 2 threads, 512KB L2 cache)
[RAM] 2GB DDR2 667MHz
[GPU] integrated 9400M (512MB shared memory)
[HDD1] Hitachi HTS543216L9A (internal 2.5″ – 160GB, 5400rpm)
[HDD2] Western Digital WD20EARS (external – 2TB, 3.5″)
It runs 24/7 with Ubuntu 12.04 (x86) and Gnome 3 (fallback mode).
I use it for web browsing from the couch, XBMC (for thousands of movies and TV shows), eMule, Vuze and it shares its contents with all the other PCs via SMB.
Since it’s been serving the whole family for more than 2 years (bought off eBay, used for 150€), it deserves a peaceful retirement 🙂
The next build will have these goals: smoothness, silence, low power consumption, XBMC and linux compliance.
At the moment I am just waiting for the new pieces to arrive 🙂
[CASE] Silverstone Grandia GD-06 (HTPC case, mATX, 4 x 3.5″ + 2 x 2.5″ HDD slots)
[PSU] Seasonic X-400 fanless (400W – 80+ Gold certified)
[CPU] Intel Core i5-3570K (3.4-3.8GHz, 4 cores, 4 threads, 6MB cache)
[GPU] Intel HD4000 (integrated)
[M/B] Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H (chipset Z77, mATX, 2 x SATA3, 4 x SATA2)
[RAM] DDR3 1600hz PC12800 4GB AMD Entertainment Edition Patriot CL9 1.5V
[HDD1] Toshiba MK1637GSX (160GB, 2.5″) <- Old
[HDD2] Western Digital WD20EARS (2TB, 3.5″) <- Old
[HDD3] Western Digital WD30EZRX (3TB, 3.5″)
This is going to be mostly driven by the same SW as before.
Future improvements:
I know this is an overkill config for an HTPC but:
DesperateNerdLife 