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General => Users => Topic started by: Tumbledown on May 17, 2009, 03:14:37 pm

Title: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: Tumbledown on May 17, 2009, 03:14:37 pm
Hi All,
I've been looking around the forums looking to find the best small
form factor MD hardware.

My first intention was to use the VIA Mini-ITX form factor, however
one of my requirements is for HD playback.

I only have a 720p/1080i set at the moment but will be upgrading to 1080p,
so I want any hardware to be future proof on this front.

I receintly noticed that ZOTAC have released a Mini-ITX board with a fanless
Atom 1.6Ghz N230 CPU and NVidia ION graphics processor.

review here: -http://mini-itx.com/40933846 (http://mini-itx.com/40933846)

I know the Mini-ITX boards have issues with the UI2 etc due to being either
under powered or driver access to acceleration features.

The fact that this is an Nvidia GPU, is this a breakthrough?

When I find the right kit I'll be placing an order enough for 4 MDs,
so I want to get it right  ;D

Any thoughts or advice from experienced users would be appreciated

TIA
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: merkur2k on May 17, 2009, 04:46:34 pm
you can get some quite small form factor cases for MicroATX boards too. they end up being a little larger than itx, but is something you should consider unless that form factor is an absolute requirement.
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: alx9r on May 17, 2009, 05:56:49 pm
My first intention was to use the VIA Mini-ITX form factor, however
one of my requirements is for HD playback.
If you intend to playback HD, you will need a fair amount of processing power in your MD.  See here for details:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/How_to_Select_Mainboards_for_Your_LinuxMCE_System#Video_Decoding_Requirements

The Atom 1.6Ghz N270 CPU (and I suspect the N230 you are contemplating) can play few HD videos -- it is just not fast enough.

You might want to read the rest of that article too as there is a lot consider when selecting a mainboard for LinuxMCE, some of which is far from obvious or intuitive.

The fact that this is an Nvidia GPU, is this a breakthrough?
I would say that an nVidia GPU is preferable to intel or ATI because nVidia GPUs are more likely to work out-of-the-box with fewer issues.  However, as far as decoding video goes, none of the three can be used to decode video using LinuxMCE -- all decoding is currently done by the CPU.

HTH,

Alex
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: Tumbledown on May 17, 2009, 08:49:58 pm
Hmm that is a bit of a pain then eh!!

I guess the top priority for me is a silent system.
Im kinda hyper sensitive to fan noise, if you can hear it in
the quiet bits of the film Ill go nuts lol

The only way I can see this being possible is one of the following options: -



Man open source gives you choice, but it also give you one mother of a headache  ;D
Guess ill have to keep digging around to find the right kit

Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: cirion on May 18, 2009, 12:53:05 pm
If you are willing to wait, VDPAU will eventually make it's way into LMCE.
When that happens, ION based MD's should work great with 1080p.

VDPAU is not yet working out of the box on the big linux distros, and the ION based machines/motherboards have not been on the marked for many days yet.

I guess VDPAU will make it's way into most video players and linux distros this fall, but for now you can allways manually patch players to support it. In LMCE you will have to run stuff in KDE for now or maybe start making the integration patches for LMCE?

If you get your hands at a ION powered board, you could test the VDPAU support with the XBMC Live CD. It supports VDPAU after selecting it as the default decoder.
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: totallymaxed on May 18, 2009, 02:21:36 pm
Hmm that is a bit of a pain then eh!!

I guess the top priority for me is a silent system.
Im kinda hyper sensitive to fan noise, if you can hear it in
the quiet bits of the film Ill go nuts lol

The only way I can see this being possible is one of the following options: -

  • Small Form Factor that is passively cooled
  • Larger Form Factor that can be passively cooled
  • Install the MD in a location outside the room and pipe the Audio and Video into the room


Man open source gives you choice, but it also give you one mother of a headache  ;D
Guess ill have to keep digging around to find the right kit



We have the Acer Revo on test here (search the forum for the thread on this). With nVidia 180.51 drivers this machine performs excellently in UI1/UI2 + Overlay (we have not tested UI2 + Alpha yet...but I would assume it will work as well as it does on other nVidia based GPU's). As it stands today with nVidia's 180.51 driver and a standard LinuxMCE-0710 xine etc we are not benefiting from the new nVidia vdpau acceleration API and therefore HD performance is not that impressive with 720p/1080p H.264 encoded content. When we get vdpau acceleration support then we will see a massive improvement in 720p/1080p h.264 playback performance due to the fact that most of the decoding will be done in the Ion's 9400M GPU and hardly any in the Atom CPU. People are reporting CPU loads of 2-5% when playing 1080P TV channels in vdr and similar level of performance in XBMC too. LinucMCE should also see these performance gains too.

We should see vdpau implemented in an early Beta LinuxMCE-0810 I would expect.

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: alx9r on May 18, 2009, 03:57:09 pm
We should see vdpau implemented in an early Beta LinuxMCE-0810 I would expect.

Andrew,
That's contrary to this post.  Do you have some news from devs since then?

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7741.msg49903#msg49903

Alex
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: totallymaxed on May 18, 2009, 11:05:02 pm
We should see vdpau implemented in an early Beta LinuxMCE-0810 I would expect.

Andrew,
That's contrary to this post.  Do you have some news from devs since then?

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7741.msg49903#msg49903

Alex

Yes we're working on this...and will I hope have this in a working form and ready to be added to the svn for an early 0810 Beta.

Andrew
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: colinjones on May 18, 2009, 11:53:24 pm
We should see vdpau implemented in an early Beta LinuxMCE-0810 I would expect.

Andrew,
That's contrary to this post.  Do you have some news from devs since then?

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7741.msg49903#msg49903

Alex

Yes we're working on this...and will I hope have this in a working form and ready to be added to the svn for an early 0810 Beta.

Andrew

Andrew - have you thought any more about BluRay enhancements? (as that obviously is the next question once we have good H264!)

Somewhere towards the beginning of this year I posted something about some Linux BluRay development (OSS) that a team out there was working furiously on, and from the very long forum thread that I believe I posted, it sounded like they almost had fully functional play back including the VM needed for the menu system. Problem is, I cannot for the life of me recall where I found that thread, nor where I posted that thread on our forums! I will have another look.... however, is that something your team would be interested in? I realise that this function would need to be an option like dvdcss2 and win codecs, to deal with the legal issues in some countries, however....
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: totallymaxed on May 19, 2009, 12:23:57 am
We should see vdpau implemented in an early Beta LinuxMCE-0810 I would expect.

Andrew,
That's contrary to this post.  Do you have some news from devs since then?

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7741.msg49903#msg49903

Alex

Yes we're working on this...and will I hope have this in a working form and ready to be added to the svn for an early 0810 Beta.

Andrew

Andrew - have you thought any more about BluRay enhancements? (as that obviously is the next question once we have good H264!)

Somewhere towards the beginning of this year I posted something about some Linux BluRay development (OSS) that a team out there was working furiously on, and from the very long forum thread that I believe I posted, it sounded like they almost had fully functional play back including the VM needed for the menu system. Problem is, I cannot for the life of me recall where I found that thread, nor where I posted that thread on our forums! I will have another look.... however, is that something your team would be interested in? I realise that this function would need to be an option like dvdcss2 and win codecs, to deal with the legal issues in some countries, however....

Colin our view is that usable Bluray playback (let alone ripping) under linux is still a fair way off in terms of being really usable for 'every day use'. You may have referred to this Phoronix article - http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzE1NA (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzE1NA)...as you can see there are numerous hurdles still to be cleared currently...possible Google Summer of Code involvement might accelerate things a little...but there are still many gaps to be filled in.

So our view is to get the basic h.264 hardware acceleration in place via vdpau and updated xinelibs and then we are well placed to exploit any BluRay developments when they appear. Until that time there are increasing numbers of HD TV channels available and other sources of h.264 HD content becoming  available.

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: colinjones on May 19, 2009, 12:31:50 am
yeah, I read that.... but this was something separate, it was a very long devs forum thread that had been running for most of the second half of last year and right up unto january this year when I found it. It detailed an enormous amount of very complex dev work around BD playback... I thought I found it on Doom9 but now cannot find it again... I will continue looking. I understand your thoughts on being "day to day"....

EDIT: Ha! As soon as I typed that, I thought have I searched for Doom9 on our forums as I remember linking to it! There it was.... http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=140571&page=34 reviewing if it has made any progress since....
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: totallymaxed on May 19, 2009, 12:51:26 am
yeah, I read that.... but this was something separate, it was a very long devs forum thread that had been running for most of the second half of last year and right up unto january this year when I found it. It detailed an enormous amount of very complex dev work around BD playback... I thought I found it on Doom9 but now cannot find it again... I will continue looking. I understand your thoughts on being "day to day"....

EDIT: Ha! As soon as I typed that, I thought have I searched for Doom9 on our forums as I remember linking to it! There it was.... http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=140571&page=34 reviewing if it has made any progress since....

Again I think it has to be said that the work being done on BluRay over Doom9, is still a very long way from being alpha even. I'm in no way knocking what they are doing...I applaud it wholeheartedly and wish them every success...but its not nearly ready for any kind of integration with LinuxMCE.

Its an area to keep a watch on for sure though...

Andrew
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: colinjones on May 19, 2009, 12:59:17 am
yeah, just caught up on that thread, seems to have slowed down a fair bit, but at least they are not just tackling encryption, but also looking at the BDVM required to "play" the menu's etc... hopefully they will forge ahead again soon!
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: Tumbledown on May 22, 2009, 01:20:32 am
Firstly, Thanks for the comments, and more importanly thanks for not flaming me being my first posts here ;D

Just been looking through some other products Zotec provide and found this little
board causing a stir http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2008/10/15/zotac-geforce-9300-mcp7a-motherboard/1 (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2008/10/15/zotac-geforce-9300-mcp7a-motherboard/1)

Essentially its a Mini-ITX board with 9300 Nvidia GFX but it has a 775 socket that supports 65nm and 45nm processors.

In theory i could put a Q6600 quad core in a min-itx form factor, depending on this boards performance, I might just do that for
my wifes lan box
.
But my intention for the MD would be to either put a duel core or a Core2 Duo (I've heard they run cooler) Cost dependent.
I'm not really looking to spend more than £200 - £250 on an MD.

My challenge with this board would be

Seen a few things on ebuyer, but i think it's going to be a bit of a gamble
ordering without knowing if the CPU will clear the internal wall of the case.

Any thoughts on the Zotec board, and choices of CPU cooler/case.

(the case doesn't have to look pretty as it will either be hidden away in the TV cabinet,
or will be mounted to the back of the TV

TIA
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: colinjones on May 22, 2009, 01:38:24 am
Then seriously, you should consider waiting a short time, and going with the Acer Revo that Totallymaxed is talking about. They cost GBP150 inc VAT and delivery. They have the 9400M nVidia chip in them. You can get it working for 0710, but it might be better to wait for 0810 beta.

As far as HD is concerned.... hmm that depends on what you actually mean by HD. Most people make this mistake, so it is important to understand what HD means in various contexts....

First, HD as in HDTV (DVB, which is what matters for the UK) is simply the resolution - 720p, 1080i (there is no 1080p yet for TV, but that is coming with DVB-T2; 576p is EDTV and 576i is SDTV). None of this says very much at all about the hardware performance required. That is because that is far more dependant on the bit rate and codec used.

Sure, higher resolution means more work to do, but that is generally less important that the bit rate and codec you throw at the video. Most systems, even with low end CPUs, will handle SD, ED and HD TV (upto 720p, and usually 1080i). The codec is just MPEG2, and the bit rates for SDTV (in Australia, dunno about other locations) is about 6Mb/s, HDTV about 12-15Mb/s. Only at the higher of these bit rates are you going to need a high end CPU, as we have no offload to hardware decoding of the nVidia chipsets, yet.... but that is coming soon.

However, if you are talking about high bit rates OR codecs like H264, then you are going to need a very high end CPU until the video offload is available (VDPAU). And BluRay/HDDVD is BOTH high bit rate and H264, so most systems will struggle unless they are kick-arse systems, until the video off load is available. Note: BluRay/HDDVD support in LMCE is very limited at the moment for other reasons as well.

You will often find media files (from various legal sources on the Internet) that are 720p or 1080p, usually H264 in a .mkv file.... NOTE: this is just the resolution, the bit rates of these are still quiet low, and so nothing like the heavy duty load of BluRay even though it is still H264.

The point is 1080p does not automatically equal heavy load, it depends on the codec and bit rate, as those can vary considerably. Whereas you can generally assume that BluRay will mean very heavy load.... so mileage will vary based on these and your CPU until such times as the VDPAU enhancement is integrated.. .at which point you will be able easily to play as high quality bit streams with H264 codecs as you like on an Acer Revo even though it has a very low end CPU.
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: Tumbledown on May 22, 2009, 02:16:20 pm
Yes, I'm aware of the limitations on broadcast HD and also the limitations
of capturing these sources if using an external source such as the Sky+, freesat or Virgin's V+ boxes.

My setup will not be looking to capture any SD/HD content from TV sources, but will be used to distribute
my DVD collection.

These will be ripped and placed on a 1.5 TB NAS for the core to access.
As my BD collection grows, I will also rip these to the NAS in MKV format and all in H264.
(The things we do to keep the integrity of disk out of the hands of little kids).

The core will be tasked with stitching the MP3/Video content across all MD's,
and taking care of a slowly growing compliment of home automation devices (x10)

So form that point of view I think the if I'm looking to get these results now,
the system needs to be beefed up.

I can get hold of a cooler that is 25db (the sound of freathing at 1m apperently),
 so might go down the road of the Zotec and a Core2 Duo.

I just got to figure out if it will all fit inside the box :)
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: Tumbledown on May 22, 2009, 07:17:12 pm
After a bit of soul searching I find myself back at the start of my journey
(seems a popular outcome from the posts I've read :) ).

I have looked at the EEEBoxes, and the Revo, and they have their pros and cons
for my application.

So I've decided to re-evaluate my requirements, as I think I've got lost in the mire!

My MDs will be located around the house and can be put in 2 categories: -


Looking at the requirements of the bedroom first, I think the Revo will be an ideal candidate,
especially considering the features it will be able deliver once VDPAU in implimented.

The living room however, requires additional features, due to the fact that this will be intensivly
used as a "Theretre" setup.

This means that the MD I select for the Living room will need to be able to output AC3 audio
either via spdif, or preferrably via optical for use in a 5.1 amp.
To my knowledge I do not recall seeing the spdif or optical ports on the specification list
for the Revo, however the EEEbox does (Via an adapter).

The main detractor for the EEEbox is the fact it has an ATI GFX unit.
Over the last 10 years of playing with Linux in one form or another I have
never had great experience with ATI by comparison to Nvidia derived cards.

So I'm back to the Zotec ION Atom (N230), It appears to have the same foundation
as the Revo, but with the added features of multiple audio/video outputs.

Presumably once VDPAU is introduced into LinuxMCE this platform shouldn't have
any issues with 1080p h264.

Is this evaluation of the options a fair one??

TIA
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: skeptic on May 22, 2009, 08:04:51 pm
I believe the Revo will output 7.1 surround sound...  Through the HDMI port.  No clue if there is a way to break this out to have video go to the TV and audio go elsewhere, or if you'd need your TV to pass the sound to your receiver.  I vaguely remember seeing a thread about passing sound over hdmi in lmce...  Maybe someone else can chime in on the status of this?

Perhaps a usb sound card for the Revo would do the trick?  I haven't looked into usb sound cards at all so I'm not really sure on that one.
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: cirion on May 22, 2009, 09:28:07 pm
There are boxes that split HDMI to DVI/Coaxial Digital
http://www.leteng.no/aspx/prdinfo.aspx?plid=19078re

And most TV's with HDMI have Coaxial Digital out...

There are boxes that convert Coaxial to Optical too.

Receivers with HDMI are getting cheaper, so you might consider upgrading it.
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: Tumbledown on May 22, 2009, 11:46:14 pm
Thanks for the replies,

What I really want is to avoid having various workarounds,
or breakout cables etc.

Bunny hopping the audio from the MD to the TV to the amp for me is a big no no.
I know it's possible, but there are a few things that get in the way.


I won't be using the TV all of the time as the video will be going to a projector for the good films ;)
The amp will be used for all films via the MD.

A practical example would be if you needed to run a signal cable over a distence of 10m,
but you only have 10 1m lengths,you could join each cable together to get the length as a workaround.

However, after each joint in the cable the signal is degraded, to the extent that at the other
end the signel is determinied to be unusable.

I know I'm over simplyfiying things here, and I'm no expert in these matters by any stretch of the imagination,
but I would like to keep things as standard and simple as possible.
Hopefully this will reduce the possibilities of failure.

If there is an MD that has all the outputs and falls within my price cap, then I'd go with that, providing
it's up to the job.

I guess I'm asking is the Zotec up to it?
The way I read it on paper, its yes.

But I'll bow to more experinced voices on this topic.

TIA

Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: colinjones on May 23, 2009, 01:01:12 am

  • If one of the bits of kit in the chain fails, it all fails
  • Each time you route from one device to another quality is degraded


The proper way to do this is using an AV receiver/amp with HDMI inputs, as suggested above. The point about if "one of the bits of kit" fails is moot - if the amp fails then you aren't going to get any sound anyway. Don't eliminate options on faulty logic in an effort to avoid situations that won't occur. No amp = no sound irrespective of which way you route the sound.

Routing the sound (or video) from one device to another does NOT degrade the sound. It is digital, the sound will be identical at the binary level irrespective of how many devices you route it through, or how many cables you use. It either works or it doesn't, there is no degrade.... :)

One HDMI cable to the amp, audio gets stripped out and played (and/or gets passed on to the next device to be played, eg the TV)

One HDMI cable to your TV and another to your projector from the amp's 2 HDMI outputs (all will have at least 2), and you can use LMCE to tell the amp to switch the video output between the 2 video display devices.

Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: totallymaxed on May 23, 2009, 12:20:09 pm
Thanks for the replies,

What I really want is to avoid having various workarounds,
or breakout cables etc.

Bunny hopping the audio from the MD to the TV to the amp for me is a big no no.
I know it's possible, but there are a few things that get in the way.

  • If one of the bits of kit in the chain fails, it all fails
  • Each time you route from one device to another quality is degraded

I won't be using the TV all of the time as the video will be going to a projector for the good films ;)
The amp will be used for all films via the MD.

A practical example would be if you needed to run a signal cable over a distence of 10m,
but you only have 10 1m lengths,you could join each cable together to get the length as a workaround.

However, after each joint in the cable the signal is degraded, to the extent that at the other
end the signel is determinied to be unusable.

I know I'm over simplyfiying things here, and I'm no expert in these matters by any stretch of the imagination,
but I would like to keep things as standard and simple as possible.
Hopefully this will reduce the possibilities of failure.

If there is an MD that has all the outputs and falls within my price cap, then I'd go with that, providing
it's up to the job.

I guess I'm asking is the Zotec up to it?
The way I read it on paper, its yes.

But I'll bow to more experinced voices on this topic.

TIA



See Colin's comments about routing digital audio - and listen to him ;-)

We have several Revo's on test here now and we have audio (PCM, 5.1 surround, DTS) all working out of the HDMI port. We have updated the avWizard to allow for the selection of more output connectors (the Revo's HDMI connector is HDMI-2 for some unfathomable reason) and to support the routing of audio out of the HDMI port. All of these changes will be, I very much hope, in the 0810 branch of the svn this coming week. So they should appear in an alpha/beta build the week after i would guess.

The Zotac looks great and as its based on the ATOM + Ion combination it should work as well as the Revo - but it has not been tested by us yet and i have not seen anyone else say they've tested it. If your happy to get a Zotac and test it under the 0810 alpha's then great.

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: castlec on June 01, 2009, 05:24:22 pm
This is sort of a double post since there are a few threads on the same Atom/Ion topics.

I'm looking to get one of the Zotac boards.  I started researching these little guys a few days ago.  I'm certainly excited about them.  The Atom 230s are available here now.  Andrew/Colin/Anyone Else, Do you guys think it's worth waiting/paying for the 330s?

Also, an odd question but how high is the board including the exposed part of the mounting screws and ram?  It looks like the heatsink is nearly as high as the IO panel but not quite there.  I'm thinking of squeezing one into one of these http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013FGYTC/.

My current reqs are only 720p/1080i ATSC broadcasts but I'd like room to move into bluray in the future.

Thanks!

Chris
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: colinjones on June 01, 2009, 05:42:30 pm
Probably not - why do you want more CPU grunt?

If you are thinking HD video then don't.... the 330 is not going to give you what you need for decent HD video playback through software decoding... you need much more grunt than that (I'm talking about H264, or high bit rate streams at 1080) you will need the VDPAU integration and that is a little way off yet. The OpenGL performance of this GPU is easily enough for UI2 masking right up to 1080p, so no issue there...
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: castlec on June 01, 2009, 08:04:03 pm
Probably not - why do you want more CPU grunt?

If you are thinking HD video then don't.... the 330 is not going to give you what you need for decent HD video playback through software decoding... you need much more grunt than that (I'm talking about H264, or high bit rate streams at 1080) you will need the VDPAU integration and that is a little way off yet. The OpenGL performance of this GPU is easily enough for UI2 masking right up to 1080p, so no issue there...

The way I'm interpreting your statement:
ION currently does fine for ATSC 1080i TV broadcasts + UI2
ION currently does fine for DVD playback.
ION should do fine with H264 once VDPAU is integrated later in 8.10
Second Atom core will not be used for anything since all video decoding is in hardware.

Chris
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: totallymaxed on June 01, 2009, 10:13:38 pm
Probably not - why do you want more CPU grunt?

If you are thinking HD video then don't.... the 330 is not going to give you what you need for decent HD video playback through software decoding... you need much more grunt than that (I'm talking about H264, or high bit rate streams at 1080) you will need the VDPAU integration and that is a little way off yet. The OpenGL performance of this GPU is easily enough for UI2 masking right up to 1080p, so no issue there...

The way I'm interpreting your statement:
ION currently does fine for ATSC 1080i TV broadcasts + UI2
ION currently does fine for DVD playback.
ION should do fine with H264 once VDPAU is integrated later in 8.10
Second Atom core will not be used for anything since all video decoding is in hardware.

Chris

What was meant was the the Dual Core Atom 330 was not powerful enough to make it viable to do h.264 decoding without the vdpau hardware acceleration...although clearly a dual core Atom is more powerful overall but this additional processing will be felt more in areas other than graphics performance.

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: castlec on June 01, 2009, 10:48:51 pm
Thanks for the clarification Andrew.  Did you happen to catch my request for additional measurements of the board?  I'd like to know if it's realistic to squeeze the mini-itx board into a 2in x 7in x 6 7/8 in cash box.  The only thing I'm concerned about is the height of the heat-sink.

Chris

Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: totallymaxed on June 02, 2009, 12:19:59 am
Thanks for the clarification Andrew.  Did you happen to catch my request for additional measurements of the board?  I'd like to know if it's realistic to squeeze the mini-itx board into a 2in x 7in x 6 7/8 in cash box.  The only thing I'm concerned about is the height of the heat-sink.

Chris



Chris,

Missed the request for dimensions of the board sorry...

However i can tell you that the case design we are testing at the moment has 5cm (or 2") vertical dimension and the mobo fits comfortably inside with clearance.

Hope that helps.

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: castlec on June 02, 2009, 12:56:32 am
Thanks again.  Out of curiosity, have you tested out Hulu or other higher res flash streams with it?  Flash video is a dog on my 780G system.

Chris
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: colinjones on June 02, 2009, 12:58:58 am
Thanks again.  Out of curiosity, have you tested out Hulu or other higher res flash streams with it?  Flash video is a dog on my 780G system.

Chris

The Flash plugin does not yet have any hardware graphics acceleration, so it is all done by the CPU... consequently, if your CPU is not fast, complex Flash will suck! I believe that Adobe intend on updating the Flash plugin to use GPUs at some point, hopefully soon. At which point it will be as smooth as a baby's bum on an ION platform!
Title: Re: Small Form Factor MD Hardware (First Posting)
Post by: totallymaxed on June 02, 2009, 02:44:35 am
Thanks again.  Out of curiosity, have you tested out Hulu or other higher res flash streams with it?  Flash video is a dog on my 780G system.

Chris

The Flash plugin does not yet have any hardware graphics acceleration, so it is all done by the CPU... consequently, if your CPU is not fast, complex Flash will suck! I believe that Adobe intend on updating the Flash plugin to use GPUs at some point, hopefully soon. At which point it will be as smooth as a baby's bum on an ION platform!

Well as of Flash 10 it does have some hardware acceleration so its a little better than prior versions. In our tests the Ion seems to deliver Flash content better than the GMA950 does on other Atom based mobos.

Andrew