here is the hardware i used, it's just an old pc i had laying around:
motherboard: kv8-pro
processor: amd64 3000+
video: BFG 6800GTX OC
disk: 200gb
using built in sound and no other devices, just checking this out to see if i want to build a real LinuxMCE setup.
install went well until i ran into a black screen on reboot, with this video card evidently you have to use the DVI port with a vga adapter to make it work. or at least that is what fixed my issue.
once i got the thing up and running i was bombed by all of the devices it found on my network. it never occurred to me that it was going to find every share on every linux or windows machine i have running! btw i had 8 machines going at the time and it took a while to sort it out......... i may need to look at isolating the media center on it's own VLAN so i can control what it sees. but right now i am just testing things out so it was a good experience.
finally, i shared my media (music and pictures) on my main machine.. and it found the media and indexed it just fine...
so far i am very impressed.... i did not expect this mature of a product to tell you the truth..... if the developers keep up the good work this could put Linux on the map in a big way!
i was going to load up vista ultima and compare the products. now i think i will just stick with linuxmce....
now to research all the hardware i will need for a smokin' media center setup...
Let the fun begin!
just wanted to let everyone know my experience so far and to give kudo's to the people behind this project.