install advice, purchasing core/md/orbit

[justinvanwijngaarden]

Hello folks,

I've had linuxmce running a few years back with great pleasure, but I can still remember the nightmares I had settings things up because of the hardware I had was not "compatible". Eventually hardware died and I never bothered fixing it.

Now that I'm moved to a new house I would like to do things "right" the first time, meaning buying kit that works out of the box or with minor configuration changes.

I got a pretty big z-wave deployment (currently running vera), multiple cams, asteriks / cisco phones/sip, xbmc streamers etc.. in other words a big mess which "works", but certainly is not integrated.

So what I would like to achieve is to remove/decom:
- cisco pvr
- xbmc / wd live / rasbery pi
- vera box
- firewall mini-pc
- server

and get this replaced with a proper linuxmce system which only has a few requirements
- using minimum amount of power and as small as possible
- keeping the current functionality

My ideal situation woud be:
- using a low powered, but powerful enough mini-pc as core (something like a intel nuc/brix  etc...) and using the usb ports for a z-wave stick and/or tuners
- Using a few (4) as small as possible MDs, something like a rasbery pi would be ideal but reading the forums/wiki i don't think we're there yet?  I have no need for dvd or blu-ray.
- having a few tablets mounted in the walls as permanent orbiters.

Now the biggest concerns I have here is buying the right kit.

I can't find any components on the wiki pages that "just work" and are relatively small/low powered, but powerful enough to run linuxmce without any problems. Initial costs are not a problem so if for example the new intel nuc is an ideal "core" than that's fine, but I could not find it on the hardware compatibility list.

Long story I guess, but what I would love to know is what would in my case be the "ideal" core device and ideal "md" device.

[Marie.O]

If I wouldn't want to fiddle to much, and have a successful start, I would go and get some Dianemo gear.

[purps]

Core - any desktop computer that will run ubuntu 10.04 (and 12.04 if you want to future proof).... so that's pretty much any computer. Buy a decent power supply. Centralise it and don't use it as an MD.

MD - I like mini-ITX boards, not much good for iPlayer, 4OD etc at this moment in time, but it can only improve. Been experimenting with the ZOTAC D2550 lately, works well, BIOS can be configured so you can turn it on remotely.

Orbiters - I use my Android phone, Jogglers, laptop web orbiter, mini keyboards. Can't really recommend a tablet specifically for LMCE - any tablet will work.

Cheers,
Matt.

[avandel]

It might be handy if everyone who wants, put down their configuration here in a topic of Hardware that works maybe?
I myself would keep it simple and start from there, even that is hard if money is the issue..

[purps]

Would be difficult to maintain/update. You could just look through the user pages. Then it's easier to see who has what exactly, and make your own judgements i.e. is it out of date. is the user active, etc.

Cheers,
Matt.

[mardibloke]

and get this replaced with a proper linuxmce system which only has a few requirements
- using minimum amount of power and as small as possible
- keeping the current functionality

My ideal situation woud be:
- using a low powered, but powerful enough mini-pc as core (something like a intel nuc/brix  etc...) and using the usb ports for a z-wave stick and/or tuners

I too would like to replace my Core, which is a physically big, and power hungry box.

I'm also struggling to figure out what size of processor and memory to support the functions/devices I use.

Is there anything to give a guide - sample systems as mentioned in this thread would be a start.

[purps]

Check out "Exemplary Setups" on the wiki http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Category:User_Setups

Cheers,
Matt.

[Itsik]

In my opinion, there are two sensitive areas in a lmce system, network and the core hdd.
You need the core hdd to be as fast as possible, preferable a ssd drive.
As for the network, this is you main bottle neck, so try to use the highest quality components you can afford, go for a Cisco switch if you can, and cat6 cables all around (altough cat5e works ok as well), and if possible, use an Intel nick as your second nick on the core. These are known to play nice with linux.
For the cores hardware, make sure it works good with ubuntu. It does'nt need to be super powerfull  and needs to have any expansion slots you might need for stuff like TV cards etc.
For MD's I would look for the smallest and most silent sollutions you can find that have Nvidia stuff on them that is comptible with VDPAU acceleration. Take a look at Zotac stuff or maybe other ION based devices.

Hope this helps
Itsik