Hi Folks,
After not being in the know about the recent PC developments. I would also like to get inputs on getting an entertainment laptop or equivalent for HTPC/Home PC duties.
I just recently had time to install XBMC and was really blown away by the experience!!! Had I known about this, I would NOT have gone through the PS3, then NMT route - in pursuit of my ideal all around home media center. The HTPC route now became my mandatory option, albeit with some "considerations".
- Low power (mobile variety motherboards, laptops, mac-mini or equivalent). Intent is to keep electric bill low (intend to run it as a p2p downloader), retain coolness of room, make profile compact
- Low noise, no fans or silent equivalents
- Run XMBC, Plex or any of its derivatives. Preference to run in 1080p using Linux variant for VDPAU up until hardware acceleration in the other OS variants will be available - which also means...
- NVDIA-based graphics card ~GS9400M++, preferrably dedicated memory, but ok if shared if 512MB can be reached. DVI/HDMI video output
- SPDIF (coax or toslink) available and built-in
- Double as a home PC, with moderate graphics editing ~ Penryn T7350++
My current options being considered:
1. Mac-mini 2009, 2.0GHz, upped to 4GB DDR3 RAM
2. MSI GX620 (or GX400 if locally available and if same price range)
3. Acer Aspire 4937G
4. ...
My current budget consideration is around the price range of the items mentioned above.
Would've also wanted to build from scratch using SBC's with mobile processors of the same spec requiring single voltage low power AC/DC adapters, but the local availability of the parts and the other peripherals make this endeavour quite cumbersome.
Thanks in anticipation of your inputs. Sorry for the long writeup.