1080p HTPC possible in SFF?

NathanE

NathanE

NathanE

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I want to get my dad a nice new media center for his birthday.

Is it possible to create something in small form factor that can play 1080p stuff (without breaking too much of a sweat)?

I'd also like it to have a PCI slot for a TV card.

Should I wait for the new Atom chips coming out in early January before doing anything?
 
If you get a board which has an ION chip on it for graphics then it uses very little CPU power so not much point waiting for new chips, the current batch should do the job just about fine. I think theres a couple of formats it struggles with, but the ION chip is generally pretty good at playing high def videos.

How small are you thinking? Im guessing mini itx as you mention Atom CPU's, but you could go for m-atx instead. Should be a lot easier to get a board/case which can accomodate PCI cards and theres some very nice HTPC cases out there as well, which is a good point if your planning on having it in the front room with your TV or whatever
 
Or you could use the Zotac 9300 ITX s775 board. It accepts all core 2 CPUs and is tiny.

I made a SFF HTPC using that mobo, a Q8200 and a InWIN BP655. At the time, the quad cores came with this case for free, but if I were buying now I would get a Core 2 based dual core like the E5300 or E6300 PDC. These have plenty of power and are relatively cool at 65W.

With my machine it happily plays 1080p video files and Blu-Rays with no problem at all. Because of all the CPU power, it can even handle streamed video (even the HD stuff) which the Atom stuggles with.

This option probably isn't the most power efficient or the quietest - but it sure gives you plenty of power for your money.
 
I'd get an Acer Revo or the ASRock offering as they're a lot more cost effective than DIY, you'll need a USB TV card with them though. If you go DIY then definitely ION and you don't need to wait on the newer Atoms, anything the current ones can't play (usually pirate encodes done with settings compatibleness with the GPU decoding) won't be playable ton the new ones either.
 
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