My First Little Ubuntu HTPC - would love advice on components

magdalencox

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Hi,


Having read lots of quality information here I think I'm ready to take the plunge & put together my own HTPC, but would love some advice on the components. I'm planning on running XBMC on top of Ubuntu (to keep everything free / OSS), and mainly want to be able to play:
  • HD content over HDMI (no blu-ray support unfortunately)
  • 5.1 Dolby surround
  • iPlayer over the home network
  • youtube / TED talks etc every so often
Currently thinking of the following setup:

Case: Minuet 350 (small footprint, excellent cooling)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M85M-US2H
Processor: AMD Athlon X3 triple-core 2.9GHz
HDD: 1TB Western Digital AV-GP Green
Memory: 2gb

(No TV card / optical drive required)

Does this set-up sound as though it will do everything I need? I haven't included a separate video / sound card as I'm assuming the on-board components will be sufficient - should I downgrade the motherboard & include these?

Also, complete newbie question - will I need additional cooling for the CPU? I assume so - does anyone have any recommendations for a good near-silent CPU cooler?

I was planning on keeping a photo-log as I put it together / get it working, so any help at this stage is much appreciated!

Cheers

Dave
 
Having read lots of quality information here I think I'm ready to take the plunge & put together my own HTPC, but would love some advice on the components. I'm planning on running XBMC on top of Ubuntu
There are not too many here running on Linux so not sure people will be able to advise on compatible hardware but would appreciate it if you can keep us posted as Linux based HTPCs could do with a bigger presence here :thumbsup:
 
Definitely - I have helped a friend run basic Ubuntu on a large-footprint HTPC, but without XBMC over the top. Any advice from anyone with experience of this particular motherboard (or similar) under Ubuntu would be very warmly welcomed!
 
Update - I am now planning to add some proper cooling into the mix:

Any thoughts on this, or any of the other bits & pieces mentioned? I'm confident about Ubuntu compatability, so mainly curious about any recommendations for improvements, or if anything looks like total overkill for my requirements.

Cheers

Dave
 
FYI I've updated my build spec here - going for an IONITX-F-E based system as other forum users have had a good experience with Ubuntu...

New Ubuntu build
 

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