eee box available: HTPC?

[Colin McGregor]

I am tossing this into the local MythTV mailing list as I think this
question would be of interest to both mailing lists...

On 8/15/08, Aaron Vegh <aaronvegh-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I just got a newsletter from NCIX advertising the new ASUS Eee Box;
> what I presume to be one of the first Intel Atom-based desktops.
> http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=32440&vpn=EBXB202%2DBK%2DX0023&manufacture=ASUS
>
> For $370, this seems like a great piece of hardware:
>
> Intel Atom N270 Processor
> Gigabit Ethernet
> 80 GB hard drive
> 1GB RAM
> DVI-Out
>
> It comes with WinXP Home Edition -- blech! I wish I could get it $30
> cheaper sans OS -- on principle, I guess.
>
> But the big question is: could this make a good HD-playing Myth
> Frontend???

My take on this....

I would gather that the above CPU runs at 1.60 GHz. Now Pentium 4 CPUs
below about 3 GHz are considered iffy for HD playback. Unless the Atom
CPU offers far higher performance than the clock speed implies I would
be worried. Further, the sort of gold standard for graphics under
Linux still seems to nVidia, not sure how well the Intel graphics
would stand up under MythTV's abuse... Bottom line, while this box is
interesting on multiple levels, small, and low power consumption, I
would want someone else to play test subject with this box...

Cheaper, if somewhat bigger, higher power consumption, and containing
its own potential land mines is to build your own front end box,
starting with a microATX motherboard. That can be done easily for
under $300, just have to pay close attention to your pick of
motherboards, there are some strange ones out there...

Colin McGregor

> Cheers!
> Aaron.
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