Help deciding on XBMC HTPC

[Guest]

Hello all, I have spent the last couple of hours reading many articles and boards about different ways to get your hands on a reasonably priced xbmc system. So far the most suggested option is the acer revo due to its Nvidia ion GPU which can vdpau. I understand why it is considered the best price-wise for a nettop but was wondering if it would be cheaper to build my own mini ITX machine.

I beg for your help in finding/building a cheap XBMC machine.

All parts must be available here in New Zealand . This is the major reason for the horrendous pricing and why I need to find it cheaper elsewhere. (Ebay is fine)

I need to play 8GB+ HD movies in 1080p either via USB or streaming through the network, I have a USB blu-ray drive and would be able to use that instead of buying an optical drive. The size of the machine doesn't matter much but I would like to get it as small and quiet as possible. I don't care how it looks I just don't have the money to buy an expensive system and XBMC is supposed to be pretty damn good anyway.

Is the cheapest option really to stick with the acer or can you guys find a better alternative?

Thanks!!

 

[cutebeans]

A PS3 would be best especially with its built-in blue ray. Gonna buy one within the year.

 

[Guest]

A PS3 would be best especially with its built-in blue ray. Gonna buy one within the year.

Be careful with that... I have an Xbox 360 but the limitations on both are absurd, if it is encoded in h.264/mpeg-4 part 10 the file size must be less than 4GB. I AM NOT mixing this up with the FAT32 restriction as well. Thats right neither the 360 nor the PS3 can access NTFS drives.

 

[heychris]

Have you considered a zotac zbox? I'm looking to do the same thing. I really hope boxee releases full feature set in the "fall update". It'd be sweet to be able to choose between boxee and xbmc for direct boot.

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by geoffrey603.

 

[heychris]

I'd like to do the same. Keep us posted on what you do.