[arch-general] x86 hardware suggestion for home movie theater setup (kodi)

[Frank Schaffhaeuser]

  Original Message  
From: Wolfgang Mader
Sent: Sunday, 10 January 2016 14:09
To: arch-general at archlinux.org
Reply To: General Discussion about Arch Linux
Subject: [arch-general] x86 hardware suggestion for home movie theater setup	(kodi)

Dear list,

right now, I run a home movie theater setup under arch linux on an arm device. 
While I really appreciate the low power consumption and the small form factors 
of arm (developer) boards, for me, arm also comes with a much larger 
maintenance burden than standard x86 hardware. Thus, I search for a platform 
which is x86 and well suited for a home theater setup. While browsing the 
internet, I go the feeling, that the Intel Atom series might be a good way to 
go. In particular, here is what I aim for:

- standard boot process. No uboot.
- standard cpu such that I can relay on standard arch repos and community
- a graphics chip for which drivers are officially available, such as integrated 
intel graphics
- low power consumption
- some sort of internet connectivity, preferable cabled, but wifi would also be 
ok.
- usb, but nothing fancy, only for keyboard

Software wise, the hardware should be able to allow for browsing the internet 
and to deliver video and audio fluently. The interface I am targeting is kodi.

Since I have no experience with low-powered x86 hardware such as the Intel 
Atom chips, I kindly ask for your experience and opinions on the topic.
‎
Thanks and have a nice week.



If you want a small, 'all-in-one-box' you might consider taking a look at the Intel NUC devices, lots of similar devices are available from other vendors. If you want to build a 'box' on your own take a look at uATX mainboards with 'integrated' CPU; i've built a pfsense router with a Celeron J1900 based mainboard and it has a surprisingly low energy consumption (~12W(?) quadcore CPU) and has PCIe slots, fullsize RAM slots, the whole shebang.

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