[mythtv-users] Best latest Ion Boards?

[Brian Wood]

On Saturday 28 November 2009 11:19:15 am John Drescher wrote:
> > Is ION still the best?
> 
> To me I have not totally been sold on this. I mean a near bottom of
> the line dual core2 or AM3 system would be faster than the ION for
> about the same price but use around 10W more than the ION at idle. But
> then when you are looking for a box that can sit in the living room
> good looking HTPC cases cost more than the rest of the system. To me
> this is a big frustration since the $30 walmart special DVD player
> includes a remote and LCD and has a descent enough looking case to be
> able to sit in the living room.

It's not a case of "faster", the ION allows you to use the hardware decoding 
of VDPAU, and, not counting decoding, a frontend does not need significant 
CPU horsepower. ION is not a CPU, it's a chipset that includes HD-capable 
graphics. The Atom CPUs usually paired with the ION chipset are slower than 
low-end C2Ds or AMD units, but who cares?

I'd guess that the high-priced HTPC cases are not made in anywhere near 
the quantities that the Walmart DVD player is made in, though I think there is 
some gouging in the price of HTPC cases, just like the specialized "gamer" 
cases. Niche markets tend to create "niche" pricing.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20091128/6d9fc18c/attachment.htm>