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[mArnell]

I'm putting togeather a Media-PC and I'm thinking about using JRiver Media Center 15.
I'm not interested in the absolute minimum for using the program.

I AM interested in the minimum requirements for using the program to it's fullest potential.
So, what will I need to run MC 15 with all the extras.
Thumbnails, DSP, high res.graphics, movies, music, ...

I will NOT encode music or video on this media pc, I will use my "big-rig" for that.

Gear:
SSD main drive
NAS all the media files
Main board with integrated graphics and audio

I will use USB to play the audiofiles on a stand alone dac. Digital all the way...

How much CPU is needed?
How much memory is needed?

[mArnell]

*Bump*

[mArnell]

And another *bump*.

[glynor]

I think the problem is that MC's hardware demands depend entirely upon what you want to do with it.  I run MC on an older Asus netbook and it works fine for many things, but Theater View has to be turned down in quality (and is still slow), and HD video is hopeless.

[mArnell]

Let's assume Theater view and HD video.

[jmone]

Start with the GPU and work backwards. 
- Are you going to hook it up over HDMI to an AV Receiver? 
- Are you going to want to play Blu-ray as part of the deal / bitstream HD Audio or decode it? 
- Will the build be purely for HTPC duties (or do you also want to play games on this rig)?     
- Does it need to be Silent and have a low thermal output (eg in a small HTPC case with poor ventilation)?

Lets say it is "Yes" to all the above then you "may" get by with IGP with something like the Intel G55 but I gave up of all the niggles of the integrated graphics (G44, G45 etc) and dropped in a cheap but purpose build HTPC GPU like the ATI HD5450 passive and never looked back.  You can then couple it with Win7 32-Bit, 3gb of RAM, a modern midrange CPU (i'm still using a Q6600 and it handles all my HD decoding perfectly as I'm not a fan of HW Accel in the GPU's - if you like HW Accel then just about any CPU will be fine), Small SSD is fine for the OS and yes pull all the media off the NAS.

[mArnell]

My initial thoughts were ASUS AT3IONT-I (or maybe AT5IONT-I)? Motherboards with integrated/on-board cpu, graphics and sound.
I'm worried that they are way to weak to handle Theater view and the other flashy functions?

I won't do blue-ray (but for arguments sake let's assume I will handle blue-ray equivalent video files) and audio will be handled by an external dac. (Serious high quality stereo with dsp)

HDMI to the tv only.

Pure HTPC.

As silent as possible, preferably totally fanless.

I'm not very up to date with the current GPU's so I'm not exactly sure how good/bad your examples are. (I'll have to look into it.)

[MrHaugen]

I'm about to buy a new HTPC my self, but I don't know what GPU's will run Theater View smoothly. Of course, a self built HTPC would be the best, but it takes up more space than some other alternatives, and it's quite the hazzel when something fails like in my case now. I don't know if I even want to start testing and figuring out which components is dead.

I've been looking at ASRock Vision 3D 137D. It's spec seems good enough, and for the price, I think you'll struggle to find something better. I am a bit worried about the  NVIDIA GeForce GT425M Graphics though. I've read that ATI puts this card/chip on the same performance level as a Mobility Radeon HD 5650. If that is the case, I think it should have no problems driving my Media Center 15 setup.

[glynor]

For those needs, I'd absolutely avoid anything Atom based, Ion or not.

You'll have much better results with a "real" out-of-order CPU.  If you're concerned about power usage above all else, I'd look at the new AMD Brazos platform (coming next month) or the Intel CULV 2010 processors.  The Brazos platform chips probably have enough GPU power on-chip to handle what MC needs without issue, though with the Intel chips I'd look for a 3rd Party GPU.  MC likes to run on multi-core CPUs.  It certainly isn't required, but it is quite heavily threaded and knows how to take advantage of the multiple cores well.

If you aren't super concerned with power usage, then I'd look at the Intel Core i5 or Core i3 line.  If you don't want to buy RIGHT NOW, then wait, because the next-gen Sandy Bridge CPUs are going to be shipping next month, and they come with a new platform (a different socket) so the upgrade path on the current gen Intel chips is pretty limited.

For GPUs, it doesn't take anything blazingly fast, but I'd avoid the lowest-end Nvidia chips (and absolutely avoid Intel GPUs until the Sandy Bridge ones ship).

[mArnell]

I read the article and Im trying to figure out the important factors.
The Brazos platform outperformed the Atom cpu but the ION fitted set-up were pretty close with a 1.2GHz Celeron CPU.
You say stay away from Atom based solutions...
The AT5IONT-I is a D525 CPU @ 1.8GHz with a next gen ION GPU, I wonder if it's still a stinker? This board comes standard with 100% passive cooling...
I'm just trying to keep my hopes up. In the end I'm sure you're right, the Atoms are probably not up to the task.

[lhwidget]

Hi,
I just started using MC on my PCs.  All of my media (wave & 320 kbs audio, DVDs and Bluray movies & recorded HDTV) is on a Windows Home Server.  I'm still running XP (SP3) and ASIO4ALL on both of my PCs.

My main machine isn't over the top, but it is fresh and pretty stout:
I7/2.8 GHz
Two 2GB sticks of ram
100 MB/s Cat 5 LAN connection to server
GTX 9800 video card
For silence,  a Zalman Reserator 1 water cooling system
Results? 
Great, can't tell audio files are playing, Blurays (using TMT3 launched by MC) load the CPU at about 2% to 4%.  TMT3 is using Cuda to decode the movie so the performance and thermal load is on the video card.
Theater View interface is perky using large thumbnails (100 MB to 300 MB jpgs).


For the HTPC in my bedroom:
Celeron E5300 (dual core) in a socket 775 motherboard (large heat pipe heatsink without the fan)
Two 1 GB sticks of ram
80 GB 2.5" hard drive
Big HTPC case (Antec NS2480 with two 120mm fans set to about 600 RPM)
GTX 220 Nvidia video card with a large passive heat sink
Asus Xonar DX sound card
LAN Connection: Wireless N Bridge connected to my 100 mb/s hub
Results?
Still great.  Crystal clear audio from a totally silent background (using 2 channel analog outputs). The Theater View interface is just as perky.  I haven't played Blurays over the network connection, but a BD in the machine's player works fine.  Recorded HDTV over the network is OK, but there are occasional stutters, DVDs are fine.

I'm really reticent to go lower than this performance point though, for the same reasons mentioned above.  The overhead of a high def 10' interface may be taxing for Atom/Ion systems, and the only sacrifice I'm making is the size of the HTPC case (about the same size as my Yamaha Receiver).

[MrHaugen]

I bought the ASRock Vision 3D 137D yesterday. Was very hard to wait when you have a dead HTPC.... Getting it in a couple of days I hope It looks like it has enough juice to run MC well.

[mArnell]

Let us know how it works out.