Foxconn R20-D2 barebone to HTPC build

[lyndam74]

Can anyone confirm this build for me? Seems to be right considering the barebone rig and 4gig mem are on a deal for $129 today. I have a spare HDD to throw in. I know it has no HDMI but I'd love suggestions for card to add this functionality. Only one pci slot but i have no use for cable card or dvr in the system.


APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Today


BUDGET RANGE: 300-400

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Network Media Player/HTPC

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Have HDD, ram included, have keyboard & mouse and plasma panel

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg, microcenter

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

OVERCLOCKING: no

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: no

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 720p plasma don't know exact res of the top of my head


ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: vid card for hdmi


Foxconn R20-D2 Intel Atom D510 Intel NM10 Intel GMA 3150 Barebone (today's deal includes 4gig of ram so no need)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119024

 

[lyndam74]

no one to help me out here?

 

[Guest]

I believe your best video card option is one of the Geforce 8400 GS cards. Since there are 2 versions of the card, you want to get the G98 version so you can get more video hardware acceleration capabilities (wiki it yourself). I believe to do 1080i, I think the best way to tell if it is new chip is that if it has at least 512MB.

There are 2 cards on newegg that fit the requirement, and both are around 40s.
this is one of them: read the reviews the learn more of it yourself.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133245&cm_re=pci_8400_gs-_-14-133-245-_-Product

You probably have to run some version of Linux to utilize vdpau function.


Why do I know all that sh*t? Because I just placed my order and did the research.

spx2000

 

[lyndam74]

Why do I know all that sh*t? Because I just placed my order and did the research.

spx2000

Lol I'll take your word for it then!! Thanks for the point in the right direction

 

[d60pdp]

I think this ZOTAC ION-GPU-A-E ION Graphics Processor 512MB DDR3 PCI Express x1 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card will do.

 

[Timop]

I think this ZOTAC ION-GPU-A-E ION Graphics Processor 512MB DDR3 PCI Express x1 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card will do.

He has a PCI slot, not PCIe.
So the 840GS is probably his best choice.

 

[rwmuller]

Anyone else having problems with the memory blocking the cd burner tray in this build. When I assembled mine the memory heat sinks are rubbing on the external 5.25 drive tray (cd drive) and the Asus burner I bought needs to have about 3/4 inch clearance in the back to get the faceplate on properly.
In short it just doesn't fit.
What am I missing? Any help will be much appreciated.

BTW it boots Mint 9 with no problem. I used a USB stick in the absence of a cd drive. Only problem I found was the front headphone jack wasn;t working. everyting else works fine.
BTW2 I am using the onboard video.

 

[lyndam74]

Anyone else having problems with the memory blocking the cd burner tray in this build. When I assembled mine the memory heat sinks are rubbing on the external 5.25 drive tray (cd drive) and the Asus burner I bought needs to have about 3/4 inch clearance in the back to get the faceplate on properly.
In short it just doesn't fit.
What am I missing? Any help will be much appreciated.

BTW it boots Mint 9 with no problem. I used a USB stick in the absence of a cd drive. Only problem I found was the front headphone jack wasn;t working. everyting else works fine.
BTW2 I am using the onboard video.

You are right, it DOESN'T fit. I had to swap the mem out for some standard sticks from another machine to get mine to work.

NOW I have bigger probs though. No way to disable onboard graphics in bios. I'm dual booting Win7 Ult and Ubuntu and am having problems with Ubuntu recognizing the PCI card properly. Without it i can't run vdpau!!


Anyone have this problem or any thoughts?

 

[DHR]

On another forum's thread I was told (about the RAM):

It does fit, you just need to insert the memory after putting it in, not before.

On the other hand, putting a DVD drive in that bay would probably not fit with the memory and it darn heatsink.

For now, I'm just leaving one stick out. I assume that the Atom doesn't support dual channel memory access. I've even heard that, with Intel chipsets, it doesn't support a full 4GiB of memory (but I haven't tested that).

On the other front, I'm very interested in any success with the PCI video card.

If I remember correctly, it used to be that one could put multiple PCI video cards in a machine. So the fact that the BIOS won't let the on-board video be disabled need not prevent the PCI card being a second video interface. But perhaps that requires the BIOS to accommodate the card.

 

[lyndam74]

On the other front, I'm very interested in any success with the PCI video card.

If I remember correctly, it used to be that one could put multiple PCI video cards in a machine. So the fact that the BIOS won't let the on-board video be disabled need not prevent the PCI card being a second video interface. But perhaps that requires the BIOS to accommodate the card.

All is well with mine now. I dumped the Win7 dual boot for a clean Lucid install. I found that the bios automagically hands off the graphics duties to the installed card as primary. Thing about it was that I had problems when installing the proprietary drivers as prompted by Ubuntu on initial install. You have to deny that option and just go ahead, pull up terminal window and
'sudo apt-get install nvidia-current'. That was the only way i found to get mine straightened out. I had issues with overscan on my Panasonic TC-P50X1 and the only drivers that still supported overscan adjustment from the nvidia-settings gui were the 195 drivers. Got XBMC up and running now. Now maybe if i stop tweaking and adjusting all the little things I can just sit back and enjoy a movie for once! Lol