I have been wanting to build a linux based HTPC forever, and I think I may have finally found something which will do exactly what I want.

With this currently at about $400 on ebay (minus ram, hd), this looks perfect.

Has anyone had any experience with Ubuntu on this?

The only issues I am worried about are hardware incompatibilities, but I would love to know if anyone has done this and how the HD playback is. If this is doable I am going to order one of these babies from ebay this week.


Thanks!

I have been wanting to build a linux based HTPC forever, and I think I may have finally found something which will do exactly what I want.

With this currently at about $400 on ebay (minus ram, hd), this looks perfect.

Has anyone had any experience with Ubuntu on this?

The only issues I am worried about are hardware incompatibilities, but I would love to know if anyone has done this and how the HD playback is. If this is doable I am going to order one of these babies from ebay this week.


Thanks!

That seems kind of expensive. They are selling for $420CAD at online stores in Canada. I paid $420CAD for mine and that included the 320gb hd and the dvdrw.

I have a mini ubuntu install on mine to run XBMC. Runs quite well. There are some guides on the XBMC forums on how to get everything working. The only issues I had were getting hdmi audio to work and 1080p/24. All working now.

That seems kind of expensive. They are selling for $420CAD at online stores in Canada. I paid $420CAD for mine and that included the 320gb hd and the dvdrw.

I have a mini ubuntu install on mine to run XBMC. Runs quite well. There are some guides on the XBMC forums on how to get everything working. The only issues I had were getting hdmi audio to work and 1080p/24. All working now.

Humm...Thanks for the info. Do you have any online stores I could check, not sure of any good places up there that have a good online presence. Tigerdirect, newegg and amazon don't seem to carry this. I can't find this item in any online stores in the US. If you have a large online store from Canada I could check that would be great. With the exchange rate I could probably get this even cheaper since I am just in Indiana.

Thanks for the XBMC news, it sounds like there aren't much issues, I am probably going to buy this, esp if I can find this fully bundled up for even cheaper than I see on ebay.

NCIXUS seems to have it in stock.
http://www.ncixus.com/products/40737/ION%20330/ASRock/

NCIXUS seems to have it in stock.


Great. Thanks alot!

That seems kind of expensive. They are selling for $420CAD at online stores in Canada. I paid $420CAD for mine and that included the 320gb hd and the dvdrw.

I have a mini ubuntu install on mine to run XBMC. Runs quite well. There are some guides on the XBMC forums on how to get everything working. The only issues I had were getting hdmi audio to work and 1080p/24. All working now.

Are the steps needed for 1080/24p and HDMI audio widely documented and obvious? If not - could you let us know how you managed it?

Am interested in the same kind of thing - not sure whether XBMC or MythTV. Does XBMC integrate a Myth TV front-end now?

This baby came in the mail today. Right now I have a minimal install of ubuntu Janty up and running, and am currently installing xorg and the xbmc packages. I will let you know how it goes :)

the minimal install boots from poweron to console prompt login in about 20 seconds. sweet.

the minimal install boots from poweron to console prompt login in about 20 seconds. sweet.

That sounds very good, my current front-end (a Popcorn Hour A100) takes about 1 long minute to boot from power-on, I'm very tempted by the Asrock ION 330, I just wish they would also sell a cheaper barebones version without the DVD and HDD as I have no need for them (I would use a SSD as boot drive and the media is all on a nfs server).

That sounds very good, my current front-end (a Popcorn Hour A100) takes about 1 long minute to boot from power-on, I'm very tempted by the Asrock ION 330, I just wish they would also sell a cheaper barebones version without the DVD and HDD as I have no need for them (I would use a SSD as boot drive and the media is all on a nfs server).

Check Ebay... some (from Hong Kong) are selling this unit without memory and Hard disk...

Check Ebay... some (from Hong Kong) are selling this unit without memory and Hard disk...

They are, but why on earth would you pay virtually the same price for a "barebones" when they are selling complete for less in Canada ??

Maybe if the Hong Kong sellers weren't so greedy, and priced them about $100. lower because of the lack of hdd and memory it would be worthwhile, but considering the exchange and delivery costs, there is no reason to buy from the greedy Hong Kong sellers...

CC has these in Canada for $399.CAN, the cheapest Hong Kong seller on ebay WITHOUT hdd and memory is priced at $299.US PLUS $50.US shipping which equals $414.CAN. You'd be paying MORE for a lot LESS. Doesn't make sense...

If you wanna go barebones, why not this: http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/216107/IONITX-A-U/Zotac/ a LOT cheaper option, especially if you already have a case, or plan a custom case...

If you wanna go barebones, why not this: http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/216107/IONITX-A-U/Zotac/ a LOT cheaper option, especially if you already have a case, or plan a custom case...

Unfortunately suspend-to-RAM doesn't work with the Zotac, I'm considering the POV mobo though, but it's not available yet:
http://www.pointofview-online.com/showroom.php?shop_mode=product_detail&product_id=97

I've got this pretty much totally working already and it is awesome. xbmc really is an amazing project. i just have to configure this and get all my media setup now.

the only issue i had was i had to play around a bit to get my hdmi audio working. but once i selected VDPAU to offload the vid processing to the gpu, i played my 1080p rip of terminator 2 with dts sound perfectly, no skips or anything, it looks beautiful, and checking top shows that the cpu is only at about 3% which is sweet.

also i did go with the site from canada above, with the good USD vs CAD, i got this for about 380$ with shipping, with 2g of ram and a dvdrw, so good deal imo.

NCIXUS seems to have it in stock.
http://www.ncixus.com/products/40737/ION%20330/ASRock/

Out of stock when I check... NCIX.com (i.e. their Canada site) lists it as back-ordered while the NCIXUS.com (i.e. their US site) lists it as simply "Out of Stock".

Any other suggestions for those of us in the US not familiar with the popular e-tailers in Canada?

I'm not sure which ones ship to US, but there are a LOT of great computer e-tailers based in BC, like DirectCanada and BestDirect, which *look* like they're versions of NCIX ...who knows...
There's also Canada Computers, but I'm not sure if they ship to USA at all...

Out of stock when I check... NCIX.com (i.e. their Canada site) lists it as back-ordered while the NCIXUS.com (i.e. their US site) lists it as simply "Out of Stock".
If you click on the "Check Stock" option, it shows one available in the Langley BC store. I don't know if you can get it shipped to you from the store.

It's a shame that these aren't available in the USA. I would have gotten one instead of building my system, using the Zotac ION mobo.

I'm not sure which ones ship to US, but there are a LOT of great computer e-tailers based in BC, like DirectCanada and BestDirect, which *look* like they're versions of NCIX ...who knows...
There's also Canada Computers, but I'm not sure if they ship to USA at all...

Thanks for the additional pointers. Unfortunately:

DirectCanada (http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10520ST9193&vpn=ION%20330&manufacture=ASROCK) shows it for CAD$398.52 but out of stock

BestDirect (http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/217842/ION%20330/ASRock/) shows it foer CAD$396.00 but out of stock

Canada Computers (http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=024006&cid=170.45) shows it for CAD$399.00 (on promotional sale down from CAD$407.99) and IN STOCK but... won't allow a shipping address outside of Canada :(

As both DirectCanada & BestDirect showed no stock, I didn't bother to investigate whether or not they ship to the US...

Those places will have more in as soon as they can get them, you can be sure. Best Direct had stock when I made my post, so obviously they are selling fast and furious.
There are two other places I've found them, both for slightly more though, and neither has any explicit notation about shipping, http://www.kingstoncomputerplanet.com/products/?cid=24&scid=01&pid=240100018 and http://www.coreyscomputing.com/cart/productview.asp?key=1216 the first place I found these in Canada...

ASRock ION 330 finally available from US e-tailer Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856158007)

ASRock ION 330 finally available from US e-tailer Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856158007)

Good to see it for sale, but still ouch.. $359 for bare bones? Lotta cash to save 20-30W of power. (I'll double check but I think I measured my E5200 C2D system (cost ~$300) at only ~75W on a Kill-a-watt meter). If someone wants to point me at a video clip they'd like to use for comparison, be happy to test to get apple-apples power #'s.

It's not a barebones, it's a complete system with 2GB RAM, 320GB hdd and DVD multi drive.
It ships without OS, but I would consider that a good thing (no microsoft tax!).

It's not a barebones, it's a complete system with 2GB RAM, 320GB hdd and DVD multi drive.
It ships without OS, but I would consider that a good thing (no microsoft tax!).

You are correct... the title at newegg says ASRock ION 330 NVIDIA ION 1 x 240Pin NVIDIA ION graphics Black Barebone but the specs do list everything at the bottom of the page.

You are correct... the title at newegg says but the specs do list everything at the bottom of the page.

As always, Newegg is usually very bad when they copy specs from the manufacturer to their own page.

The MB/CPU combo inside is the ASRock AMCP7A-ION board. It has 2 x 240 pin slots. The Newegg $359.99 SKU comes pre-populated with two 1GB PC2-6400 modules for a total of 2GB, as verified by several ASRock ION 330 Nettop reviews which have hit the web the past few days. This is probably going to be the box I'm using to migrate from my five Popcorn Hours to XBMC/Ubuntu. Almost went the Zotac ION route but finding an ITX-case that I'd like, and wasn't $299 and made in Korea, pushed me over to the Taiwanese ASRock.

Cheers,
Kermee

ASRock ION 330 finally available from US e-tailer Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856158007)

Now in-stock... and $10 more than they originally listed it at. They pulled the same stunt with the Zotac ION boards...

Have one on order; will order 5 more to replace all my Popcorn Hours if I can get XBMC working the way I like it.

Cheers,
Kermee

Now in-stock... and $10 more than they originally listed it at. They pulled the same stunt with the Zotac ION boards...

Have one on order; will order 5 more to replace all my Popcorn Hours if I can get XBMC working the way I like it.

Cheers,
Kermee

That was quick. OOS again. LOL.

Cheers,
Kermee

Anybody running Ubuntu with myth on the ASrock 330? Any issues? Anybody using the optical out? Any issues with that? I don't anticipate any but wouldn't mind confirmation that there aren't too many problems. I'm thinking about replacing my primary frontend with this machine sometime in the next couple of months.

Also, is the CPU good enough to run most games for fceu, zsnes, and psx emulators?

Certainly seems like I'd have a hard time making a silent HD capable low power frontend for much less...

Anybody running Ubuntu with myth on the ASrock 330? Any issues? Anybody using the optical out? Any issues with that? I don't anticipate any but wouldn't mind confirmation that there aren't too many problems. I'm thinking about replacing my primary frontend with this machine sometime in the next couple of months.

Also, is the CPU good enough to run most games for fceu, zsnes, and psx emulators?

Certainly seems like I'd have a hard time making a silent HD capable low power frontend for much less...

SPDIF works fine out of the box. There's some folks on the official XBMC Linux forum which have some pretty sweet custom ALSA configurations which "splits" or "mirrors" certain audio over SPDIF and Audio over HDMI and or Audio over analog. (Extremely advanced, but works - e.g. Music playback occurs over SPDIF; movie playback occurs over HDMI or both, system sounds come out of... yada yada yada...etc.)

Cheers,
Kermee

SPDIF works fine out of the box. There's some folks on the official XBMC Linux forum which have some pretty sweet custom ALSA configurations which "splits" or "mirrors" certain audio over SPDIF and Audio over HDMI and or Audio over analog.

Can you post a link? I don't have the system, but might still be educational.

Thanks!
Mike

for those hot and heavy on getting one of these... this thread may help, claiming it can be done for $312.


http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=487750&t=1491833