Assembled HTPC or Dell Zino

[Avijeet]

Dear all....

I have
LG 50" PLASMA
TATASKY +
WDTV
500 GB WD Passport
500 GB SG Free Agent
Wii

Planning for ONKYO 3200 and a HTPC

I came across Dell Zino HD @ 20K

so just pondering whether it's just perfect or assembled is good ?

 

[hemantwaghe]

I came across Dell Zino HD @ 20K

\

Specifications?
Net Links?
Any online reviews u found?

It will help us to givre proper suggestions

 

[Avijeet]

Dell Zino HD

Inspiron Zino HD Desktop | Dell India

According to me the basic problem is no optical out for audio.... so only stereo out can be used for Home Theater

 

[spirovious]

Dell looks good all in in one solution.If you need to expand/upgrade further,then may not be so useful.
HTPC has flexibility.

Only for Mov,Dell can be good.

 

[thevortex]

I dont know where you got the Rs. 20 K price. If it is available at that price with a good hard disk and a good chipset/processor combination then you would be better off getting it.

But I doubt if it is available at that price - in India. An Assembled PC is something which is a labour of love. You can do it at your own pace and build what you want, when you want. There is really no comparison.

 

[cmsajith]

Is there any reason for going for an HTPC along with a WDTV? If you are looking for a PC to rip the CDs or DVDs and not looking for a playback from it (since you have a WDTV), you can setup a normal PC which will cost very less. If you are planning for a playback, the WDTV will be a waste or the HTPC will be a replica of WDTV. Rather I suggest (for ripping and storing / downloading) setup a normal PC and buy a decent DAC with the remaining money if you are looking for a good music playback.

 

[phantom76]

As someone pointed out earlier, you will sacrifice future expandability if you go for Zino HD. But if you are not planning a life cycle of more than 3 years for your HTPC, you should go the Zino HD way. It saves space and looks great in your living room. The footprint is much smaller than most BD players today - and you can configure the Zino HD to have a BD Drive also!

With W7MC+Media Browser combo (OR XBMC), you get a compact and great media player.

WDTV vs HTPC is a different question altogether. I switched from WDTV to HTPC mainly because of great meta data support using media browser and media center master combo. The fluid mediabrowser UI and DVDID interface on Windows Media Center is no match for what you get on WDTV (Even the latest WDTV live has a very boring interface). I will post some screenshots in a separate post soon.

 

[cybervinay]

WDTV vs HTPC is a different question altogether. I switched from WDTV to HTPC mainly because of great meta data support using media browser and media center master combo. The fluid mediabrowser UI and DVDID interface on Windows Media Center is no match for what you get on WDTV (Even the latest WDTV live has a very boring interface). I will post some screenshots in a separate post soon.

thanks for pointing these software. will try them out

 

[ajinkya]

The Dell looks great for the price and features. If there was a way of getting rid of the monitor for reduced cost, that would be even better. The only thing you're sacrificing is a possibility of future upgrades but I don't see any reason why this model won't work for 5+ years. You can always add more RAM and an external HDD, in case you run out.
Regarding no optical out, that is no problem. Add a Rs 5-6K USB based DAC and the problem of good sound output should be solved.

 

[spirovious]

Dell is AMD solution,
HP/Accer has similar solution with intel Atom for 16k with monitor.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Dell is AMD solution,
HP/Accer has similar solution with intel Atom for 16k with monitor.

What about processor performance?
IMHO atom too underpowered

 

[phantom76]

What about processor performance?
IMHO atom too underpowered

The atom 330 + nVidia ION combo is ideal for HTPC based on XBMC. XBMC now supports VDPAU, which means all the rendering is done by the GPU itself with very little load on CPU. (Note that the Atom 330 is a dual core processor).

Check youtube for many demo videos of XBMC + atom 330/ion combo playing 1080p video effortlessly. In India, Zotac Mag HD is available for approximately 17k on ebay. It comes with a VESA mount, which means you can mount the mini pc behind your TV and no one will know that you have a HTPC running there!

 

[thevortex]

17K is a good price. But with that price there has to be a downside. We need to find that out.

 

[spirovious]

17K is a good price. But with that price there has to be a downside. We need to find that out.

Price I mentioned is with LCD monitor.(16k)

 

[thevortex]

The downside I guess is the Intel Atom 1.6 processor.

I would be very wary of this configuration. Try ripping an Audio CD and see how long it takes. As of now, I see the AMD based configuration winning easily - as far as Home Theatre goes.

 

[gobble]

The atom 330 + nVidia ION combo is ideal for HTPC based on XBMC. XBMC now supports VDPAU, which means all the rendering is done by the GPU itself with very little load on CPU. (Note that the Atom 330 is a dual core processor).

Check youtube for many demo videos of XBMC + atom 330/ion combo playing 1080p video effortlessly. In India, Zotac Mag HD is available for approximately 17k on ebay. It comes with a VESA mount, which means you can mount the mini pc behind your TV and no one will know that you have a HTPC running there!

For its weak computing power, a piddle dribbler like the atom should be priced at 4K max not 12 or 17K. The only advantage is the possibility of a totally fanless system withthe n230 single core - it will be good for htpc. Even these boards are priced at 6.5K with DC 12V psu and non-ION straggler like intel g45 graphics !!

Regards