I was going to do a full write up, but this thing was so easy to set up a child could do it.

I say "alternative" as this isn't your average Intel Atom/Ion HTPC.  This packs a Celeron 1.2Ghz Dual Core CULV, offering 33% more performance than a D510 Atom.

This is the hardware I started with:


Zotac ZBOX-HD-ND22B
Corsair 4GB DDR3 SoDimm
Western Digital 500Gb Caviar Blue
2m HDMI Cable

Windows 7 Professional x64 (MSDN)
Boxee

Opening the Box......


Undo two thumbscrews, and the side panel comes off, revealing....


One more thumbscrew for the HDD....


And fasten it back up.

This comes with a VESA quick release mount for fastening to the back of your monitor.  I was hoping to utilise this for the TV but it's completely different.
Back to the drawing board for that.

Everyone knows how to install Windows, so I'll not cover that.

Once Windows was installed, activated, updated, I had to work out how to get rid of the overscan.  Handily, Nvidia provide tools within their drivers to do this.
Created a username and password at the Boxee site, and linked it to my facebook.

This is your basic boxee interface.


On the left is your RSS/Facebook/Twitter feed.  If someone posts a video, you can watch it here.
The middle is featured stuff, a bit pointless imo.
The right is your play queue.


The great bit though, is clicking on TV.  It will show you a collection of your stuff, and at the push of a button, stuff from 4OD, Youtube, BBC etc.
All through an easy to use interface.



At the moment I'm still playing.  I've added repositories for free sport stuff and a couple of apps.
The spotify API has been released so hopefully that will be integrated, and it's seemingly impossible to get the official remote control over here, so I'm using my phone.

More to come, as and when.

How much and where did you buy the Zotac from in the end?

Scan, and it was £201.

Click the link where I list what's in it.

(HDD and Windows I was already in possession of, so were not bought)

Whats the HD playback like? Ive not heard great things about early ion stuff.

Also, does http://www.eyecontec.com/ work with boxee?

Seems to work fine, although my largest MKV files are around 6gb.  I don't go for the full-on 1080p as it would:
a) kill my internet connection
b) TV only outputs at 1080i


I've read the opposite tbh, that ION2 has severe bottlenecks.  I think the latest drivers support CUDA, which previously only worked in Linux?


I'll give eyecon a try.  I can't see why it won't work.  It has the option under "Sources" for uPNP, and picks up my Twonky media server.

Edit.  Wasn't what I thought it was, but sweet idea anyway.

No, it doesn't.  That's a shame.  I'll pop a word in the suggestions.

bit late now.. but have you seen http://www.popbox.com
seem cheap enough to have  a few slave devices around the house - thats the product that we all crave for
A master media server, with affordable slave devices.

Quote from: Eggtastico on February 03, 2011, 22:31:22 PM
bit late now.. but have you seen http://www.popbox.com
seem cheap enough to have  a few slave devices around the house - thats the product that we all crave for
A master media server, with affordable slave devices.

Looks interesting....
Although, look at this page.
http://www.popbox.com/www/index.php/what_is_popbox/

They seem to feature the intensity of the LED on the front as a plus point.
I'm not sure I want my retinas burnt out whilst trying to watch a film

Finding some limitations with Boxee/Windows and Cuda.  Will be trying a Ubuntu build next week.

Ubuntu 10.10 x64 going on now.....

For Ubuntu 10.10 to get the most out of the ION I've found the following drivers do by far the best job:

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates

They were the only ones that would let me watch 1080p content on my 1.6 Atom/ION-LE netbook. Haven't played around with x64 version of stuff tho

I just installed the ones that ubuntu recommended.

After doing this, linux is 100% not ready for the mainstream.

Problems getting audio over HDMI working.  Who would have thought that in the 21st century we'd still have to drop to the CLI to unmute an interface?
alsamixer?  Please.

After more command line f*ck-wittery I get it working.  But not the passthough.  That passes static to the TV.  Great.
-----

In it's defense though, video's decode better than on Windows.   Not seen VDPAU working yet though, even though I turned it on and told it that it was the default render method.  I don't see that it's using it when you press i.

I swapped back to my Windows HDD so I could get my scheduled downloads, but I'll have another stab over the weekend.

Things I got working.

Boxee
Audio over HDMI
Sickbeard
Sabnzbd

Things still to do.

Work out mounting network drives for sickbeard.
Install something for unrar.
Test

Well that screwed the pooch.

I'm sticking with my Windows install. 
Got the PS3 remote control working great, just need to remember to turn it on and off.

Only 1 MKV won't play, so I'll either re-download it or re-encode it, see what takes the least time.

Just about to try and get Sabnzbd App and TorrentUI working.