Im looking at building a mini-itx pc with a Atom 230 1.6GHz CPU and 1gig of ram. Will this be able to play .avi files ok? What are the advantages / disadvantages to mini-itx?
Nah it'll be fine, the cpu usage will be up around 60-80% but there is still a bit of leg room for web use or the like.
To be fair, when I have a .AVI running, That'll be all that needs to be running - no need to run a .AVI on the tv (using the VGA cable) aswell as running chrome/firefox...
Chrome's very simple, very stripped back, and not as modifiable as Firefox. I like it because it seems quite resilient and it's really simple. With regard to the PC, it's difficult to give a definite answer unless all you will ever do with this thing is play .avi's. Is that it? What onboard graphics were you planning?
I don't find that at all. Sure, on my old laptop with a 1.8GHz Pentium M it struggles (thats the RAM (768MB holding it back I reckon) but my current one with a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, Firefox is fine. To the OP - if you are thinking about the future, apart from getting a Via Nano, something with either or both of a dual core Atom or Ion might be worth thinking about.
Used primeraly as a torrent box. But used to play the DL'd torrents through a TV or monitor. Also to store Photos on. Nothing more other than perhaps facebook etc. No games, thats for sure
Then it depends on the video chipset. Something like an NVIDIA ION will play everything - even HD content - but I don't know about the performance of the other integrated ones.
I'm running Firefox 3.5.5 with Noscript, Better Privacy, Adblock Plus, Greasemonkey and IE tab on a spare PC, Pentium 4 1.3 Ghz and 1GB crappy RIMM memory at the moment and no slowness or problems at all.
Video chipsets are becoming increasingly important because they're increasingly useful. Especially with Vista and 7, because their entire interfaces are accelerated and handled by the GPU. This takes a lot of load off of the CPU. The next version of Flash player is said to be completely accelerated as well, which means Youtube and the like will be completely handled by the GPU. And trust me, even "low-end" dedicated cards can handle this kind of stuff just fine. As a result, Youtube and Hulu and HDTV video playback will be a piece of cake for a lot of PCs which have traditionally been too weak for (because their CPUs were too weak). Most GPUs have been capable of doing all of this stuff for a long time, it's just now that we can finally use them for something other than gaming and 3-D work (and certain offline video playback applications).
OK guys. Here is my new question, that I wish to ask the masters of computer wizardry... Basically, I have the choice between a second hand 2gb/360gb , nvidea graphics card (a decent one), coolmaster PSU DESKTOP from a work mate (£100), or a new MINI ITX PC that I will build myself with 1gb/360gb for £150. What should I do? My reason for liking the mini-itx idea is that It would be used as a torrent box, and used as a tv, advantages being that is uses a lot less power. Advantages to the Desktop is that It'll do anything I ask of it. HELP! lol
?? I'd definitely go with that. Unless you really care about saving a little on your energy bill. The second-hand PC you just described is several times as powerful as the ITX build you were planning. And considering it's cheaper than what you would build yourself, it's a no-brainer.
Yes, I suppose that you are right TheMusician. I will get the bigger, desktop PC and put my dream to loose my PC build virginity behind me... To pick up another day when I have more money to build me mini-itx ;p. Thankyou.