# Low Wat HTPC/AMD Athlon 5350 Kabini



## mr soft

4 gig of ram should be enough , and what about a small ssd for the os instead of the 1t blue, or are you going to use the blue for storage as well ?


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## RedSunRises

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mr soft*
> 
> 4 gig of ram should be enough , and what about a small ssd for the os instead of the 1t blue, of are you going to use the blue for storage as well ?


I would agree with only needing 4GB of ram... Unfortunately the Athlon 5350 only supports RAM in single channel. So one 4GB stick should suffice and save some money!


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## skylinecalvin

Can you post how smooth the computer works playing 1080p files? I'm thinking about doing almost the exact same thing as you but i'm unsure of the AM1 platform's performance.


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## knightsilver

I only wanted two drives, keeping it simple. Yes the two 1TB Blues would be, Blue1 for OS/Media and Blue to to keep the media backup and simple.

Blue1: OS/Media
Blue2: Backup for OS/Media Blue1

What about Xubuntu, I also use Amazon, as in I download my shows from Amazon, Id concider Win7home, but would 4GB ram be enough for W7/WMC?

EDIT: "Thoughts?"

SSD: OS
Blue1: Media
Blue2: Backup

Or would the Athlon 5350 Kabini be fast enough, I hate lag!


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## mr soft

I´ve never used Xubuntu but if you want to have a look there´s XBMCbuntu
http://xbmc.org/download/
4 gigs is fine, you could run it on 2 gig but I think that´s pretty much bordering aero or no aero.


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## knightsilver

link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=3773

link2:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/player

I cant remember the specs on Amazon Unbox Video Player, or run on Linux?

EDIT: Also will be used for Livingroom surfing!

[email protected]: SkylineCal, Ill for sure post some feedback on 1080p/720P playbacks.


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## xD4rkFire

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *skylinecalvin*
> 
> Can you post how smooth the computer works playing 1080p files? I'm thinking about doing almost the exact same thing as you but i'm unsure of the AM1 platform's performance.


It looks like LegitReviews has already done testing on 1080p video playback.
Quote:


> How does the AMD Athlon 5350 APU do when it comes to Youtube video playback? The first 1080p clip we tried was Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Trailer 2 and we had around 22-35% CPU usage during the playback of that movie trailer.


And perhaps more convincingly,
Quote:


> The next clip we ran at 1080P was called WILDLIFE IN 4K (ULTRA HD) 60FPS and we found that the CPU was at 50% load.


It looks like the Athlon 5350 is more than capable at playing whatever video you have!


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## knightsilver

Feedback on the OS?

Xubuntu
XBMCbuntu
Win7/WMC

Amazon dl's, Livingroom surfing, Live Air TV(aka HomeRun), DVR funtion for Live Air TV, Using Tablet for remaote for media playback.


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## knightsilver

Feedback on OS?

WMC/Win7 really the less BS way to go?


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## pharcycle

I use XBMCbuntu for my media PC and it supports plugins for most streaming services... certainly netflix as my google search just revealed. You can certainly control XBMC from a tablet no problem and stream from your computers or NAS but it will take a little configuring to get it all sweet.

XBMCbuntu is essentially built on Xbuntu anyway so is the better option for a lower hassle setup IMO

It's free so you could always try it and if you don't get on with it then resort to win 7 but it is a lot of overhead for a lightweight media PC.


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## Farmer Boe

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *knightsilver*
> 
> Feedback on OS?
> 
> WMC/Win7 really the less BS way to go?


Everything seems to work with Windows 7, so that's the safe bet and also what I use for my own HTPC.


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## Jericho941

I built a HTPC with the same 5350 and Asrock AM1h-itx motherboard.

It could run 1080p content just fine with ubuntu 14.04, but I had problems with audio output through HDMI. It might work better with Xubuntu, but I don't know. To run Netflix and Amazon the easiest, Silverlight is required. There is a program to emulate it on linux called Wine and something called Pipelight that has to be manually installed to emulate silverlight. Also an add-on for Chrome was necessary to trick netflix/amazon prime in to thinking I was using the windows version of Firefox 15. The 1080 streaming with YouTube and Crunchyroll worked fine with a minor tweak.

The result was choppy audio through hdmi. The audio was fine when played from the motherboard's analog sound output. I didn't get to try the optical out yet as the only optical cable I know the location of in the house was already in use. There may have been a patch, or workaround, but I couldn't find it in several hours of searching. The propietary AMD driver suite seemed lacking in Linux as well, and was tricky to install. I am a total newb with the Ubuntu OS and resolving the problem was beyond my skill set.

I recommend going with windows 8.1 for your Kabini build. I have installed it on mine and it works very well. I just added a SSD to the system and it is great. I believe that windows 8.1 better manages memory better than 7 and seems well suited for this processor. I have only 1 4gb stick on it and I maxed out the shared vram in bios to 2gb without issue. Also be sure to buy the retail OS, not the OEM, so you can still use it on a different PC if it isn't to your liking and you get a linux based system running how you want it.


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## pharcycle

yeah hdmi audio out can be a pain to setup in standard Xbuntu because even after you get it working in the alsa driver there's no convenient GUI to let you select it as the default sound device! Fortunately XBMC gives you this control which is why I recommend using the streaming plugins for that rather than using a web browser and since XBMCbuntu doesn't render the desktop as standard it makes even more sense to use plugins. And you can access them via a remote without keyboard etc etc.

You can use the OEM version of windows on other machines but you might need to reactivate it using microsofts automatic phone service which is a surprisingly painless process. I've done this countless times for win 7 without issue, can't say for win 8 but it seems unlikely they've changed it... not impossible either mind you!

Also to Jericho, why are you wanting it to max out 2GB of VRAM for a HTPC? This is just using up valuable system RAM surely, 128 MB or at a push 256 MB would be ample for this task?


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## Jericho941

The vram setting of 2gb, was just to see how it affects the system and if it would help with my ubuntu hdmi issues. I'm not keeping it that way. There was an exhaustive test on phoronix that showed diminishing performance improvements when the shared vram went above 1gb.


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## pharcycle

ok, if you still want to get it working you should first test the output device using the speaker-test command (part of the alsa library)... this is a good how-to on using it

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Using_ALSA's_speaker-test_utility

then in XBMC you can use the exact line you use that works in the passthrough audio device setting, e.g.

e.g: Dplughw: 0,1 or whatever card and device ID combination you find works in the speaker-test from the results of 'aplay -l' and 'aplay -L'


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## knightsilver

Anything such as a great/good PCIe tuner(live TV) for around $99? "For Win7 WMC"


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## orl2222

I would go with the ATI 750 USB tuner. I'm using it, works great. Make sure you use the latest drivers from their sight, do not let windows try to install the driver.


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## knightsilver

Looking at something with lower heat. See post 1.



Got this Radio a few weeks back, and now looking at something lower heat.


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## pharcycle

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *knightsilver*
> 
> Anything such as a great/good PCIe tuner(live TV) for around $99? "For Win7 WMC"


http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr950q.html

always had good experiences with hauppauge gear


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## rui-no-onna

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *pharcycle*
> 
> http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr950q.html
> 
> always had good experiences with hauppauge gear


I have that one and it kept overheating after watching TV for 1.5 hours or so. Personally use a couple of HDHomeRuns (network-attached dual TV tuner) at home. It's nice being able to share the tuners to all the HTPC's in the house. Refurbs go for $50-70 on Newegg.


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## pharcycle

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *rui-no-onna*
> 
> I have that one and it kept overheating after watching TV for 1.5 hours or so. Personally use a couple of HDHomeRuns (network-attached dual TV tuner) at home. It's nice being able to share the tuners to all the HTPC's in the house. Refurbs go for $50-70 on Newegg.


Interesting, I've got 2x PCI DVB tuners from them and one USB stick which all have been fine - they were running in my myth server on 24/7. Did you try RMAing it as I'm pretty sure that's not fit for purpose if you can't even watch a film before conks out on you!


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## knightsilver

SiliconDust HDHomeRun DUAL $65 refurb 90days
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815345017

Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 $62 2yr w/remote
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116028

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Im also rethinking this Radio case idea? Maybe WiFi Radio? ((Not this HTPC))

Maybe a Raspberry Pi with a small touchscreen?


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## rui-no-onna

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *pharcycle*
> 
> Interesting, I've got 2x PCI DVB tuners from them and one USB stick which all have been fine - they were running in my myth server on 24/7. Did you try RMAing it as I'm pretty sure that's not fit for purpose if you can't even watch a film before conks out on you!


Didn't see much point since when I hit Newegg and Amazon for reviews, turns out I'm not the only one with the problem and the replacements exhibited the same issue. Sides, it only cost me $50 and I was only playing around with it for the laptop. I already had dual HDHomeRuns at the time.


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## ladcrooks

Athlon 5350 Kabini - Hiya can anyone tell me if they used a thermal pad or paste?

building one tomorrow - cheers


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## jsc1973

There have been plenty of tests done on a 5350, and it can handle 1080p as long as it's allowed to put all four cores to work. That said, I went with an A-series APU to do an HTPC/living room surfing machine. The HTPC system in my sig pulls about 37-42W at the wall in normal usage, and with the two 3.9 GHz Piledriver cores, it's never a question about whether it's strong enough to handle any kind of video. Most of the time, it powers down to 1.8 GHz, even when running the TV application or music.


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## ladcrooks

sorted


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