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Zacate E350 vs. SB i3 (no dedicated GPU) for HTPC/NAS?

GTaudiophile

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Lots of questions here...

If you wanted to build a small-form-factor HTPC+NAS, what hardware and OS would you choose?

For hardware, I am debating between a Zacate E350 versus a Sandy Bridge Core i3 with no dedicated GPU card. There would be a SSD boot drive along with a RAID 1 array most likely, consisting of two 1.5 or 2TB HDDs. The purpose of the machine would be 1) Backup & Storage of other network PCs (documents, pictures, mp3s, videos, etc.) and 2) Media streamer of online content, preferably of 1080P content where available.

The system would not be intended for any sort of gaming.

The system would output to a 50" Panasonic Plasma HDTV.

Being able to remotely access the HTPC (to access photos for example) would be a plus, and I would prefer to do this by more secure means (WinSCP).

Right now I just have an old PC running FreeNAS with a 3ware Raid controller with two 500GB HDDs in RAID 1. Instead of upgrading this server AND building an HTPC, my thought is, why not just combine the two?

Thanks.
 
I think the SSD is way overkill for your application. You can save a bunch of money by going with a standard drive. SSD's also run hotter in my experience. And with three HD's in an HTPC, fan noise could be an issue.

The Zacate should run cooler, but I have not seen any reviews for a SB i3. The i3 will be a lot faster CPU wise, not sure on the graphics side. I have only seen benches for the i5 and i7's integrated GPU (Although I believe they are the same?).
 
I don't think people will know for sure until the E350 is more available.

The AT article suggests the E350 is capable as a media box outputting 1080p, but it also suggests it might be just on the edge in some cases.

I think as long as you were using a format the E350 has a hardware decoder for, it should be fine, even with network access while playing. Hard to say without someone actually trying it though, the question is what's going to happen when playing at the same time as network access is happening, and I don't know how you're going to find that out unless someone has one in their hands.
 
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