HTPC Spec

[oxygene]

Ok I've looked over a lot of threads for these systems and whats left out is the kind of spec needed. I see people getting 4gb ram, quad cores and major gfx cards!

Say I would be storing all the content on another pc and streaming via ethernet. Or at least having one item at a time on said machine. What would be a sensible cpu ram and gfx card to play 720p and 1080p video? I know it depends on encoding, so lets assume Xvid / avi for anything below 720p, and mkv for 720p mkv and blu ray drive / disk for 1080p?

 

[oxygene]

hmm curious. Didnt realise they'd managed to offload decoding to a gpu now. last i looked in to this it was all cpu still. atm I have a few spare systems and parts lying around the place. an 800mhz via mini-itx, which wont play anything i reckon. an amd xp 3200 with crappy ram and old parts. and an amd phenom 1st generation (4x 1.8ghz) but no mobo or anything to combine it with. Problem is the only system spare i have capable of playing anything is the amd 3200, but its not exactly powerful for vids and the case is huge....