Is it worth turning this into a HTPC?

misterPK

misterPK

misterPK

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18 Apr 2007
Posts
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Location
Probably in a river somewhere
My system is getting a bit old now, and I'm thinking about upgrading. But fear not, this is not a "spec me" thread! I've never been one for throwing stuff away unless I really have to (probably why I work in recycling) so I was wondering if my old system could be turned into a basic HTPC.

The spec:
  • Shuttle ST20G5
  • Athlon 64 3800+
  • 1GB Balistix DDR
  • X800 XL 512MB (Double slot, so hanging out the side at the moment)

The Additions:
  • Already Got:
    [*]USB Freeview card
    [*]iMon Display pannel​
  • To Buy:
    [*]3450/3650 single slot
    [*]Bigger Hard drive
    [*]X2 cpu?​

So what do people think? Worth it? Or am I flogging a dead horse here?

Cheers,
PK!
 
Your improvements are exactly what you need for a HTPC, although 2GB of RAM would be nicer. You getting a Blue-Ray drive?
 
if you were just looking at playing SD video then I would have thought the current spec ok. My laptop 1.4ghz pentium-M I think plays SD video all day long.
 
Should play SD fine and might push at some HD content. To be honest replace the GFX card and HDD and go from there. If it does what you want then great, money well spent. If not you have 2 components to use if you sell the rest and upgrade.

Win - Win situation imo
 
Should all work fine as i'm in the middle of converting an HP Compaq dc7100

2yl69nq.jpg


Spec
P4 3.2 HT
1GB of OCZ 3200
400GB hard Drive
Samsung Dual Layer ReWriter
Should have a Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T 500 Dual Digital Freeview TV tuner sometime this week also waiting for a Radeon X1600 Pro HDMI and i will be a happy bunny :)

Been using for BBC iplayer with my samsung LCD TV and it works a treat also to play music on my network
 
Thanks for the feedback, I had no idea what would make a good HTPC. Watch out for a thread in the small form factor forum about modding my iMon into the front pannel and other general build malarky.

Furton said:
Your improvements are exactly what you need for a HTPC, although 2GB of RAM would be nicer. You getting a Blue-Ray drive?
Click to expand...

Both good suggestions but here the Shuttle begins to show its age, and my budget limit shows too. There's only two memory slots, and 2GB of DDR will be £50 at least.
It also only has 2 SATA ports and 1 IDE, so I'd be limited to one hard drive if I put in a Blu-Ray to replace my IDE DVD-RW. I might consider putting one in once they get a little more common and cheaper.

PK!
 
For non-HD stuff you should be fine. Up until very recently I was using an old Socket A Shuttle with a Barton XP 2500+ processor in it running XP as a HTPC with a single tuner Nova-T card in it. This was fine for SD video handling even with 1GB of memory.

It's been replaced in the lounge by a e6600 based setup running Vista but the Shuttle is still used hooked up to a TV in my bedroom to play back video files.
 
EYEREX said:
Should all work fine as i'm in the middle of converting an HP Compaq dc7100

2yl69nq.jpg


Spec
P4 3.2 HT
1GB of OCZ 3200
400GB hard Drive
Samsung Dual Layer ReWriter
Should have a Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T 500 Dual Digital Freeview TV tuner sometime this week also waiting for a Radeon X1600 Pro HDMI and i will be a happy bunny :)

Been using for BBC iplayer with my samsung LCD TV and it works a treat also to play music on my network
Click to expand...

Not sure if the X1600 does the video decoding but I've been struggling with a P4 3.4 GHz as my current card offloads it to the CPU. Be keen to hear how you get on as if it can still be used with better card, I may as well keep it.
 
memyselfandi said:
For non-HD stuff you should be fine. Up until very recently I was using an old Socket A Shuttle with a Barton XP 2500+ processor in it running XP as a HTPC with a single tuner Nova-T card in it. This was fine for SD video handling even with 1GB of memory.

It's been replaced in the lounge by a e6600 based setup running Vista but the Shuttle is still used hooked up to a TV in my bedroom to play back video files.
Click to expand...

think there is only 512meg in my shuttle under the tele...works just fine.

havent tried the TV tuner working yet...should get it sorted really.
 
a47mf4.jpg


TV card in but didn't come with small backplate so got to sort but it's working ok just need a graphics card as the onboard can't handle the resolution

400GB hard drive in but wtf 1hr to format a drive

Burner in
 
misterPK said:
My system is getting a bit old now, and I'm thinking about upgrading. But fear not, this is not a "spec me" thread! I've never been one for throwing stuff away unless I really have to (probably why I work in recycling) so I was wondering if my old system could be turned into a basic HTPC.

The spec:
  • Shuttle ST20G5
  • Athlon 64 3800+
  • 1GB Balistix DDR
  • X800 XL 512MB (Double slot, so hanging out the side at the moment)

The Additions:
  • Already Got:
    [*]USB Freeview card
    [*]iMon Display pannel​
  • To Buy:
    [*]3450/3650 single slot
    [*]Bigger Hard drive
    [*]X2 cpu?​

So what do people think? Worth it? Or am I flogging a dead horse here?

Cheers,
PK!
Click to expand...

My Media centre is an AM2 X2 3800 with 1GB and 1TB storage.
Currently runs GBPVR, has 3 tuners and supports two MVP clients.
The main output is 720P into my old LCD TV. Works just fine from the onboard nvidia 6150 chip using component output.

With cool and quiet the CPU sits at 1Ghz most of the time.

Unless you need the PC for games, I'd just stick with something like a cheap 2400, fan cooled since shuttle won't have good airflow. 1GB will be fine.

Any TV you record will be a Mpeg stream so figure about 2GB/hr. You have the choice to transcode this to something else but personally I figure it will take me 20 solid days to watch everything if I fill the drive so I just delete regularly.

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