NEWBIE Question - HTPC

[Spurs986]

Hello,

I've just gone out and brought a new PC, and now im sitting here with my old PC which I still quite like and wondering what to do with it. I have decided to use it downstairs as a HTPC, I'll detail my current specifications below, could someone tell me what else I would need to buy along with cost (cheap is v.important).

Crappy Case (Scratched like you wouldn't believe)
Asrock Motherboard (No PCI-E) and (DDR2) - Supports XP and Sempron ships only.
2700xp athlon CPU
80GB IDE Motherboard x2
8600GT AGP Graphics Card
1gb DDR Memory.

At moment it can't even play codec so could be high poss I need to change everything, and jus give this one to my younger borther . If I did change motherbaord would sort of price would a HTPC cost from here?

 

[semi-pro waster]

When you say won't play codec, which codecs are you talking about? DivX and the like should easily play on that specification.

Have a look in shaffaaf27's thread for some ideas based around the £400 HTPC but since you have some parts (well hard drives) it could probably be sorted a bit cheaper.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

It depends on what you want your HTPC to do. The usual XviD DVD rips will play without batting an eye on that spec. SDTV through a capture card would work nicely. It'll struggle with 720p or greater H.264 stuff unless you swapped the graphics card for one that supports ATi's AVAVO or nVidia's PureVideo hardware acceleration.

 

[misterPK]

80GB IDE Motherboard x2

What a big pair of motherboards you have.

PK!