Old pc powerful enough for a htpc?

saitrix · 29 Nov 2010 at 12:59

Hi,

My brother has an old pc not being used and I am playing around with the idea of a htpc. It is a p4 3.4ghz, with 1gb of ram. Will add a hdd and a bluray drive. Will it cope with blurays with maybe an amd 5450? Not sure how much cpu is needed when using a gfx card for playing videos. I would ideally want to be able to do 1080 mkvs too. Plus I have heard xbmc can act a pvr so i would want it to do that. As you can guess I am trying to make a htpc as cheaply a possible.

Chronictank · 29 Nov 2010 at 13:01

I would add a bit more ram personally but it should be fine if your gfx card is reasonable

bear in mind it takes a loooong time to re-encode videos if you are planning on recording tv (i leave it going overnight)

my htpc has the following specs
P4 3.2Ghz
2.5Gb RAM
Ati 4650 low profile
500Gb HDD

Diddyman · 29 Nov 2010 at 15:50

I have a P4 Northwood clocked to 3.5ghz and it struggles playing 1080p content.

It was just not smoothe and considtant enough.

Ended up upgraqding to AMD x2 5000+ and all good now.

Ps: ATI is great card for Video + Sound over HDMI

jaysus · 29 Nov 2010 at 16:37

Diddyman said:
I have a P4 Northwood clocked to 3.5ghz and it struggles playing 1080p content.

It was just not smoothe and considtant enough.

Ended up upgraqding to AMD x2 5000+ and all good now.

Ps: ATI is great card for Video + Sound over HDMI

I've just opted for the same thing - my thread may be of some use:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18208928

I think I heard mention that if you're looking to run linux then a nvidia card may be better, but given the ease of connection etc for a cheap ATI card (£25 ish delivered for a 4350) thats the route I'm planning to take:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-243-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

saitrix · 29 Nov 2010 at 18:55

So am I correct in saying that with a decent graphics card then it removes the need for a faster cpu. Though thinking about it, once you factor in the cost of a graphics card I could always get a faster 775 cpu...

jaysus · 29 Nov 2010 at 19:02

saitrix said:
So am I correct in saying that with a decent graphics card then it removes the need for a faster cpu. Though thinking about it, once you factor in the cost of a graphics card I could always get a faster 775 cpu...

My (limited) understanding is that for 1080i content you need a reasonable CPU. AMD X2 5000 was what was suggested to me as a minimum to avoid stuttering.

The GPU is less important, what you need is one that will have the right sort of connectors i.e HDMI out as DVI doesn't carry sound. The ATI HD ones seem to all have HDMI out and are apparently pretty capable.

If I've understood what I've been told correctly.

For what it's worth, a micro ATX mobo and a more powerful CPU cost me £50 through MM. GPU will be £25, maybe less if you have a hunt around for a second hand one. If you've already got RAM then the only expense on top of that really is the case (assuming you're going for an HTPC case.)

Diddyman · 29 Nov 2010 at 19:12

Nope a decent Gfx cards does not always remove the need for CPU.

I know that there are some codecs that can off load processing to CUDA enabled nVidia cards, however, my experience with a 9800GTX was not good, as the cards fan was pretty noise.

ATI may provide some excelleration via gfx card, but this is not when playing back video files such as mkv or AVI or mpg etc, its more releted to playing back a blueray disk, as I understand it.

Diddy

saitrix · 29 Nov 2010 at 19:16

Hdmi isn't important to me as I will be connecting via vga to my tv. Hmm will have to have a bit of a think here. Costs are quickly mounting due to not being able to use the old pc cpu + motherboard.

Edit - How does the atom ion do it with a low powered cpu and a not that quick gpu?