Vista Media Center - CPU/Motherboard question

martinturner

martinturner

martinturner

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I am planning on upgrading my old Vista Media center so it is capable of playing both .mkv files and also would like to install a blu-ray player. I have got my eye on the below and want to know if it will be powerful enough to do what I want. I dont want it to struggle, but I dont want to go overkill. I am not planning on playing games whatsoever. Will the onboard graphics of the motherboard be enough?

Thanks

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-190-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793

Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD ATI Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-125-AB&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=326
 
You're right on the limit with that processor IMO. The board is good but has had some issues with BR drives (Pioneer is one) and Abit had to release a BIOS fix which you will have to upgrade yourself unless the stock at OcUK is later than the revision date.

With that board and processor, you may get some stutter on playback of full HD.

A better all round, cheaper and slightly more feature rich board is the Gigabyte
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-098-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=

Also, the Pioneer BDC-202BK is an excellent player at a good price.
 
Many Thanks for that, and cheaper is always appreciated. Can I just confirm though, is the onboard graphics enough to play .mkv and use a blu ray reader to play hi-def content? I will be running Vista Media Center. Lastly, which CPU would be a better choice?

Many Thanks
 
Yes, the onboard GFx can handle it as long as the ram and CPU are up to par. At least 2GB and a E4500 or E650 if you can stretch that far.

The Gigabyte (OcUK is not the cheapest here, by quite a margin, but thats all I'm saying), can output to HDMI or DVI and VGA at the same time which is a nice touch.

Don't get too hung up on the onboard GFX though, a simple £30 budget gets you either of these which will play any HD content you throw at it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=939

Pros and cons:- Nice large memory on the one, but it has a fan so may make a noise intrusive to a media centre application. Other has silent heatpipe but not as much memory (still more than enough for HD content though).

If you plan on sticking 4GB in (even at a later date), look to Vista HP 64bit.
 
mkv/hd content is more down to codec in my experience (well plus a decent dual core) - coreavc and the one in klite seems to be the best ones in my opinion.

My opty 175 (stock 2.2 s939 variant) with 4GB ram and onboard 6150 can handle 1080 content although it is at the high end (usually 70-90%) and from my hard drive (not gone br yet). The main issue for me is that its not via media center as theres no decent 64bit (my os is 64bit) codecs so everything is running via emulation etc.

You shouldn't have any issues with vista 32bit from what I've seen.

I would say that what you've listed is fine however I would also suggest getting one of the low end graphics cards with dedicated hardware and software which can use it :)
 
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