8800gt to asus 4670?

[jeffw2767602]

Hey guys, back in August of last year I built a gaming pc with the following specs

q6600 g0 @ 3.2ghz 8x400 at stock volts
gigabyte p35-dq6
gskill 2x2gb pc8000 ddr2 ram
evga 8800gt stock
thermalright ultra 120 extreme
pc power and cooling 750 psu
seagate 500gb

Anyways, I didn't end up gaming on the pc much and now that school has started this thing is offically an HTPC hooked up to my 40 inch samsung 1080p. I feel like much of my computer power is being wasted and was thinking about making a downgrade from my 8800gt to a 4670 w/ hdmi out so that the audio from my computer can come out of my tv speakers. The first thing i need to know is if that is the way it works and if it would be worth it to sell my 8800gt. I am mainly concerned about the audio over HDMI.

Second of all, since all I will being doing on this computer is surfing the internet, using ms office, and watching movies/tv shows, should I sell my q6600 and get an e5200, sell my thermalright ultra 120 ex, and maybe even downgrade my psu in exchange for a larger hard drive and/or maxing out my ram? By my estimation I could probably get $150 for the q6600 and the e5200 would be $85 so thats +$65. I could get
$100 out of my psu and get the corsair 450 watt at $55 so thats $45 more to work with. My truex120 is lapped so i figure i could get $45 out of it as well. so thats +$165 right there for ram/hd.


I would like the computer to be usable for surfing/watching hd content for probably 3 or so years so i dont want to downgrade all that stuff if i will likely see a NOTICEABLE performance hit. To the best of my understanding, maxing out the RAM at 8gb should probably keep a setup like that going for quite some time. Again this will no longer be a gaming pc, the most i am going to ask of this machine is to occaisionally rip a dvd and i dont care how long that takes. Thanks for your time and opinions! Have a great day!

 

[Denithor]

Well, the cpu/tru/ps probably make sense to downgrade specifically for htpc use versus what you've got now. However, the video card you will probably make just enough to cover the cost of the new card, I just don't really see the advantage there.

It sounds like you might be better off just selling the whole current rig as a gaming system and then building a low power htpc with new components (could even go with a 780G motherboard & 4850e cpu for a very low power setup with no separate video card needed).

 

[jeffw2767602]

The only reason I am downgrading the video card is for the audio over hdmi. And in regards to selling the whole system off, I could probably only sell the system for around $600 or so, and after adding vista prem, ram, hd, psu, and a case to the 4850e + 780g setup its around $450 and i would have a lower quality motherboard case, and video card, not to mention the onboard video would hog some of my system memory. It just doesnt seem cost efficient to sell off the whole system. Not a bad idea though. Thanks for the input!

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Your 8800GT doesn't have SPDIF-in headers? If it does, then you can pass your motherboard's audio to it. Otherwise the HD4670, or even the HD4550, would be good choices for a simple solution.

I think you should probably keep the Q6600. You could sell your heatsink and downclock the processor, if you wish. A quad core might come in handy if you plan to keep this rig for 3 years, especially if you really want to turn it into an HTPC by recording/editing movies.

Unless you plan to upgrade this rig in the future, sell the power supply. Your current system is not in its optimal efficiency range. A system with an HD4670 and Q6600 would really work best with a high-efficient 350-400W power supply. Take a look at this article: http://www.anandtech.com/casec...howdoc.aspx?i=3413&p=5
Your system, with a Q6600 and HD4670, would use up to 200W under load and probably 100W at idle by my estimation. You could reduce power consumpter by reducing the clockspeed of your Q6600 to stock and trying to undervolt it. Anyway, the most efficient PSU for you would be the Thermaltake TR2 300W, but a Corsair 450W would work well too.

 

[LW07]

I'd just keep all you got now and just get a 4850.