HTPC from legacy parts

[DarkTXKnight]

Im building some proof of concept htpc systems for the house and befire I plunk down a lot of money, I thought I would look towards my workbench and see what I can piece together . I was wondering what type of media the following equipment could run and if I might be able to get away with some simple upgrades ( video) as opposed to whole hog new systems .

AMD Athlon 3800+ X2 939 systems each with 2 GB DDR , 500GB HDD, PCIe DFI Lanparty boards mounted in Antec mini tower cases

From doing some reading Im thinking I could actualy get some decent 1080 playback provided I switched out the video cards to something like an ATI 4xxx series pcie card, is this correct? What else am I really missing?

I intend to only use these for media and light gaming and connect them to a WHS machine holding the mymovies collection system

 

[kalrith]

I think you'll be fine with that system. It's similar to mine. Mine's a socket AM2 with 4GB DDR2 (2GB should be fine) and a 4550 video card. The main performance advantage of mine over yours is that my BE-2300 processor is overclocked to 2.5 GHz. It's a brisbane cpu, so its performance is similar to this 4800+.

Your CPU might handle it at stock speeds, but it would be better if you could overclock it some. My 4550 does great with video playback. I had a 9500GT before that, and it also worked well.

I'm not sure what you mean by "light gaming," but be forewarned that the low-end HTPC-focused cards suck at gaming. You might be better served by a 4670 if you want to play more-intensive games than Plants vs. Zombies.

 

[Ika]

You might consider getting one of those low-profile 9800GTs, they're supposed to draw less power and run cooler, for HTPC use.

 

[Zaap]

Before upgrading it, I had a similar setup as an HTPC: 3800+ X2 2GB DDR (400), socket 939 (Gigabyte).

Using a nVidia 8600GT(256MB), 1080p playback was perfect. Keep in mind, socket 939/DDR is not on par with AM2 and DDR2, but it's still good enough for 1080p.

Of course, the better the graphics card, the better. A 9800GT, GT 240, or comparable ATI would be great.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

good advice, so whats the cheapest video card option? These are going to be secondary htpcs for the den and kid's room. While the gaming would be good, its realy not a necessaity as these are probably going to end up doing media and music all of the time. I have another maint htp ( AM2 platform 5200X2\4GB DDR2 etc.) that will be a media and gaming machine .

 

[kalrith]

I bought this 4550 when it was $20 after rebate. It's been working really well for me.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

how does this card compare?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3332167&SID=

 

[kalrith]

The 4650 should perform better than the 4550, but I remember reading about some problems that plagued certain 4650 cards. It might be safer to jump up to the 4670, but then you're getting into 5570 territory, which is the best HTPC card out there.