Htpc

[Smooth_J]

Well, I want use my current HTPC for something else since IMHO its way too over powered for what I am using it for (bluray, dvd, mkv (CoreAVC/AC3), and mov playing - no recording).

Current HTPC specs:

AMD Phenom X4 2.5 GHz BE
MA790GP-DS4H
450 Watt PSU
2 GB RAM
160 GB HD
EVGA GT220 1 GB FTW Edition (HDMI out)

What should I get that should be ok for playing those media types?

Thanks all!

 

[Chapbass]

If you're looking to get an htpc machine, get yourself an atom combo chip/mobo, find a board that has a pci-e card in it, throw 2gb of ram in, put an ATI 5450 pci-e card in, and watch the glory.

Hell, if you have another machine you could pack some storage into, then get a small SSD for your htpc just for an OS (or boot off a flash drive) and just stream all your content over a network.

edit: and if you must have more power than an atom can provide, get yourself a celeron e3200 for a whole 30-40 bucks on ebay, get a small skt 775 board and do that. I just put together a decent running server with that same setup (e3200, gigabyte p43 mb, 2gb ram (needs more), geforce 7200, 1tb hdd).

 

[Smooth_J]

Thanks for the info. My friend gave me his old system that was just laying around. Its a Compaq SR2010NX, and the specs aren't that bad:

Sempron (M) 3400+ 1.8 GHz
250 watt PSU
256 MB RAM (DDR2)
120 GB HD
A8M2N-LA (Naos) Motherboard

Now I pretty much upgraded that system to the following:

Windows 7 Pro (didn't activate yet, just testing)
2 GB RAM
160 GB HD
EVGA GT220 1 GB FTW Edition (HDMI out)
Creative Audigy 2 ZS (from other system - optical out)
-------
Pretty much maxing out the PSU on this one...

Runs pretty "decent" for a bluray, MKV, and AVI movie player, however when it comes to streaming from Netflix (in HD) I get 100% CPU (oh well). Now I can upgrade the CPU to a 3800+ (2.2 GHz), but I am not sure if its worth it.

Any advice?

 

[Chapbass]

What ever happened to that phenom x4??!?



Haven't tried the netflix in HD...i'll check it out tonight.