Idea for HTPC

[Gamingphreek]

My father and i are toying with different ideas for an HTPC. I came across this which is silent, and very cool running. However it leads me to 2 questions.

Link

1. Will this processor have enough power for an HTPC?
2. Will the onboard video work well enough along with a Happauge PVR-150. Im not sure if it has hardware overlays and what not?

-Kevin

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
My father and i are toying with different ideas for an HTPC. I came across this which is silent, and very cool running. However it leads me to 2 questions.

Link

1. Will this processor have enough power for an HTPC?
2. Will the onboard video work well enough along with a Happauge PVR-150. Im not sure if it has hardware overlays and what not?

-Kevin

The processor is a VIA C3 1.0Ghz, and the video is:

Integrated VIA CastleRock AGP graphics with MPEG-2 decoder

(note: it helps to list the pertinent info in your post, instead of making people dig through the provided links)

The processor should be OK for an HTPC with hardware encoding. I don't know if you'd be able to play back HD WMV videos, but DVD-quality MPEG2 or MPEG4 should be doable. You certainly won't be doing much in the way of software encoding, or doing anything fancy with ffdshow/dscaler, etc.

I don't know about the onboard video, but if it supports MPEG2 decoding, it probably does hardware overlay, etc. I'm sure it would be functional for watching video.

 

[Gamingphreek]

SOrry i should have provided that.

Well we are not doing hardcore video editing. My dad wants to record TV Shows, sports games at a nice quality. We are also toying with the idea of moving our entire CD Library on to the HDD.

What im more comparing this to is: Will it work as well as a P4 1.6 with a Radeon 9600SE. We dont want to trade performance off too much for quiet.

-Kevin