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New cheap ($50) card for htpc

N

nyfirefly11

Senior member
I'm turning my old rig into an htpc.

Here are the basic specs:
P4 550 (3.4ghz @ 800fsb)
Asus p4ad2 premium
2 GB ddr2-600
ATI x700

I'm thinking about upgrading the gpu for use with my older 37" panny plasma (108i), for basic video playback/streaming.

Here are 3 on newegg that seem good and reasonable:

gigabyte 9500 ($35 AR): http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814125257

Sapphire 4650 ($50 AR): http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102805

Sapphire 4550 ($50): http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102819

The 4550 is passively cooled, which is nice, but the price on the 9500 is pretty awesome. I'll prob use this briefly in the old rig before I upgrade to a 285 in a few months.

Any thoughts? Or are they basically comparable? Thx!
 
might want to upgrade that 108i display, what is that, 54p? Not very high res 😉

All kidding aside, if you have no intention of gaming, that 4550 with a fanless setup is probably the best move for a HTPC application. No fan to fuss about, which the cheap video cards with cheap fans can cake up and die early.
 
Out of those options, i'd go with the Sapphire 4650. It's much faster in gaming than the 9500GT and i believe consumes less power.

That heatsink on the 4550 looks so dinky and small. It probably gets pretty warm.

Vote for 4650 :thumbsup:
 
Originally posted by: nyfirefly11
I'm turning my old rig into an htpc.

Here are the basic specs:
P4 550 (3.4ghz @ 800fsb)
Asus p4ad2 premium
2 GB ddr2-600
ATI x700

I'm thinking about upgrading the gpu for use with my older 37" panny plasma (108i), for basic video playback/streaming.

Here are 3 on newegg that seem good and reasonable:

gigabyte 9500 ($35 AR): http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814125257

Sapphire 4650 ($50 AR): http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102805

Sapphire 4550 ($50): http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102819

The 4550 is passively cooled, which is nice, but the price on the 9500 is pretty awesome. I'll prob use this briefly in the old rig before I upgrade to a 285 in a few months.

Any thoughts? Or are they basically comparable? Thx!
Click to expand...

I have the 4550 in my Dell GX280 - only 25W and perfectly fine for my purposes. It even plays Pacific Fighters at 1600x1200 with "perfect water". I needed a low-profile card and could not be happier. BluRay and HD video works without a hiccup. I went the asus offering, but this looks fine.
 
Originally posted by: daveybrat
Out of those options, i'd go with the Sapphire 4650. It's much faster in gaming than the 9500GT and i believe consumes less power.

That heatsink on the 4550 looks so dinky and small. It probably gets pretty warm.

Vote for 4650 :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I'd agree, but the OP doesn't want to game, just videos, so the extra power needed and the time to get the rebate back would both be somewhat in vain.
 
thx everyone! Arkaign - agreed, at some point I need to upgrade the panny 🙂

no gaming on this rig, just netflix streaming, recording tv - the basics.
 
sorry, posted that before I saw the other one 🙂

this may be a silly question, but can you tell me in simple terms what PCM does?

sounds like I'll be going for 4350/4550.
 
Originally posted by: nyfirefly11
thx everyone! Arkaign - agreed, at some point I need to upgrade the panny 🙂

no gaming on this rig, just netflix streaming, recording tv - the basics.
Click to expand...

I was just joshing you on your typo. You put 108i instead of 1080i 🙂 Which would imply something like a 220x108 screen resolution instead of 1920x1080 😉

1080i is just fine.
 
Originally posted by: nyfirefly11
sorry, posted that before I saw the other one 🙂

this may be a silly question, but can you tell me in simple terms what PCM does?

sounds like I'll be going for 4350/4550.
Click to expand...
PCM = uncompressed, CD-style sound

4xxx cards can do PCM over all 8 surround channels in HDMI. Previous ATI cards (and all Nvidia cards, though not all Nvidia mobos) just route SPDIF-style sound to the HDMI connection. This limits you to either 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS (both lossy) or 2-channel PCM.

You may not have a surround setup yet, but for a few bucks keeping the option makes sense.
 
I have a 5.1 setup with a good receiver (I'm pretty sure it has digital, pro logic and dts). That said, I'm planning on putting a sound card in this thing (either my old audigy 2zs or a new ht omega striker), so I could just route sound straight from that to my receiver via spdif, no?
 
You could, but SPDIF will only give you lossy surround. If you get the Striker, use the analog connections for full resolution (particularly noticable on Blu-Ray). Edit: oh, the Audigy has analog too, so same applies there.

From here on out, HDMI audio (lossless digital surround) is king. The days of discrete soundcards may be numbered, unless they work like the Asus Xonar.

Edit: obviously, you need an HDMI-enabled receiver for this, but we're a year or two away from every new surround receiver accepting HDMI audio.
 
ah, that makes sense...didn't realize spdif was lossy. With the striker, which analog connectors are you talking about? (or is the basic Xonar better?)

The other problem is that my receiver doesn't have hdmi support - only component video/digital audio. I can run hdmi directly into my tv, and then send it back to the receiver using spdif, but that's the best I can do if I want full 5.1.
 
Both the cards you mentioned output 7.1 analog (see all those jacks?) as well as SPDIF. Your receiver almost certainly has surround analog inputs (as "DVD" or "multi channel" or something like that), so you should be able to run HDMI to the TV and 6 analog connectors to the receiver, both from the computer. Note that most receivers do NOT apply their speaker level/crossover processing to this signal, so you have to take care of that on the soundcard driver.

Of course, you won't notice unless you play back a lossless surround source -- Blu-Ray being the most common.
 
Originally posted by: nyfirefly11
got it, with you now. thx! if I'm not using blu ray, but just standard dvds, then I wouldn't notice?
Click to expand...
DVDs don't have room for lossless surround tracks anyway, so no.
 
cool, so if I just used spdif, and didn't need pcm, i guess I could get the 3450. but maybe I'll get the 4350 just in case I get bluray and new receiver w/hdmi later...

thx!
 
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