What budget/mid range Core 2 to get

[unseengundam101]

Like mentioned in my earlier post some of my video files are in Xvid format not H.264/official HD format. 8600 GT or a HD 2600 XT doesn't support xvid, it only support H.264 decoding! So video card won't really help there.

I am not really talking about playing back HD-DVD, or Blu-ray. I am just talking about regular video files playback. The things you see in .avi, .mkv, etc extensions.

Another thing I noticed that 8600 GT or a HD 2600 XT require DVD playing software, which I don't use. I just use Media Play Classic to play files. So not sure that would work.

 

[tno]

Thureen,

I got into playing HD movies (I'll leave the legality of their acquisition ambiguous) and found that my PD805 couldn't keep up at all. An E6300 later and there's nary a stutter, and this is a feature film at 1080p with tons of effects, with the chip at stock and 1gig of memory. I think that in terms of price per performance you're spot on with either the e4x00 or the e6750, but also urge you to consider underclocking for that ultra silent htpc. I know that some forum posters turn a little red when people point people to other websites for help but Silent PC Review is awesome for just this sort of challenge.

tno