1st HTPC questions

[Headpunter]

i was looking at the stickies in this forum and at missing remote and i decided to ask some questions

i have an athlon 3200+ with 2gb ddr2 400 and a PCIEx capable motherboard. i dont need it to run tv tuners or anything like that, but i was thinking to use it to watch divx's on my tv and as a file server. Cpu wise and ram wise would this be too slow for watching divx's or dvds at 780p?

also is there any way to get sound through HDMI now? if so what video card should i be looking at. i would prefer soemthing cheap if possible

 

[Mohonri]

Horsepower--it depends on the source material. For standard-definition DVDs and such, you've got about eight times as much CPU and RAM as you need. The fact that you are/will be outputting to a 720p display won't change that. You won't run into higher CPU requirements until you're watching true HD content (which DVDs are not).

The ATi HD3xx0 video cards support audio over HDMI. You can pick up a passively-cooled (read:silent) version for $50 at newegg. Incidentally, that will also probably give you enough hardware acceleration to do full 1080p (BluRay) playback if/when you want to do that.

 

[Headpunter]

ok thanks alot