Can I savage/ turn my current computer into a HTPC?

A

Allos

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
472
Hi,

I would like to know if following components from my current computer are suitable to be 'savaged' into a HTPC (and give me a reason to ask permission from my wife to build another PC :p ):

Athlon XP 2500+
Chaintech 7NJL3/4
1 Gb RAM
Inno3D FX5600
80 Gb Harddisk

Some rubbish case & fan... and a noisier-than-jet-engine CoolerMaster CPU heatsink which I forgot the model number.

1) What components should I change/ add?

2) I am thinking to use that mainly as a DVD center. If I add a capture card, will I be able to record TV programs using the computer? Is it possible to have something like a timer function?

3) The TV I have now is a Philips plasma that can only do 1024 x 768. Will playing DVD via TheaterTek with FFDShow have some significantly increase in quality than a regular DVD player?

4) I am not planning to OC (don't think OC'ing is necessary for HTPC). Which cool & quiet CPU fan should I get?

I would like to keep $ at minimal but am willing to spend if there is a need to change. Hopefully something less than US$500.

Thanks in advance.
 
1.) CPU is fine. not familiar with that Mobo, but chaintech is good. 1 gb of ram is mroe than enough. 512 is the stadanrd these days. fx5600 is ok, but I might consider an upgrade there. 6600 would be good. 80gb is not much room. that will need to be expanded in the future.


2.) add a hauppauge PVR-150 and sageTV and you can record whatever, whenever. add more tuners later to allow multicahnnel recording.

3.) with the right equipment, yes.

4.) heatsink, I liek the zalman coolers, and the xp90 is good too when mathced up with a quiet fan.
 
upgrade your hd to something larger if you plan to to timeshifting or PVR functions. Also, the fx5600 you have should be plenty fine even for high definition output using VMR9. I use a 9600xt w/VGA to RGBHV and run everything at 1920x1080i with it, never had a stuttering problem or any picture anomolies. I'd try it first and see how things go. If it has problems then consider an upgrade.

If you want to record tv and watch at the same time (like a tivo), then you'll need two tuner cards like two pvr150's or a single pvr500. Same with HDTV.


as for your ffdshow question...my answer would be an astounding yes. I have a 3.0c P4 w/1gb ram and upscale everything to 1920x1080i. I use sharpening, and resize lanzcos 3 w/luma & chroma sharpening. It depends on the quality of the source media also. Some things don't look much better, others (a couple good examples are Finding Nemo, and The Day After Tomorrow) are just awsome. As far as only being upscaled to 1024x768 from 720x480...I guess you'd have to mess around with that and see for yourself. A lot of picture quality is subjective. What might look good to me might not look so great to someone else.

I agree on the cpu coolers though...get a zalman or an XP series (90 works great and it cheap enough)

I have this
case and love it. plenty of room inside and nice layout/features/quality. of course, if a $200 case isn't in your budget...check this one out. $100 cheaper, and still looks decent.
 
I found out that my TV has HDMI input which can be hooked up to the computer via DVI (yeah, I just learned that ;) ) and tried that setup. I was surprised to find the image from my computer is that much better than the DVD, considering that my DVD player is good (at least 4 years ago that cost about $1000).

Thanks guys! And now I need to find out how to make my computer quiet!!!!

Also, can you tell me how to get 5.1 audio?

Thanks again :)
 
you can get 5.1 audio via a couple methods. Some soundcards that are built onto the motherboards are able to output 5.1 audio via the mic, front, and rear audio jacks. You can run these to the individual line-in's on a decent quality receiver (most of decent quality have individual line in's for each speaker for a 5.1input).

OR, if your board has coaxial or optical (TOSlink) SPIDF, you can just use that. I use the TOSLink spidf connector and it goes to a Sony ES reciever where it decodes the audio signal to DTS, 5.1 AC3, or whatever other format that gets passed.

I believe chaintech makes a card with optical out that's around $25. you don't need ultra high quality DACS if you're just sending the audio stream out an optical cable since it just acts as a pass-thru.
 
Thanks nst6563~!

I am using Yamaha RX-V2300 receiver. I am hoping to send audio signal to amplifier via optical. So cheap audio card with SPIDF will do the job? No need to get, say, SB Audigy ZS? Thanks in advance.
 
nope. The audigy will net you nothing in an HTPC if you're just passing the signal over an optical or coaxial link. I use the onboard Realtek chip on my Abit AI7 to output to my Sony via optical. The sony then automatically detects what type of signal it's getting over that optical cable.
 
n/p

If you're looking for a decent frontend, give Media Portal a shot. It's free, and is constantly under development. I tried a few frontends and found I liked MP the best for everything.

here's a couple shots of mine in action:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/nst6563/PICT5369.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/nst6563/PICT5394.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/nst6563/PICT5367.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/nst6563/PICT5376.jpg

:EDIT: damn photobucket...is there a free image hosting site that allows for larger sizes of pictures?? 512xwhatever is rediculously small this day in age...
 
lol
thanks, my wife actually picked that one out. She called me at work one day and said "hey, PCAlchemy has a sale on the htpc cases and this one looks cool"...and it just snowballed from there :p

I wasn't real fond of sinkin' $200 into just a case...but hey...it looks nice tho. I was originally going with the Antec Overture for half the price.
 
Spent $30 for new cpu fan & a cheap sound card with SPIDF output. Connected computer to TV and VERY satisfied with result. Didn't know image can be this good :)

Thanks again for all advices given. Best community!
 
possible thread jack alert!

Can you dual boot a HTPC OS (like Myth) and an OS (say XP or Linux)?
 
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