Converting Old PC Into HTPC

S

StangMan04

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 9, 2006
Messages
234
I have an older computer I built and don't use anymore. I wanted to convert this into a HTPC. I have already installed Windows 7 Ultimate. I am probably going to use Windows Media Center. I plan to get a blu-ray rom later on. And I have a friend who has a spare tv tuner card.

Parts:
Case: Centurion 5
Hard drive- WD Raptor 36GB (OS)
Hard drive- WD Caviar Black 2TB
PSU- OCZ GameXStream 700w (probably overkill)
CPU- E6400
Memory- G.SKILL 2GB DDR2
GPU- 7900GTX (need to replace)
Motherboard- ASUS PB5 Deluxe/wifi LGA 775

Will I be fine with this and just replacing my video card with HDMI output? I prefer to play over HDMI. And what video card would you guys recommend that isn't very expensive and handle blu-ray content?
 
just curious - why is it being suggested to upgrade the video card? Is the 7900GTX not good enough for a particular HTPC task?
 
HTPC's dont really need horsepower. An older P4 or athlon will do just fine. All you need is a video card that does HD decoding on the hardware. Look at my old junk box (in sig) it does perfectly fine, heh.
 
I had a 74 gb raptor, not sure if there is a sound difference, but it made way too much noise for my liking while watching a movie. Just a thought. I had the raptor as my OS drive and an external running the movie and it was still grinding away.
 
squeakyl said:
just curious - why is it being suggested to upgrade the video card? Is the 7900GTX not good enough for a particular HTPC task?
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Reason I want to replace the 7900GTX is that it has no HDMI output and my 7900GTX is artifacting. I have been on the lookout for a Radeon HD 5550 but haven't seen any deals yet for the card. I hate to buy one and then a deal shows up.
 
squeakyl said:
just curious - why is it being suggested to upgrade the video card? Is the 7900GTX not good enough for a particular HTPC task?
Click to expand...

A 7900GTX or any other older high end card is god awful for HTPC tasks.
 
Godmachine said:
Agreed. Even a newer low end card would be quite a jump forward for HTPC use. I mean some are as little as 50-60 bucks and do a fantastic job.
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Shit. A 5450 would be better for an HTPC due to it's support for bitstreamed audio, HDMI audio it's self, cooler running, less power hungry and full hardware acceleration support (the 7000 series only does partial).
 
Another question, if I wanted to downgrade my power supply sometime, how far could I go down?
 
gt 430 will work fine too if you need an nvidia card for some reason.

but a 5450 is fine too, and really cheap.
 
Sorry to hijack, but related question - The PC I'm u sing can do all video fine except for 1080P MKVs.
It has a P4 3.2C and an ATI X800XT

Unfortunately I'm stuck with an AGP card slot and the highest I can find is an HD 4670. I saw Canna has a similar setup, so would a 4670 or 4650 be enough to play 1080P h264 video?

thanks
 
squeakyl said:
Unfortunately I'm stuck with an AGP card slot and the highest I can find is an HD 4670. I saw Canna has a similar setup, so would a 4670 or 4650 be enough to play 1080P h264 video?
Click to expand...

Yes.

I used to have a 4350 in my HTPC and it did hardware decoding of 1080p content just fine. Just so you know, they will not bitstream the lossless audio codecs.
 
squeakyl said:
Unfortunately I'm stuck with an AGP card slot and the highest I can find is an HD 4670. I saw Canna has a similar setup, so would a 4670 or 4650 be enough to play 1080P h264 video?
Click to expand...

IIRC, the hardware acceleration of HD content feature of both the HD 3xxx and HD 4xxx cards was broken with the AGP versions of those cards. In other words, it would be no better than your current X800XT for HTPC usage.
 
Danny Bui said:
IIRC, the hardware acceleration of HD content feature of both the HD 3xxx and HD 4xxx cards was broken with the AGP versions of those cards. In other words, it would be no better than your current X800XT for HTPC usage.
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Oh crap, I forgot about that. I recall hearing the same thing. It sounds like it's time to upgrade.
 
I have an old P4 3Ghz, luckily I have a PCIe slot. It will only do 1080p stutterfree with my ATI 4350 installed. With a 8800gts 320mb installed, it would stutter.
 
efayscue said:
I have an old P4 3Ghz, luckily I have a PCIe slot. It will only do 1080p stutterfree with my ATI 4350 installed. With a 8800gts 320mb installed, it would stutter.
Click to expand...

Yeah not surprising considering that the 8800GTS 320MB didn't come with the chip that would offload the decoding of the HD content.
 
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