Polishing a turd, pt. 2

[ArtcoInc]

Noobie here, so be gentle I've already searched the forum, but haven't found this specific question:

Trying to build a HTPC using a HP DC7100 Evo SFF with a 2.8 GHz P4. I want to use it for watching DVDs & BluRay, and capturing and watching DTV (using a tuner card). It has 2 PCI, 1 PCIe X1, and 1 PCIe X16 *low profile* slots. This is *not* a gaming rig.

The big hangup is the 240 watt PS. With the proprietary PS that fits this case, upgrading the PS doesn't seem to be an option. And cooling is always a concern.

So, I'm looking for a video card that has S-Video, as well as DVI / HDMI outputs, and can handle the BluRay decoding.

Suggestions? Recommendations? Ones to stay away from? I've been looking at the 8400GS, but I think they need more power than the PS can supply.

Thanks!

Malcolm

 

[silent-circuit]

8400GS draws like... 50w if that. It should be fine.

It will of course be useless for anything but standard decoding tasks.

I'd also seriously look at the lower end Radeon offerings.

 

[kioras]

A hd 4350 would probably work good, they run like 35 bucks, and have low profile versions.

example :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102817

a 4550 might have more power for blue ray however, but cost a little more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131132

both ati cards do have 7.1 passthrough too.

 

[ArtcoInc]

a 4550 might have more power for blue ray however, but cost a little more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131132

The specs I see for the 4550 cards state that one need a 270-300 watt PS.

Malcolm

 

[flak-spammer]

This is not going to end well. Blurays are rather highly CPU intensive to play, unless you can get a GPU to do all the work. I'd suggest looking at a cheap dual core it'll make things a lot less messy.

 

[ArtcoInc]

This is not going to end well. Blurays are rather highly CPU intensive to play, unless you can get a GPU to do all the work. I'd suggest looking at a cheap dual core it'll make things a lot less messy.

Thanks

Malcolm

 

[Phrik]

Thanks

Malcolm

And if you do grab a dual core CPU to replace your P4 system, you should make sure the chipset and BIOS supports that CPU.

Here is a low-profile card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162016

 

[CHAoS_NiNJA]

To be honest, this turd isn't worth polishing. You're better off grabbing a cheap AMD CPU and mobo, best part about AMD chipset mobos is the on--board video, HD3200/3300 would do you good, and a lot of them come with HDMI.

 

[ArtcoInc]

And if you do grab a dual core CPU to replace your P4 system, you should make sure the chipset and BIOS supports that CPU.

The motherboard has the 915G chipset, which, as far as I can tell, only supports the Pentium 4 with Hyperthread CPU.

Intel does make faster P4 w/HT CPUs ...

Malcolm

 

[ArtcoInc]

To be honest, this turd isn't worth polishing. You're better off grabbing a cheap AMD CPU and mobo, best part about AMD chipset mobos is the on--board video, HD3200/3300 would do you good, and a lot of them come with HDMI.

Yea, I'm beginning to think so too ....

Thanks

Malcolm

 

[defaultluser]

The motherboard has the 915G chipset, which, as far as I can tell, only supports the Pentium 4 with Hyperthread CPU.

Intel does make faster P4 w/HT CPUs ...

Malcolm

Yes they do, but faster P4 CPUs are also power hogs (100w or more) and won't give you much more horsepower.

You can get a nice 45w AMD x2 like this one, and pair it with a 790 chipset board, and you'll have the perfect platform for cheap. You can probably even reuse the case and powersupply, since your new processor and motherboard COMBINED will use less power than your old P4 processor alone. Just make sure the case will fit whatever board you purchase.

 

[Phrik]

The motherboard has the 915G chipset, which, as far as I can tell, only supports the Pentium 4 with Hyperthread CPU.

Intel does make faster P4 w/HT CPUs ...

Malcolm

I don't think that chipset will even support the Pentium D processors. Probably. I'm not sure, that's a long time ago.

Either ways the computer you have is enough as just simple media playback, probably 720p MKVs may work, DivX, XviD, DVD playbacks of course, and etc. I don't think you can go for any BluRay playback for that system.

 

[Phrik]

To be honest, this turd isn't worth polishing. You're better off grabbing a cheap AMD CPU and mobo, best part about AMD chipset mobos is the on--board video, HD3200/3300 would do you good, and a lot of them come with HDMI.

Yup !! Those 780G mobos will do great without the need for any video cards anymore. My HTPC setup (see sig) is perfectly running what I need it to do. Even using a 4450e is perfect. I have my 4850e underclocked and downvolted to run at 2.0 GHz at 1.0V... saves energy

 

[Rotten_1]

I have a HTPC in a SFF case with a 230w PSU and I'm running an Asus 9500GT 512MB DDR3 card with a old AMD socket 939 micro mobo, AMD X2 3800, 2 gigs DDR 400 and BlueRay DVD player. Every time I turn it on I'm amazed that everything powers up, lol.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121267

The 9500GT only has 32 stream processors but the DDR3 version is clocked at 700mhz core and 2000mhz memory and was the best card I could find at the time that doesn't require additional power from the PSU.

It handles BluRay decoding nicely and plays games like GRID and COD4 at 720p (1366 x 768) better than I expexted. Much better card than a 8400 or 3650 by far.

The only problem is it doesn't have the S-Video you want and it has a huge but very quiet HSF that blocks pci slot. It does have HDMI, DVI, D-SUB ports, I'm using a HDMI cable directly to the TV and the picture quality is excellent.