I was given an old HP a1230n desktop and was thinking about turning it in to an HTPC. It has an AMD 64 3700 socket 939 (the proprietary motherboard can take up to an X2 4800). I have 4GBs of RAM I can out into it as well. The IGP is obviously too old but it has a PCI-E slot. What would I need to do with this to have it stream Amazon HD movies and Hulu? I'd like to spend as little as possible. Pricing out items on eBay I could get an X2 4800 and Radeon 2400 XT pretty cheap. Would this be enough for HD streaming?
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Upgrading Old Computer for Streaming
- Thread starter RoGuE1230
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Dangman
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How much for the X2 4800?
As for the video card, that 2400XT is not that good for current day streaming. At a minimum, you're looking at the HD 5450 or HD 6450 which are around $30 or so. However, there's a possibility that you might face a compatibility issue since some of the 939 motherboards had issues with PCI-E 2.0/2.1 video cards.
As for the video card, that 2400XT is not that good for current day streaming. At a minimum, you're looking at the HD 5450 or HD 6450 which are around $30 or so. However, there's a possibility that you might face a compatibility issue since some of the 939 motherboards had issues with PCI-E 2.0/2.1 video cards.