Yet Another Rate My HTPC

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djnes

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Mar 24, 2000
Messages
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I'm new to the HTPC game, so give me some opinions. I have MCE 2005 already, legal copy, so that's what I'll be using. Here are the specs.

Shuttle SB51GB
P4 2.4 GHz @ 533 Mhz
512 MB DDR333
Nvidia GeforceFX5200 (not sure what brand yet)
Hauppage PVR-150MCE
WD 250 GB 8 MB
LiteOn 8x Burner.

The plan is to have it sit in my kitchen for viewing TV, listening to music, and recording shows. Is the hardware sufficient / compatible? I believe it is, based on my searching, but I just wanted another opinion.

Also, is it possible to use just about any video card? I've read conflicting reports. I'd prefer to use my Geforce4 MX440 instead of having to buy something new.
 
Looks good.

What type of output do you need on your video card? If it's just S-Video I wouldn't bother buying anything new.
 
For now I'll actually just be using a 15" HP LCD monitor, so I guess any video card would be fine, right?
 
yeah, if you're not doing any gaming or cad stuff (aka, just htpc) then an mx4anything = fine. I'd say try using that and if you notice any slowdown due to graphics, only then think of upgrading (and not to very much more than you have)
 
A GeForce 5200 should be fine. The main thing is it supports DirectX 9.0, which some HTPC programs require for their interface. Besides, a 5200 is only around $50 nowadays and you can get them fanless and with DVI and S-Video output, so it should meet all the video needs for a single-screen HTPC.
 
For best image quality I'd pick the 5200 over the GF4 MX and get NV's MPEG2 codec ($20 from their site) and use VMR9 to render the video. Everything else looks great for something like that.

Also if you want to "gut" the Shuttle and move everything into a smaller case (it is going to be in the kitchen right? a smaller case could probably be mounted under a cabinet) you might want to get a WinTV-PVR-150MCE l.p.instead.

A while back Hauppauge had a low profile 250MCE that was coded named "Baldwin" and was meant to be used stricky with OEMs. They had plans to sale as a regular OEM product like the regular 250MCE but nothing happened. This one is called the "Baldwin2" and uses the parts of the 150 instead. Functionally nothing is different between this and a regular 150 card.
 
Will a 5200 handle VM9 ok? I was under the impression it did not have enough juice to do VM9 very well.
 
With an SDTV it should work fine although I'd probably say that it'll work with a 128-bit 5200 fine.
 
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