Are these good specs? (1 Viewer)

[hermy65]

Hello, im planning on building my first HTPC. These are the specs I have, can anyone tell me if they are going to be good or if i need to change something or if you recommend something better.


Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
RAM: 1 GB Ballistix PC-3200
MoBo: Biostar NF325-A7
HD: Seagate 250GB SATA
Capture Card: Hauppauge PVR500
Video Card: ??? (Suggestions Please)
Sound Card: ??? (Suggestions Please)


I dont have a Hi-Def tv at the moment, only have a 32 inch Tube tv. So im looking to for a video card that will work good on that tv.

 

[dm15644]

Looks ok so far. When you decide for the video card make sure that it is a DX9 card. Then it can be low level.

I'm using a Sapphire Radeon 9550 without any issues.

Good luck,

jayrock

 

[hermy65]

Is a sound card something you guys think i need or just use the onboard....if so what do you recommend

 

[daveyboy]

I was using the onboard sound for a long time, but when MediaPortal 0.2.2.0 was released, the SPDIF output no longer worked. Older versions were fine still.

In the end I got a cheap sound card with SPDIF output, and that's working fine. Of course, YMMV.

As for Graphics, I have a Radeon 9550 as well, which I thought would do me fine. Just started to play some HD content, and the system is stuttering on some higher bitrate stuff. Maybe I need some more RAM (tried that once, PC wouldn't POST), maybe a faster processor (Socket A? Not much around any more), but perhaps the 9550 is not up to the job either.

Still, should be fine for non-HD content. Actually, to be fair, it's just one 720p file I have trouble with at the moment. But 1080p is a no-no. Might be worth a certain amount of future-proofing? Something like a 7600GS would play HD stuff as well.

 

[GadgetMan]

Hi there hermy.

I've just recently finished my first HTPC, and just putting some finer touches (specs below)
Windows Version: Windows XP Professional SP2
CPU Type: AMD AM2 Dual Core 4600+
HDD: Western Digital 160gb SATAII, Seagate Barracuda 80gb 7200rpm IDE
Memory: 1gb DDRII 667 Kingston
Motherboard: GA-M55plus-S3G (GB)
Motherboard Chipset: NVS 210s/nForce 430
Video Card: POV nVidia 7600GS
Power Supply: Usicase 400w super silent PSU
Remote: MCE Remote
TV: TEAC EU-3280S 76cm widescreen
TV - HTPC Connection: TVOUT to RCA

My trial HTPC (an old PC) wasn't quite fast enough, but forked out for a new 5200 AGP card.

My new HTPC I got a Point Of View 7600GS, which so far so good. HD plays fine with my AMD Dual Core 4600+ (probably comparable to your single processor 3200+).
Timeshifting is jerky (when on) at times, but when catching up it seems ok.

My motherboard has onboard sound, but I want optical output to my amp to make the most of 6+ channel sound. I'm waiting for my delivery.
Hopefully will work ok.

The picture (just the desktop of XP) is very blurry on my 32" widescreen crt TV. I was hoping it would get better, but only marginally after updated drivers. Playback of TV and DVD is a little blurry/choppy also but I put this down to finding the right codec for me.

 

[petzlux]

I have a Athlon 64 3500 EE, 1 gb of ram which sits in a Asus Pundit . The onboard graphics (Nvidia 6150) is fine with any HD content (720 and 1080), i am using the nvidia purevideo decoder though which seems to offload an awful lot of processing to the graphics card.

 

[Spragleknas]

My recommendation:

Processor: AMD X2, ADO-series (65W)
RAM: 1 GB DDR2 (667/800MHz)
MoBo: AMD 690G-based
HD: (Seagate 250GB SATA) - OK
Capture Card: (Hauppauge PVR500) - OK - do you need dual?
Video Card: Integrated X1250 (= X700)!
Sound Card: Integrated Realtek HD (880/882/883/888)

Cheap, and you con build on it in the future, if needed.

 

[tangmonster]

It's a waste to buy a expensive screencard for beter video playback. A more expensive screencard will make menu eyecandy be faster but video playback is all about cpu , memory , codec's and VERY little graphics card.

Video has got nothing to do with vertex shaders and pixel pipelines and all that 3d graphic stuff.

I have a 2.4Ghz socket 462 celeron with 512mb ram and a barely dx9 capable fx5200.

All compression movies plays fine, dvd's gave jumping problems until I got nvidia pureview codec.

If your browsing is too slow search on the forums on how to create a ramdisk and save database files on there for lightning fast browsing.

If your GUI is slow , use a lower GPU intensive skin like blackmyst.

graphics card = nvidia anything fx5200 and up (mx440 is not dx 9 capable)
ati anything above 9250 although i once had it installed on a system with that card and it seemed to be ok with blackmyst skin.


an ATI 9550 screen card is a underclocked 9600 gpu.

9550 = cpu 250mhz
ram 200mhz

with a simple extra very small fan you can safely put the cpu up to 400 to 450 mhz