Upgrade to run 1080p (1 Viewer)

[Diaz]

I built a budget htpc about a year ago and it runs 720p x264 files with no problem (though cpu usage is very high).

The cpu is a good old AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (boxed) and gfx-card integrated to the mainboard.

I was wondering what the easiest solution would be to upgrade it so support 1080p x264-videos.. How fast a cpu is needed or are there any gfx cards that would do the job with the current cpu?

Heat and noise are again important factors

 

[kszabo]

you need full h264 acceleration from the GPU, your CPU will not manage it alone.

So buy a newer ATi or nVidia Graphics Card with HD support: e.g. ATi HD3450 (cheap, passively cooled, power consumption ca. 15 Watt) and use it with the newest Cyberlink PowerDVD h264 codec with Hardware acceleration. Vista will work better than XP. You don´t need bigger CPU then.

 

[Zappza]

Sometimes you may require to use your CPU to decode the x264 streams, as not all rippers on the intarweb is using the required settings for it to be decoded by the h264 hw decoder, as I understood it.

 

[daveyboy]

I just upgraded to an Intel E2160 CPU with an ATI HD3450 GFX card - probably the cheapest components I could find, and I have been able to play 1080p content just fine!

Entry-level computing really is amazing these days...