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[Particle Physicist]

I want to build a media PC that can handle 1080p without a hitch, and possibly record shows on tv. I have heard that Hauppauge make the best tuners, but I really don't know which one to get.


I have an older PC with these specs:

Graphics Card: gigabyte geforce 6600gt PCI-express
Motherboard: Epox 9NPA nforce 4
CPU: Athlon 64 3000+
RAM: 1GB (two 512MB DDR sticks)

And a behemoth Soprano case.


Definitely would like to get a smaller case, but would it be possible to reuse any of those parts?

I'm not really sure how much I should be spending either. What is a decent price?

 

[Pringo]

I have an Athalon 64 X2 3800+ and it struggles with 1080p so I don't think your processor will be up to the job. Mine's only 2.0 GHz, and I've read that around 2.2 is lowest speed that'll play back 1080p smoothly. I think the graphics card will be useless too unless you can use hardware acceleration with it. I use CUDA with my card but I think only more recent cards support it. I think more or less you'll need to buy a brand new system.

 

[Agent Ghost]

You could reuse all of that with just another case. That's actually overkill if all you want to do is play media files. However I wouldn't want to build a Media PC with an ATX motherboard its just too big, especially if its going in the living room.

Honestly this won't be as fun as building your own but you can just buy something like this if you want a dedicated media machine.


http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=40737&vpn=ION 330&manufacture=ASRock

 

[Particle Physicist]

You could reuse all of that with just another case. That's actually overkill if all you want to do is play media files. However I wouldn't want to build a Media PC with an ATX motherboard its just too big, especially if its going in the living room.

As is, it definitely struggles with 1080p. This is actually going to be in my bedroom, so the case really isn't that big of a deal.

Honestly this won't be as fun as building your own but you can just buy something like this if you want a dedicated media machine.


http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=40737&vpn=ION 330&manufacture=ASRock

hmm... not bad. the only issue is that i need to have a wireless card in there in order to connect to my network from my room.

..

 

[C.Dark.DN]

As is, it definitely struggles with 1080p. This is actually going to be in my bedroom, so the case really isn't that big of a deal.







hmm... not bad. the only issue is that i need to have a wireless card in there in order to connect to my network from my room.

..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320025

I got one of these and like it. In repeater mode it repeats your wireless signal and devices can connect to it. There's a free Ethernet port on it and it can be used as a bridge in repeater mode turning a wired devices into wireless.

 

[Shogmaster]

ATi's UVD or nVidia's Pure Video GPU full assist decoding is your answer. There are laptop w weak CPUs that do 1080p no problem thanks to these GPUs.

If you are building one, I would build with either 9300/9400 series nVidia cards or HD4330 Ati cards. This way you can keep the power consumption of the rigs under control (so you can use them all day without jacking up your bills) and still get full 1080p without slowdowns or hitches. This does require software that are capable of using these abilities (Power DVD 9 IIRC).

I have an older PC with these specs:

Graphics Card: gigabyte geforce 6600gt PCI-express
Motherboard: Epox 9NPA nforce 4
CPU: Athlon 64 3000+
RAM: 1GB (two 512MB DDR sticks)

And a behemoth Soprano case.


Definitely would like to get a smaller case, but would it be possible to reuse any of those parts?

If you replace the 6600GT with nVidia 9300 or 9400, you can play 1080p on your PC.

 

[surazal]

If you want to reuse components, then get a fanless graphics card that supports h264 decoding. Any of these from Newegg should work. Your motherboard is ATX so there is a limit to how small a case you can find.

Follow this guide on how to enable Media Player Classic Homecinema with hardware decoding.
http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/

 

[C.Dark.DN]

This reminds me about my pc.

1gb ram
Athlon 3500+
7600GT
asus a8n-sli deluxe

I want a new one.

 

[Rentahamster]

There was a pretty good thread about this on the gaming side.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366437

 

[Shogmaster]

If you want to reuse components, then get a fanless graphics card that supports h264 decoding. Any of these from Newegg should work. Your motherboard is ATX so there is a limit to how small a case you can find.

Follow this guide on how to enable Media Player Classic Homecinema with hardware decoding.
http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/

I actually got that version of MPC to do full decode assist on the 4500HD in my Tablet PC. Some rendering errors time to time, but full speed with no frame drops! Didn't have to mess with setting too much either.