Graphics card for OLD HTPC

[rprospero]

I'm trying to turn my girlfriend's old eMachine desktop into a cut-rate HTPC. The computer is surprisingly decent for a four year old eMachine, but I'm concerned that it may still be too old to upgrade.

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU:

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (Lima core)

II. Current Graphics Card:

Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150


III. Display Resolution:

1920 x 1080


IV. Power Supply Unit Specification (Brand, Wattage, Ampage, Age). If possible, please provide a link to a website containing the power supply specifications:

300W power supply. I'm afraid that's all I know


V. Case Specifications(N/A, Model, Length, Low Profile, Cooling, HTPC, Water, Silent):

micro-atx mini-tower


Purchase Details:

I. Budget? Please be sure to include currency (If not USD), retailer preferences & specify whether rebates are a viable option.

Was hoping not to spend more than $100 on this project. I'm not looking for anything super fancy.


II. Any particular preferences (Manufacturer[nV or AMD], Brand[XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, etc], Cooling Solutions)?

No preferences.

III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI?

The motherboard has only a single PCI-E x8 slot, so multi-gpu is out of the picture.

IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs?

I've looked at An MSI Radeon 5450, if I can get away with a 2.0 card. However, that's just a guess as to what could meet my needs.


V. What are your needs for this GPU? Which games(If any)do you intend to play? If you have this information at hand, what are the desired detail levels?

My primary concern is that I'd like to have HDMI with audio. I'm tired of having a second set of speakers in the living room just for the pc.

My secondary need is being able to play high def video.

Finally, I'd like to be able to do some light gaming. I know that this machine won't be able to handle the latest and greatest, but I was hoping to be able to play Half-Life 2. If I could also manage Fallout 3, that'd be wonderful, but I'm not expecting a miracle.


VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase?

I'm not intending to run an overclock, but I'm not opposed to it, either.


Additional Notes


There's one big extra challenge to this project. The motherboard I'm working with only has PCI-E 1.0 x8 slot. According to the Wikipedia, "PCIe 2.0 cards are also generally backward compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards." The reason I bring up 2.0 is because I haven't found any 1.0 cards that support HDMI Audio. On the other hand, I'm not sure whether any 2.0 card I look at will work in my old, 1.0 slot.

As an alternative, there is a PCIe x1 slot on the motherboard as well and I have found card with HDMI support that will fit the bill there. Of course, I know that x1 is generally not recommended for gaming, but I'm not sure if it's going to be that much worse than the other x8 slot.

 

[nickb64]

5450/6450 would be fine for what you want I think.

PCIe specs are backwards compatible, so just get whatever.

I don't know how the 5450/6450 would perform in games, but something like the 5570 I know will play Valve's stuff pretty well, my friend has one.

 

[Binky]

Any of the X450 cards would be ok, except for the light gaming part. They are pretty bad at gaming. A 6450 might cost you $20AR, but if you can spend up to about $50, you can grab one of the XX70 or XX50 cards, like the 4670, 5670, etc.

I have no idea how your limited PCI-E slot will affect you.

Here's a 5670 for $43AR, but the cooler looks pretty whimpy. There's a very similar sapphire card for about the same price after rebate and shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127611

This one looks like a much better cooler, if you have the room. i've used HIS cards like this and the coolers are very good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161391

Both have 128 bit DDR3 memory. Be sure to compare the memory when you look at "similar" cards. They may not be as similar as they appear.

Also, keep in mind that a low-profile card may also have better resale value later if you decide to sell it. These type of low-end cards are very good for HTPC use, and having one that is low-profile expands your universe of potential buyers.

Here's the search I used at newegg. I filtered all of the X550-X670 cards, plus 1-2 HDMI.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=3209%3A100123