- Jun 14, 2003
- 10,442
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Hey guys, been out the loop for ages and need some advice
my parents just ridded their old computer onto me this weekend as they have no use for it anymore. its actually the remnants of my gaming machine from a few years back.
anyway, my plans are to try make it into some kind of HTPC/Backup box.
im gonna shoe horn some large disk drives in there to sort the back up stuff out.... the next bit is getting it to be a media style box.
ill need a card with HDMI out (though this isnt absolutely essential) so i can have it hooked right to the telly and pass sound.
i want it to play full on 1080p HD mkv files (H.264 and X.264 etc) and be able to use the lovely bells and whistles the new media player classic has.
heres the specs of the machine as it stands.
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ running at 2.5Ghz
RAM: 1Gig DDR400
Mobo: MSI K8N SLI Platinum
Sound: On board Creative Audigy .... though i have an actual Audigy card in a PCI slot too. the on board provides SPDIF out (hence HDMI not being absolutely essential)
HDD: 120Gig Spinpoint
PSU: 400W Seasonic S12
GPU: ATi Radeon X800GTO 512mb
will a 9400GT or similar be suitable? i heard i should go for a AMD/ATi 4xxx series because they can decode VC1 as well and pass audio via HDMI.
with a suitable GPU, will that rig even play HD content?
my parents just ridded their old computer onto me this weekend as they have no use for it anymore. its actually the remnants of my gaming machine from a few years back.
anyway, my plans are to try make it into some kind of HTPC/Backup box.
im gonna shoe horn some large disk drives in there to sort the back up stuff out.... the next bit is getting it to be a media style box.
ill need a card with HDMI out (though this isnt absolutely essential) so i can have it hooked right to the telly and pass sound.
i want it to play full on 1080p HD mkv files (H.264 and X.264 etc) and be able to use the lovely bells and whistles the new media player classic has.
heres the specs of the machine as it stands.
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ running at 2.5Ghz
RAM: 1Gig DDR400
Mobo: MSI K8N SLI Platinum
Sound: On board Creative Audigy .... though i have an actual Audigy card in a PCI slot too. the on board provides SPDIF out (hence HDMI not being absolutely essential)
HDD: 120Gig Spinpoint
PSU: 400W Seasonic S12
GPU: ATi Radeon X800GTO 512mb
will a 9400GT or similar be suitable? i heard i should go for a AMD/ATi 4xxx series because they can decode VC1 as well and pass audio via HDMI.
with a suitable GPU, will that rig even play HD content?