will a PII 450mhz system work as a media center?

[0123456789876543210]

I found an old dell optiplex gx1 w/ a 350MHz PII chip in it. it is the "first revision," so the highest i can upgrade to is 450MHz. I'm trying to get a media center going here, just to play DVD's, MP3's, and DivX movies. Do you think it'll be fast enough? It has onboard ATI 2x 3D Rage Pro video on it now and onboard sound... My plan was to upgrade video to a "PNY NVIDIA GF4 MX420 SDR 64M VGA PCI" which has a good composite and svideo out for my tv, and get the "LEADTEK WINFAST 'DELUXE' TV2000XP TV/FM MULTIMEDIA CARD" for Tivo-ing, and the "Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Dolby Digital 5.1 SB0220 - OEM," all from newegg. it has 128mb of ram now, but i'll probably upgrade. Is this just a dumb idea or should I go for it? is it going to be fast enough and should i bother upgrading from 350 to 450MHz? has anyone tried something like this? thanks for your help!

Vince

 

[MDE]

I'm not sure if 450 MHz is even fast enough for DivX. My old AMD K6/2 450 had trouble with normal AVI and MPEG video.

 

[ethebubbeth]

my pII-400 choked on divx (main reason i got my tbird 900... sigh, good old memories...)

 

[vegetation]

You might have some issues with smooth playback on divx even with a p2-450. You could probably get a evergreen attachment and boost speed up that way to a ghz but I'm not sure if that's worth it.

 

[DaFinn]

A P3 450 would do the job, but i doubt P2 has enough juice...

 

[MDE]

P2 and P3 are virtually the same chip, there isn't much difference.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
P2 and P3 are virtually the same chip, there isn't much difference.

I say SSE makes enough of a difference

 

[McCarthy]

With Divx "what CPU will play this smoothly" depends on a lot of things. What the divx file itself is (codec version), what resolution the file is (HUGE difference for playback here), what player you use (MediaPlayer, Divx's player, BSPlay, etc...some are more efficient than others), what filters you run during playback, what quality level you select......

I used to watch the AMC group's encodes of StarGate (sshh) on a Celeron 300A full screen, but I had to set playback quality to minimum for it to be smooth and it'd still stutter from time to time. Later when I upgraded the CPU and moved the quality up I noticed that it looked about the same (TVout->average TV).

I say a PII350 should work with most Divx files fine with above tweaking. PII450 would be even better of course. Neither's a powerhouse anymore, but they're not paving stones either. Of course move divx from CD to the HD during playback, even with my 1600+ and Asus CD playing long divx files from the CD caused stutters.

As for the Tivoing part, I found it takes somewhere between a Celeron 600 and 900 (600 too low, 900 was fine) to record on the fly with that Leadtek card's software to 'VCD'. AVI was of course fine, but disk consuming, higher quality was out of reach. I'm certain VCD setting will be out of reach on a PII450 as well, and even that wasn't too great quality wise.

So I suspect it's going to do half the job you wish well and the other have not very well. The good part is that the cards you're purchasing will move right into something else though, so WHY NOT give it a go?

 

[DaFinn]

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
P2 and P3 are virtually the same chip, there isn't much difference.

You try and run any multimedia test on both, and then tell me

 

[0roo0roo]

gah, too slow. it could run mpeg 1 and mp3. waste of electricity for anything else.

 

[chocoruacal]

Its too slow for an HTPC. The minimum I would do is 1ghz to cover DVD and high bitrate Xvid/Divx with AC3. I would guess it would struggle with capture as well...lots of dropped frames.

 

[0123456789876543210]

ok, i just found out I can upgrade to a 1.4MHz Celeron for less than $100 with the powerleap slot-1 adaptor... this will definitely be able to run everything i want right? is this worthwhile?

 

[FMann]

I think the powerleap adapter should give you the processing power you need (note: it's a Tuatalin core celeron).

HOWEVER, when upgrading, you need to check on the web and also in Powerleap's database about what BIOS to use (I think for the GX series it's Dell A06 or A07 that supports all processors, not the most recent A10 bios) and also if any other users have had problems with upgrading the system. Also, the mobo may have jumpers that would need to be set to allow for automatic CPU speed detection, etc. so you definitely want to read the product literature on Dell's website.

 

[RickH]

Don't spend a dime on that thing. If you have the old parts lying around the basement, then put it together, but don't spend $$ on that old hardware. For really cheap upgrades get something newer, but not used. I don't recommend used computer parts form the Forms, Ebay, anywhere. You can spend a lifetime trying to get something running and fail because someone sold you their junk. I have bought MBs from JustDeals.com with great results. An un-used Asus or MSI 133A or 266A chipset board for $35 shipped. Throw in retail XP1700 for $50 and you have a much better machine. You will probably need a case, but even if you use everything else from the old computer it will be a much better bet. Faster memory if you go DDR, faster hard drive interface if you choose to upgrase the drives, etc. There no guarantee the PowerLeap thing won't fry your old MB. Its power interface was designed for a P450 not a Tuatalin. Remenber PC100 memory is slow, old, and expensive. DDR is cheaper. RRR

 

[Abhi]

Hey..

Even i have an old Acer P2 300 mhz machine lying around. It has the same onboard ATI 2x 3D Rage Pro video card. I gave it a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value card and a stick of 128 mb ram. It ran win98 pretty smoothly.

As far as videos, divx playback is possible, but the video is definately choppy in fullscreen mode. DVD's i didn't try, but mp3's were absolutely no problem at all.

 

[lucky9]

aren't there hardware based decoders on some cards?

 

[wetcat007]

If your going to use that TV Tuner to record shows, your going to need a MUCH better cpu to do real time encoding decently.

 

[nodoubts2k]

Originally posted by: vegetation
You could probably get a evergreen attachment and boost speed up that way to a ghz but I'm not sure if that's worth it.

 

[Anonemous]

I use an old P3-450 for a Divx box. It works pretty well, no noticeable slowdown or choppyness with xvids if you use the right codecs (FFDshow) but I do notice some artifacts like pixelation (blockiness) on some xvids. I use Win2k with 256 megs (PC-100) of ram along with a Ati Rage fury pro 32 meg card and some old hds (5400rpm ata33) that I slapped in there. I find that FFDshow is extremely efficient in decoding. If you find it choppy, you can always install a sigma divx decoder card.

Since I used an old computer, it's in a mid-mini tower form and it's an eyesore in the living room. But that's another story...


Good luck!

 

[Anonemous]

edit: double post

Hope that info helps. Gonna see if I can get an even clearer picture switchin from RGB to DVI for my HDTV...

 

[Sid59]

450 is ok for divx, just need a decent video card.

 

[0roo0roo]

have you tried playing higher bitrate higher resolution divx on that 350? 450? thats where they choke.

 

[Amused]

Order a Slot-T converter for $20 here:

http://www.strattoncomputer.com/slotcpuupads.html

Then order a 1.4 GHz Celeron from Essential Computers (the only one with retail boxed in stock) for $60 (You can find OEM for $40)

That's just $80 bucks and your computer will run pretty damn fast. Fast enough for an HTPC.

Oh, then add a 256 MB stick of PC100/133 and you're set.

 

[0roo0roo]

then again once you pay that 80 bux, you coulda gotten a 2400+ with ecs at frys which could rape it also able to use pos ram.

slocket t was only worth it for a very short time, long ago. i know cuz i had 2

 

[FrustratedUser]

My Celeron 500 can handle everything you mentioned so I guess it will be OK.
I can even capture stuff with it (MPEG1).