Will this work for a 1080p htpc

Hi all,

Was looling at the zino's among other machines for a dedicated htpc when I realized I have an old pc sitting around doing nothing.

But before I go and buy a needed power supply to get it running again, I'd like to get some opinions on whether this would work for a 1080p htpc.

I would install windows 7 on it.

cpu is a athlon 64 3200+.
Motherboard is asus abn-e - has pci-e
2 gig ram

In reading the stickied htpc guide, it sounds like if I add a video card such as the radeon hd 2600, I should be good for 1080p, correct?

Do you think these specs will suffice?

With a card like the 2600, I presume I don't need a separate sound card to do 5.1?

Since the card just has dvi out, will any old dvi to hdmi adapter work or do you need something special to get the 5.1 sounds as well?

Thanks a lot.
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edit

Or would the radeon hd 4650 card be even better yet? native hdmi connection and 7.1 suppport. I presume this will do all the h.264 encoding as well?

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...2%28ME%29.aspx

Cool thanks.

info on HD 4600 series from ati's website:

ATI Avivo HD Video and Display Platform1
* 2nd generation Unified Video Decoder (UVD 2)
o Enabling hardware decode acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2

So, with this card, is it a safe bet I will be fine for 1080p with just my athlon 64 3200+?

2 gigs of ram enough?

I would be looking to use Win 7 Media center with either My Movies 3 or Media Broswer - there shouldn't be any issues offloading playback to the gpu, should there?

Thanks.

Ya, I don't actually have the 2600 or any card right now that would be suitable for 1080p. Plus, I like that the 4650 will do 7.1 and has hdmi out built right in.

Well, I am happy all I have to get is the card and a new power supply. Much cheaper than the ~$700cdn it was going to cost me for a new htpc

^^I guess my wording in my initial post wasn't that clear. I need a new power supply cause the computer does not currently work. Nothing happens when I hit the power button - I'm assuming it is power supply.

Not sure if there is any easy way to test the ps out.

well, hope that is not the case for me. Guess we'll see.