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Help with converting an OLD PC to a useable HTPC.

1161 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by lexx21, Oct 16, 2007

Capek

Discussion Starter · Sep 30, 2007

I have an old Sony Vaio sitting around, that I thought about using as a modest HTPC in my bedroom setup. I'd use it to play back HD files (not the high bitrate HDM rips, mainly 720p/1080i, though maybe some 1080p stuff). With its current hardware, it's definitely inadequate for HD playback, but what I want to know, is if it's worth upgrading the video & audio cards etc, or if I'd have to build a completely new machine. Currently it consists of:

PIII 866 mhz CPU

motherboard has a 512MB memory limit

(only onboard graphics and audio atm)

With those limitations, would it be worth buying an appropriate agp video card and a new audio card, and upgrading from the 128 memory currently installed, to the 512 limit? Would that give me adequate playback for HD files? If so, which video and audio card would you recommend? Or is the 866 mhz cpu and 512 memory limit severe enough limitations that I should just buy a new motherboard/processor and start from scratch?

Thanks a great deal for you guy's help.

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Cro-man

· #2 · Sep 30, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capek /forum/post/11768944

I have an old Sony Vaio sitting around, that I thought about using as a modest HTPC in my bedroom setup. I'd use it to play back HD files (not the high bitrate HDM rips, mainly 720p/1080i, though maybe some 1080p stuff). With its current hardware, it's definitely inadequate for HD playback, but what I want to know, is if it's worth upgrading the video & audio cards etc, or if I'd have to build a completely new machine. Currently it consists of:

PIII 866 mhz CPU

motherboard has a 512MB memory limit

(only onboard graphics and audio atm)

With those limitations, would it be worth buying an appropriate agp video card and a new audio card, and upgrading from the 128 memory currently installed, to the 512 limit? Would that give me adequate playback for HD files? If so, which video and audio card would you recommend? Or is the 866 mhz cpu and 512 memory limit severe enough limitations that I should just buy a new motherboard/processor and start from scratch?

Thanks a great deal for you guy's help.

I don't think you would have enough juice to run something decent for HD. SD maybe. You could try a 6200 Geforce AGP with HD out and slapping the extra ram, but I would spend towards a much newer machine.

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JHoback

· #3 · Oct 1, 2007

look on ebay for used ram as new ram of that vintage will be too expensive.

you could use this as a fileserver if it can't be an HTPC.

i wouldn't put too much $$$ into it though.

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Suntan

· #4 · Oct 3, 2007

If you only plan to watch MPEG2 SD or HD files (DVDs and OTA HD) a MyHD card plugged into an open PCI slot will make it a top notch OTA HD player.

-Suntan

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lexx21

· #5 · Oct 16, 2007

I did some testing over the weekend with a machine similar to yours. It was a 1.2ghz AMD with a 6200 graphics card. The test files that I used were mpeg2 1080i files at various bit rates. Even at 12mbps, which was the lowest bitrate file they had, I saw slight stuttering. Playing back on a faster machine worked though.

All in all, the box you are talking about would probably do ok for SD providing that you had some sort of hardware acceleration, but for HD, most likely not.

There are 720 and 1080i mpeg2 hd test files on the internet. Download a couple and try them out, see what kind of results you get.

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