HTPC: scraping for parts

Here's the deal. I just bought a 42" Vizio and now my pc building phase has begun again. I have a second rig that i don't really use except to email my gf while playing counterstrike so i don't have to minimize the screen (sad huh). I want to convert this pc into an HTPC. Here is what i have so far.

Proc: 1.6 ghz p4 (NO hyper threading)
Ram: 640 mb (i dont remember the speed, i believe its ddr266?)
Mobo: i forget, i think it has onboard 5.1 though
Tuner: Hauppage MCE-150 (got that couple years ago)
HD: 80 gig internal, 500 gig external

So what i was thinking was getting a cheap ol' FX5200 since it's highly recommended everywhere and cheap. But I believe i have to get the PCI version, is that a problem?

Also, is 640 in ram good enuff and is that speed fast enuff?

Is my processor fast enuff?

I was thinking about getting a 2.4 Northwood if i had to upgrade. I can buy a cheap soundcard if i HAVE TO. I have an external receiver that has DTS i believe but I'm not sure.

I think I'm to have a linux based HTPC but that's not important right now.

Also, I've read about cheap remotes, any suggestions?

Edit: I want this pc to be able to play HD at 720p and also be able to record HD.

illogical06 said:

I want this pc to be able to play HD at 720p and also be able to record HD.

Click to expand...

It won't be. I'd reconsider.

Well I've read many different sources that a lot of HTPC's have either the fx 5200 or the 6200 gfx card. I figure if i can surf the net and watch 720p movies off the pc it's good enuff, i don't care about recording.

So I've ordered a 2.4 northy and an fx 5200. A lot of the HTPC's that i saw spec'ed where worse then this. Hopefully i didn't waste my money.

I'm watching Transformers at 720p with the setup i have in the first post and it plays at about 10 fps i'd say. I would think the upgrades would be enuff to get it up to 30.

While I am an advocate of quiet, cool, low power consuming HTPCs, that 1.6 CPU will struggle on 720p video processing. The FX5200 and your processor can be used for a SD HTPC but is not recommended for a HD (even low res HD 720p) HTPC. Generally the common wisdom is that the nvidia 6600 is the baseline standalone (in other words not part of a platform like nvidia's 6150 design) GPU to do HD. Couple it with nvidia's purevideo mpeg2 decoder and you might be able to do it with that CPU for mpeg2 720p. But I wouldn't be too surprised if you got stuttering. You will run into a ton of problems doing 720p in most other codecs. Of course, that should be ok since fishy believes that a HTPC should only be able to playback mpeg2 . For me, I find that a very limited HTPC and am positive a HD Tivo would be a better solution for that purpose.

Now the 2.4 is enough muscle for 720p but you will probably see 100% CPU time pretty often with stuttering from time to time without offloading some of the processing. I am not sure if the FX5200 can do it since it doesn't support offloading some of the mpeg2 processing via purevideo for mpeg2. If you can, I'd return the fx5200 and get a 6200, at least. Otherwise, give it a try and let us know how it works. I am very curious to know what the bottom line for HD is.

Well, I OC my 1.6 to a whopping 1.8. I didn't want stability to be an issue so i just gave it a little extra. I'm using onboard graphics with an intel blah blah on an 845 chipset...I hve only one test file that is 720p and i'm playing it at about 15-20 fps with moderate action going on.

I've already ordered both the fx5200 and the 2.4B northy.

I plan to OC the northy to about 2.6-2.7. You know, i don't believe the gfx card will really serve any purpose in decoding the HD...that sucks. I'll probably return it.

Is there any better pci option out then the 6200(possibley the cheap radeon 7000 with mpeg-2 decoding) Idk which one is best but i do know i can get the radeon for about 20 bux cheaper.

I thought I'd give this thread one last update before it dies.

The company i bought the processor from accidentally sent me a 2.8 800fsb p4 instead of a 2.4 533fsb p4. They told me not to worry about it, keep the processor, and they would also refund my money! (hi-tech assets)

With that being said, i have a free processor. So i decided to splurge and spend 40 bux on a used mobo, 35 for a gig of ram, and 100 on a new vid card. So my htpc will be equipped with a 2.8ghz proc, gig of ram, and an x800 pro. I think i'll be just fine

note: I did not spend 100 on an x800 pro, i bought a 7800gs off of here and swapped that out with the pro from my main rig.

Cool, that should do what you need. It might even be able to do 1080p with some stuttering . Look into nvidia's purevideo mpeg2 decoder. You can buy an OEM version for USD10.