Upgrading an old PC as a HTPC

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MonsieurX

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#1 MonsieurX
Member since 2008 • 39858 Posts

Found out a tower in the trash bin and turns out it's still functional.

HP DX2600 with a E2200,1gb DDR2,80gb HDD, PCIE x1,PCIE x16,PCI slots,300w PSU and currently running on XP.

Already have my main tower running a Plex server so I'm not sure what I would need exactly to watch 1080p movies, emulate some games and some older steam\GOG games.

10$ for an extra 1gb of DDR2 ram,30$ for a cheap GPU(used) with HDMI output and install XBMC?

Keep in mind that I'm in Canada,so I might not have access to the same deals.

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GioVela2010

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#2 GioVela2010
Member since 2008 • 5566 Posts

Awesome!!

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jedikevin2

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#3  Edited By jedikevin2
Member since 2004 • 5263 Posts

Some cheap video card would work. Obviously something low power running off motherboard power.

amd 5670 ebay canada

Something Like the 5670 would be perfect for it. If you need hdmi, get a cheap dvi to hdmi adapter. They look just like the dvi to vga adapters and are a few bucks.

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XaosII

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#4 XaosII
Member since 2003 • 16705 Posts

Sounds like thats about all you would need. I have an HTPC with pretty terrible specs and it does just fine playing videos at 1080p.

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MonsieurX

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#5 MonsieurX
Member since 2008 • 39858 Posts

Someone on another forum mentioned those Windows 8.1 mini boxes,anyone have experience or insight on them? Much smaller size,power consumption but a somewhat more limited

http://www.dx.com/p/guleek-i8-quad-c...9#.VMUirC6JHbI

http://www.geekbuying.com/item/PIPO-...er-339668.html

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GeryGo

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#6  Edited By GeryGo  Moderator
Member since 2006 • 12803 Posts

@MonsieurX said:

Found out a tower in the trash bin and turns out it's still functional.

HP DX2600 with a E2200,1gb DDR2,80gb HDD, PCIE x1,PCIE x16,PCI slots,300w PSU and currently running on XP.

Already have my main tower running a Plex server so I'm not sure what I would need exactly to watch 1080p movies, emulate some games and some older steam\GOG games.

10$ for an extra 1gb of DDR2 ram,30$ for a cheap GPU(used) with HDMI output and install XBMC?

Keep in mind that I'm in Canada,so I might not have access to the same deals.

As HTPC you mean a media center PC I guess:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/mhR3Bm

4Gb to surf the web pretty smooth with all those flash, a brand new GPU because of 3 years warranty (same price as you thought to spend anyway), the wireless adapter only if you plan to get ISP connection via wireless, if not you can always plug a web cable.

I would also recommend getting an SSHD or small SSD to boost the boot time and overall performance

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#7  Edited By C_Rule
Member since 2008 • 9816 Posts

Depends how you want to use it. Some people stream their media to their home theatre from their primary desktop. If that's what you were looking to do, you would probably be better off with a smaller and lower power consumption device.

I'm personally the other way around, I have a proper HTPC with a heap of storage for my media.

I have this connected directly to the home theatre and also stream media from it to other devices.

If you have the money to do it this way, it's what I think makes the most sense. It would be silly to run my primary desktop, with an overclocked quad core and two graphics cards, whenever I want to stream media to something. Horribly power inefficient!

With an under-volted C2D and a 5570, it has quite low power consumption so I leave my HTPC running almost 24/7. This system will soon be scrapped for something with a new dual core and I'll just use IGP.

Anyway, if I was in your position, I would add a reasonable amount of RAM, an SSD, low power GPU with HDMI, install Win 7 or 8 and load it up with some high capacity hard drives.

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gamespot4life

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#8 gamespot4life
Member since 2007 • 1300 Posts

Trash that pieceof junk. You do know that microsoft stopped patching winxp right?you are leaving yourself vulnerable if you dont upgrade your OS, but if you do upgrade your gonna use more resources just to load the OS. besides you have no idea when that motherboard will quit on you. Not worth the trouble man

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Old_Gooseberry

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#9  Edited By Old_Gooseberry
Member since 2002 • 3958 Posts

lol, why would you ever use an old power hungry pc as as something to play media files or as some media hub. For lil over 100 bucks you can get a 2gb, quad core windows 8 mini pc, the thing probably uses like 5-15 watts at most opposed to 100+ watts of an old garbage pc. Also uses virtually no space up and has HDMI, network (wireless and wired), several usb ports, also you could use a usb hub and extend the amount of usbs to a lot more even.

http://www.dx.com/p/jesurun-cx-w8-quad-core-windows-8-1-smart-mini-pc-w-2gb-ram-32gb-rom-wi-fi-us-plug-372805#.VL0Dai4YOSq

theres several new types of these devices, they are so powerful you can't really even called them tv boxes because they actually run windows 8 and you could probably install almost anything on them if the cpu can handle it (some basic older games but nothing new because the video card is integrated into the cpu).

I haven't gotten any yet because they are all back-ordered, but just by the specs alone you can see they would be more then powerful enough to play media files and more. On the other hand, you could have some old big clunky loud pc laying around, your choice. Seriously though, your talking about putting money into that old junk when you could just get a modern device that could do it all, but better.

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MonsieurX

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#10 MonsieurX
Member since 2008 • 39858 Posts

@Old_Gooseberry said:

lol, why would you ever use an old power hungry pc as as something to play media files or as some media hub. For lil over 100 bucks you can get a 2gb, quad core windows 8 mini pc, the thing probably uses like 5-15 watts at most opposed to 100+ watts of an old garbage pc. Also uses virtually no space up and has HDMI, network (wireless and wired), several usb ports, also you could use a usb hub and extend the amount of usbs to a lot more even.

http://www.dx.com/p/jesurun-cx-w8-quad-core-windows-8-1-smart-mini-pc-w-2gb-ram-32gb-rom-wi-fi-us-plug-372805#.VL0Dai4YOSq

theres several new types of these devices, they are so powerful you can't really even called them tv boxes because they actually run windows 8 and you could probably install almost anything on them if the cpu can handle it (some basic older games but nothing new because the video card is integrated into the cpu).

I haven't gotten any yet because they are all back-ordered, but just by the specs alone you can see they would be more then powerful enough to play media files and more. On the other hand, you could have some old big clunky loud pc laying around, your choice. Seriously though, your talking about putting money into that old junk when you could just get a modern device that could do it all, but better.

Thing is can $ currently sucks and that 114$ is more like 150$,which is way more than I initially intended to spend...I wouldn't hesitate much if I could get one under 100$ can

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superclocked

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#11 superclocked
Member since 2009 • 5864 Posts

You could also use it for security cameras. Weather proof, night vision cameras only cost $20-$30 these days, and capture cards with multiple inputs run about the same price...

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MonsieurX

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#12 MonsieurX
Member since 2008 • 39858 Posts

@superclocked said:

You could also use it for security cameras. Weather proof, night vision cameras only cost $20-$30 these days, and capture cards with multiple inputs run about the same price...

No need for such things.