CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:21 pm Post subject: HTPC for streaming question...

OK, so my old HTPC is officially ancient. It's a 2.8 GHz P4 on an Intel/IBM motherboard, running XP SP3. The video card - a BFG GeForce 6600GT with 128MB - was pretty hot for its day, but it's just as ancient. Bottom line though is that the old girl isn't even good for streaming anymore. Even Hulu or ABC streams won't play smoothly. I assume the new AVC-based codecs are just too damn CPU-intensive for this old fart of a machine.

So, the question is, how old of a machine could I scrounge up to run stuff like I want - at least 720p streaming and such? I'm talking Hulu, YouTube, ABC, Netflix, etc. My 3-1/2 year-old 2.33 Core 2 Duo MacBook has horsepower to burn... It plays 1080p QuickTime and YouTube and other AVC-HD clips flawlessly. Should I just see if I can find a comparable-vintage desktop, meaning 3 years or so old?

Would something like this work?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200514771227

Or this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160486368956

I'm not interested in spending $350 on new motherboard, processor, and RAM - too many other things to spend money on. Just looking for über-cheap route just to have a little nicer machine for running Boxee and streaming Hulu and such. If I can buy something for $200 and sell the old dog on Craigslist for $100, then the upgrade is $100, which would perfectly fine.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
SC

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 11:31 pm Post subject:

One of those with a cheap ATi card would probably do it.

akajester · Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 934 Location: Wisconsin

I would think any of those dual core or core 2 duo machines would run those just fine.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Those should be plenty fast to handle whatever you want to do. I would add either of the least expensive ATI or Nvidia cards.

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

I thought the 6600GT supported HW acceleration of the H.264 stuff? I used to have an AGP version that did fine from what I remember...but it was replaced with a 2400xt and then a 43xx something or other.

I have been contemplating something like this for bedrooms:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173001&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=327962&SID=

Haven't tested it myself but everyone says that ION can do 1080p fine. It comes with 160gb HDD, 2GB RAM and wifi-n. Not too bad for $279. Plus it is small form factor, less power, smaller, and quieter than that old piece of crap IBM.

Of course...no room for improvement with such a small form factor...but the price seems to be right.

There are other options for "place directly behind LCD tv" computers.

edit: It seems that it might not be very quiet...at least this model. YMMV