Re: [H] Advice on HTPC components

[James Maki]

> -Original Message-
> From: James Maki
 
> Suggestions for motherboard/cpu combination and video card to 
> handle the 720p output for cheap would be appreciated. 

Going to answer my own post. After getting no suggestions I continued to
explore the forums, reviews, etc. It seemed that people were getting good
results with the new 4000 series radeon video cards with low power
processors. I had an older socket 939 board with built-in video (nVidia
6100?) and powered by a single core AMD 64 3700+. The on board video was not
up to the task of powering HD video, although it had been great for SD
television and AVIs. It also had a PCIe 16x slot that was unused. I
purchased a Radeon 4350 with VGA/DVI/S-video output for under $50 and now
this system will output 720p MKV files with CPU utilization in the 50-80%
range. Fast enough that I see no delays, stutters or dropped frames. This
turned out to be the most cost effective solution for me. 

Just an FYI.

Jim Maki
jwm_maill...@comcast.net

[H] Advice on HTPC components

[James Maki]

I have an old AMD XP3200+ based system I used for an HTPC in the bedroom,
using it to stream video from my main system via 10/100 wired network. Since
going to HD on my main system, I find this old system struggles to play MKV
(720p) content (I haven't even attempted actual HD content). 

Suggestions for motherboard/cpu combination and video card to handle the
720p output for cheap would be appreciated. I am currently outputing to an
analog television, but hope to add an HD television in the future (too few
$$$ at the moment), so SD and HD output would be a nice plus. 

Thanks for the input.

Jim Maki
jwm_maill...@comcast.net