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Help Recycling older components-- htpc?

Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - Help Recycling older components-- htpc?

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I recently built a brand new machine, and now I have nearly a full PC's worth of components. They're far from top of the line, but until last month I was using them for my main PC so they're at least usable. I'd like to do something with them, but I am having a hard time figuring out what I can do with outdated hardware. Can anyone suggest what I can do with these components:

Athlon 64 3700+
1GB DDR
some DFI mobo with only AGP
256 MB geforce something crappy
and an audigy 2 soundcard
250GB hd
650w psu

the only things i'd really be looking to upgrade would be the best AGP card you can get and some more memory (not much money). would it be possible to make a decent htpc for a 720p plasma? or would it be best to make some kind of media server or something? any suggestions would be appreciated. thank you.

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We'll need some more specs about your motherboard in order to be sure, but you ought to be able to throw in a 4650 AGP, an Athlon II 245, and 4gb of ddr 400 RAM for quite cheap...

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146366
GPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814103080
CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103687

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Reply to jbakerlent

http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6813136143

is the mobo i have. i don't even think you can buy socket 754 processors anymore so i'd probably be looking to only upgrade memory and video card.

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Reply to eclectasy

eclectasy wrote :

http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6813136143

is the mobo i have. i don't even think you can buy socket 754 processors anymore so i'd probably be looking to only upgrade memory and video card.

I see, I was afraid of that. So scratch the 245

Message edited by jbakerlent on 07-29-2009 at 06:43:27 AM

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Reply to jbakerlent

add a couple of hard drives , under clock the cpu , add a gig more RAM and install windows home server and suddenly you have .....

Reply to Outlander_04

You can turn it into a basic HTPC. I don't know if the CPU is powerful enough to play Blu-Ray discs even with a GPU capable of offloading some of the decoding like the HD 4670.

Whenever I upgrade, I tend to use the older parts for an HTPC. Example, my current HTPC has an E6600 in it. When I upgrade my current primary PC the Q9450 will go into the HTPC.

I think the only problem is the vid card, I doubt it could play Blu-Ray. I've tried using before a GeForce 6600 to play a 720p video and it occasionally stuttered. I tried the same video on a 7600GT and it played flawlessly.

But for anything below 720p that should be able to play it.

Also maybe a quieter cpu hsf?

Reply to amnotanoobie

Thanks for all your help. I have a few questions still. Would S-Video out to a 720p plasma 42" give me full quality? i noticed i can't get anything but svideo out on an agp card. or would i be better off doing a dvi-hdmi adapter. and the 4650 and 4670 cards are 1gb 128-bit. i don't know specifically what the bit measurement means, but are they better for an htpc than a 512mb 256-bit?

a home server also sounds appealing. what is the purpose of underclocking a cpu for a home server? would i perhaps be better off building a home server to store everything and then building an htpc with good components down the road to link to it?

Reply to eclectasy

I'm pretty sure S-video is limited to 480p. Go for a DVI/HDMI cable for best quality.

Reply to rwpritchett

Newegg carries 3 AGP GPU's with integrated HDMI ports.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] rchInDesc=

Reply to shortstuff_mt

seems like there are a lot of audio issues with the hdmi on newer versions of windows. also with installing new drivers. i dunno, i'm torn about how to proceed.

Reply to eclectasy

Yeah the CPU definitely cannot handle Blu-ray or HD content by itself, it would need a card with UVD (ATI) or PureVideo (Nvidia) for it to be able to handle high resolution videos. For AGP the HD3650 is a great card with built in 5.1C sound for HDMI passthrough. I have it, paired with a old Pentium 4 2.4GHz CPU for a HTPC.

I've heard that the AGP HD3450 can handle HD fine, but since I do not have this card I cannot confirm. If you do decide to go with the HD3650, get the HIS version which has audio passthrough. The Sapphire doesn't as I'm told from the company. To get HDMI working I installed drivers directly from the disk no problems.

You could probably get a little more performance by overclocking that 3700+.

Reply to AKM880

cool that helps a lot thank you. may i ask what os you're using with yours?

Reply to eclectasy

Dual boot with XP/Windows 7 RC.

Reply to AKM880

Here's a great tutorial on using the GPU to offload the processing of HD content
http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/wa [...] sing-dxva/

Reply to AKM880

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Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - Help Recycling older components-- htpc?