Upgrading an old PC to use as a HTPC

delta36

Hi all,
I've gotten my hands on an old computer (2004) and want to use it as a general media player in the sitting room. It's got 1.5 Gigs of RAM, a single core 2Ghz AMD processor, and an embedded 32mb GPU.

Now, after setting it up and tinkering with it for a while, it's very slow and stuttery at video playback, and I suspect it's the graphics card, or lack thereof, that's the problem. I've opened up the case and there are three PCI ports (not express) and what looks like an AGP port, with a notch for a 1.5v card, although I'm not 100% on this as the print on the motherboard identifies it as "JAGP 1".

I've looked at newegg.com, and they have seen some decently priced AGP cards that I'm thinking of getting. The TV I'm connecting to has a VGA port on it, so HDMI cable output isn't a necessity, although I'm thinking down the line I may need it when the TV goes kaput and I have to get a new one.

Given the specs above, is the GPU the only thing that's lacking for this computer to play SD videos? Can anyone recommend a decent cheap card as well? I'm looking at things like this because it's cheap, and uses passive cooling.

Any advice from you boardsies, as always, would be appreciated

delta36

Forgot to say, a GPU will cost about 50 quid, and I also need to buy a hard drive for storage. Would a better option be to just by a Raspberry Pi, along with an external hard drive? The cost would be the same.

utyh2ikcq9z76b

yeah go with the Raspberry pi or one of the sumvision boxes that has xbmc support(for cheapo option)..You will notice the noise with the computer...Or get one of the hp nas going cheap and some sky now tv boxes with plex

delta36

Ace Small Vellum wrote: »

yeah go with the Raspberry pi or one of the sumvision boxes that has xbmc support(for cheapo option)..You will notice the noise with the computer

Thanks, that is another consideration, and a Raspberry Pi would a lot more portable than a ten year old clunker.

utyh2ikcq9z76b

Id defo go with one of the HP microservers instead of buying an external(unless you have one already) more upgrade options in the future, you could have a few pi's round the house connected to the server.
These are meant to be ok as well from reading xbmc forum:
http://www.ebuyer.com/501755-sumvision-cyclone-android-x2-dual-core-smart-media-player-with-standard-remote-cyclone-android-x2

The outputs are what is driving me towards one of these over a pi as I need it to connect to av receiver
Outputs - HDMI, AV, component, optical port, coaxial port

Sir Osis of Liver.

Ace Small Vellum wrote: »

yeah go with the Raspberry pi or one of the sumvision boxes that has xbmc support(for cheapo option)..You will notice the noise with the computer...Or get one of the hp nas going cheap and some sky now tv boxes with plex

Can the Sky now tv box run xbmc?

utyh2ikcq9z76b

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Can the Sky now tv box run xbmc?

No but it can side load plex

Access

Am using an old dell optiplex running at 3 gig of ram/intel pentium D 3.6ghz/1GB passive heat dispersive PCIe graphics card connected to the tv via HDMI and pulling media from a nas in the attic. I am using it the past couple of years in the sittingroom and it gets almost daily use and it runs perfectly but im hankering to replace it because of one problem... noise.

It can get quite hot running a 1080p movie and the processor cooling fan can sometimes sound like a jumbo jet trying to take off and this can get annoying. But saying that, watching a 480p tv show, the fans are basically on idle and can barely be heard.

I also run raspbmc on a pi in the bedroom which works well but menus and navigating lists of shows and movies can be slow to react/catch up

The others on here are right, you would be better off investing in a pi if you can handle sometimes slow navigation or i am thinking of the ouya which a few on this forum have recommended. Upgrading an old pc would be fine but you might put in more money then it would cost to purchase a pi or something along the same lines. Also, a pi will cost you little in electricity to run, but an old pc running hot could cost you way way more in electricity.


On a side note... Is plex much different to xbmc? i would be a great fan of xbmc but have never used plex.

unkel

Access wrote: »

Upgrading an old pc would be fine but you might put in more money then it would cost to purchase a pi or something along the same lines. Also, a pi will cost you little in electricity to run, but an old pc running hot could cost you way way more in electricity.

Wise words. Not much point using a 10 year old PC and spending money to upgrade it. Pi works well and is cheap to buy and to run.

There is a third way though! I recently used an old PC (from about '08) with dual core cpu and on board HDMI. Stuck in 2 old hard disks that I had already. It cost me nothing. It's quiet. I use it as XBMC but also as NAS. The thing goes to sleep using only 4W (same as a Pi) and it can be woken on LAN. When it runs is uses 60W max on 1080p playback, which is pretty cheap!

Don't throw out your old PCs, folks

delta36

Thanks for all the replies folks, guess the Raspberry Pi is the best way to go for me!