[Gamester17]

Radeon 3200 is good enough but NVIDIA have currently better device drivers and are therefor recommended over ATI/AMD and Intel graphics.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_for_Win...or_XBMC.3F

[traderstavros]

Radeon 3200 is good enough but NVIDIA have currently better device drivers and are therefor recommended over ATI/AMD and Intel graphics.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_for_Win...or_XBMC.3F

At the risk of being spoonfed, but I am not up to date on current hardware. Is there any other certain specs I should note? 512MB? or would less be ok? 256 bit a must?

[FlimtotheFlam]

I have always built computers in the past but I soon realized it is actually cheaper to buy a computer from Dell than build one myself. Now I did wait for the perfect deal and it did take some work but in the end I saved A LOT OF money.

Intel Q6600 Quad Core stock 2.4 Ghz overclocked to 3.0 Ghz(Very easy to do)
1 GB of Ram
250 Gig Hard Drive

is pretty much what I got stock plus a warranty. This ended up costing me only $300. I paid $600 for the whole deal cause it also came with a 24 inch monitor which I just sold on Ebay for $300.

Now I did upgrade it to

3 GB of Ram, 1 TB Hard Drive, montego sound card, and a better video card. Now I was patient and waited for a good deal but right now Dell is offering a pretty good deal also. You can get this deal going right now

Inspiron 518 Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor Q6600 (8MB L2, 2.4GHz, 1066FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1
3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz (4 DIMM)
Dell Entry Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
No Monitor
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB supporting HDMI
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
16X DVD+/-RW Drive 16DVDRW
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
No speaker Option
Microsoft Works 9.0
McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 30-Days
1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year

for only $441.24 (FREE SHIPPING and No Interest for 3 months)

Now to get this deal you just have to follow this thread over at slickdeals.net

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread....light=dell

Now once again this CPU could be overclocked to 3.0ghz with stock heatsink fan with zero problems of overheating. This is so much cheaper than going out and getting your own parts

[traderstavros]

I have always built computers in the past but I soon realized it is actually cheaper to buy a computer from Dell than build one myself. Now I did wait for the perfect deal and it did take some work but in the end I saved A LOT OF money.

Intel Q6600 Quad Core stock 2.4 Ghz overclocked to 3.0 Ghz(Very easy to do)
1 GB of Ram
250 Gig Hard Drive

is pretty much what I got stock plus a warranty. This ended up costing me only $300. I paid $600 for the whole deal cause it also came with a 24 inch monitor which I just sold on Ebay for $300.

Now I did upgrade it to

3 GB of Ram, 1 TB Hard Drive, montego sound card, and a better video card. Now I was patient and waited for a good deal but right now Dell is offering a pretty good deal also. You can get this deal going right now

Inspiron 518 Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor Q6600 (8MB L2, 2.4GHz, 1066FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1
3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz (4 DIMM)
Dell Entry Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
No Monitor
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB supporting HDMI
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
16X DVD+/-RW Drive 16DVDRW
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
No speaker Option
Microsoft Works 9.0
McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 30-Days
1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year

for only $441.24 (FREE SHIPPING and No Interest for 3 months)

Now to get this deal you just have to follow this thread over at slickdeals.net

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread....light=dell

Now once again this CPU could be overclocked to 3.0ghz with stock heatsink fan with zero problems of overheating. This is so much cheaper than going out and getting your own parts

Silly question, can the mobo be ripped out and put into another case or is it Dell specific?

[traderstavros]

Silly question, can the mobo be ripped out and put into another case or is it Dell specific?

Also, if someone could talk about whether or not the video card is appropriate for 1080p or not that would be helpful. Not sure about it being 256mb. I may just order this and then pick up a case. This is perfect...

[FlimtotheFlam]

This video card is made for playing HD content for Blu-Ray in 1080P. Not as much for playing video games in 3D.

You could probably swap out the parts but to be honest it seems foolish. It is easier to just build a wood box around to match your TV set up.

[jacanuck]

With no GPU offloading supported in XBMC (or really any media players out there), the video card isn't going to make as much of a difference for 1080p files as the processor is. It is the processor that will be decoding your mkv or other video files, not the video card GPU.

Currently, GPU offloading is only supported in the programs that are usually bundled with the cards, and only for very specific content (a blue ray disk, in power DVD for example).

[traderstavros]

Thanks to everyone so far for all of the replies, I think I have it narrowed down to what I am going to do. Since the primary purpose is going to be playback of HD content in 720p and down the road for 1080p and NOT gaming initially I am thinking of this set up:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W - $169
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q-EM LGA 775 Intel G45 HDMI Micro ATX ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131336 ) - $135
Ram: 2gbs of appropriate

The picks are based on that the money should go more into the CPU as it does all of the encoding and the video card (onboard) should basically just meet the requirements. I want HDMI out so this will do the job. I don't know much about the one on this board but I imagine it'll handle some older light games that I will probably enjoy more than cutting edge and down the road toss a dedicated card in there if I really want to get serious about adding gaming functionality. (I own an Xbox 360, not sure I care SO much about the gaming)

With stalking deal sites and sales I think I can finish this whole rig for under $500 and perhaps even less.

Thoughts? Will this meet my goals appropriately now?

Thanks again for all of the input, as much as you have been handholding me through I think the conversation will be beneficial for future newbs like myself that want to toss a box together.

[FlimtotheFlam]

I still think you should get a Quad Core just cause down the road software will be more programed to take advantage of all the Cores and will make a big difference. Though the Wolfdale 8400 is a good chip. I just like the Q6600 because of its overclocking ability.

[xsintill]

so does anyone have any experience with the Intel DG45FC Mini ITX?
I like to build with a mini itx board but want to know if it works offcourse.

[mitul103]

I still think you should get a Quad Core just cause down the road software will be more programed to take advantage of all the Cores and will make a big difference. Though the Wolfdale 8400 is a good chip. I just like the Q6600 because of its overclocking ability.

If you are concerned about power usage (a valid concern if you are using a small case), the Q6600 uses about 1.5x more power than the E8400. I think a powerful dual core is more than enough for a HTPC unless you are going to be doing video encoding on it.

[xsintill]

hmm on second thought I need to go for an micro atx board that way i can still expand with say a tv card. But this weekend I finally have some time to have a good look at what might be broken in the pc. And after i found out what it is i will go for new board new processor and a htpc case.

[traderstavros]

About ready to pull the trigger but finalizing some last minute specs. Any reason to go to 4 GBs of RAM or just stick to 2GB and put the money toward something else?

[traderstavros]

While finalizing a few minor things I wanted to post the set up and get some last minute critiques. Here is my Newegg wishlist. Note that i will not be buying the processor from them as I can get it $20 cheaper at Microcenter.

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySav...D=10611828

For the lazy:
Intel C2D E8400 3.0 ghz : $149.99
ASUS P5Q-EM motherboard with onboard video: $134.99
Apevia Black Case with 500W PS : $69.99
2x1GB DDR2 1066 PC2-8500 : $40.99
500GB SATA 7200 RPM : $69.99
Windows Vista MCE Remote: $19.99 (will this work with XP? Put an email into the company)
Samsung DVD-R: $24.99


Net: $510ish

[NotShorty]

Many people have reported that a Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0GHz) is able to perfectly playback 99,99% of all 1080p H.264 videos they tried.

Nice. I was looking into that cpu...

Check here for building a cheap yet capable system.
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showpost.ph...ostcount=2