New HTPC Hardware Questions

[NyteSkyy]

Hey... this is my first time posting, been a lurker up until now.

Here's my dilemna.

My current HTPC:
2.4ghz P4 socket 478
512mb DDR1
Radeon 9600
Hauppage 150 SD tuner

Up until now I've been using an old Samsung 27" HD CRT connected via a DVI to component adapter (no HDMI on my set). It's worked reasonably well, however no where near as nicely as I'd like.

Now, I just bought a 56" Samsung 1080p (yes, I know it's not TRUE 1080p) DLP, and need a HTPC to go with it.

My question is this, I have a spare 2.53ghz socket 775 Celeron laying around (with the assumption I could overclock it to ~3ghz). I was going to compliment it with
1gb of DDR2 800
7600 GT pci-e
seagate 320gb SATA drive
ECS P965 Mobo (supports core 2 duo)
Windows MCE 2005
Aver A180 Tuner x 2
Hauppage 150 Tuner

Would the celery be able to run it? If not, please let me know what minimum requirements you'd suggest.

Sorry if it's a bit longwinded, please let me know if you need any more information.

Thanks!

[stanger89]

Should be able to, most of the heavy lifting will be done by the 7600GT. You might run into problems if you want to do 1080p H.264 or VC-1/WMV, but there's not a lot of that out there yet, and you could always upgrade the processor later.

[NyteSkyy]

Ok, great. 1080i shouldn't pose a problem then?

When 1080p becomes more prevelant I can upgrade to a core 2 duo e6300 or similar then.

Thanks for the response.

[stanger89]

Well more a case of MPEG-2 (which is almost always <= 1080i) is not a problem. In the near-ish term, HD DVD and Blu-ray are going to be the only common source of high-resolution, high-bitrate H.264/VC-1. Those codecs are much more demanding than MPEG-2.

[NyteSkyy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Well more a case of MPEG-2 (which is almost always <= 1080i) is not a problem. In the near-ish term, HD DVD and Blu-ray are going to be the only common source of high-resolution, high-bitrate H.264/VC-1. Those codecs are much more demanding than MPEG-2.

Ok. I'm just about ready to pull the trigger, but I can't decide between getting an A64 4200+ or Core 2 Duo 6300 (which I was intending to upgrade to later anyways).

For purely HDTV playback / general HTPC usage is one inherently superior to the other?

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by NyteSkyy

Ok. I'm just about ready to pull the trigger, but I can't decide between getting an A64 4200+ or Core 2 Duo 6300 (which I was intending to upgrade to later anyways).

For purely HDTV playback / general HTPC usage is one inherently superior to the other?

I would go with the Core 2 Duo; it has much improved SSE performance (full 128-bit vs. 64-bit chunking in Athlon). Should perform better with H.264, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray decoding, etc.

[NyteSkyy]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

I would go with the Core 2 Duo; it has much improved SSE performance (full 128-bit vs. 64-bit chunking in Athlon). Should perform better with H.264, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray decoding, etc.

Awesome! Thank you for the help, I can't wait to start getting it all setup.