use old pc to make a htpc
#1
hi I have an old pc lying around and I was wondering is it possible to turn it around in a htpc.

my old pc has a:
CPU: AMD AM3 Athlon II X4 640
Mainboard: asus m2n sli deluxe
Bequiet psu 530 watt pure power
DDR2 3*1Gb 800mhz OCZ Platinum

I wanted buy these and make a htpc:
Case: Thermaltake DH101
Blu ray drive samsung SH-B123
Logitech Cordless Mediaboard Pro

What do you think?
the case has a Imon lcd display and remote.
the only problem I see is the remote I have been searching for how to use the remote with xbmc still didn't find how for windows.

thanks for helping.
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#2
pretty good so far, what about the video card?
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#3
Its a evga gts 450 superclocked. its a very quiet graphic card.
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#4
yea it is a pretty powerful system, XBMC is well designed so even the basic Atom/Zacate platforms are fully capable of 1080p HD. So this would be a very powerful HTPC. The case should come with an IR receiver and remote, but I can't speak for its compatibility, in windows odds are its going to be easy, in linux I'm not so certain. The GTS 450 is honestly overkill for HTPC usage, unless you intend to do some gaming as well. If it is strictly media, I'd personally flog the 450 in favor of a GT 210/220/240 or HD 5450/5570 as it means lower power, less noise (in some cases passive cooling), and less heat dumped into the case.

Also note that as of this time, XBMC does not support bluray natively, you will either have to run a script or set up an external player that launches through XBMC when you want to watch a bluray file. For many people the best route is simply to rip your content and store it on a data dump server.

The help section of the forum is full of useful tutorials that will assist you in setting up your remote, IMON, and bluray support.

Hope that helps!
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#5
wtsfox Wrote:Its a evga gts 450 superclocked. its a very quiet graphic card.
If it's anything like the standard clocked GTS450 from evga I'd disagree that it's quiet. I use two of them for video encoding and I can hear the cards at full load in the next room. Great video cards but quiet under load they are not. At idle they are whisper quiet though, so obviously in a HTPC they may never hit the load levels that my system does, but it's something to keep in mind.
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#6
yeah but I think I'll keep the gts450 from evga it's extremely quiet only @ 60% load you'll hear it and I think that I'll never achieved that.
maybe later that I'll buy a passive cooled graphic card.

I have an other question.
Is there maybe something that I can add to make the movie experience even better.

Thanks for the answers.
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#7
wtsfox Wrote:I have an other question.
Is there maybe something that I can add to make the movie experience even better.

what do u mean exactly?
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#8
well like a sound card or. Or software for downloading movie, tv show and anime. I heard of couhpotato. Is there a anime downloader that keep track of your favorite anime and that downloads them for you.
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#9
im not the best person for this sorry :/

what i know is pretty much everybody uses UseNet to automatically download movies and uncompress them using GrabIT and stuff like that,,,
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