2019-08-16, 15:36
It's good to see that Kodi can run on fairly old, lower-spec hardware. I have an old PC that was collecting dust in the closet and was considering even getting rid of it since it was under powered for most games. Instead, I decided to see if it could be used as an HTPC. It is a Dell Inspiron Zino HD 400 released late 2009.
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.postimg.cc/VsRf8Jpw/dell-inspiron-zino-hd.jpg)
It is more or less a copy of the Mac Mini design except with Windows 7 x64. I reformatted the hard drive and installed Windows 10 Pro x64 1903 then Kodi 18.3 with a few plugins including Netflix.
Here are the specs:
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/DBhxYPm.png)
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/2H2eSHO.png)
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/ws1aXzj.png)
Despite the low end GPU it is able to play 1080P streams smoothly.
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/2olmTHE.jpg)
Local HD content also plays smoothly.
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/rGOb8tt.png)
All the system drivers are Windows installed since Dell only has drivers for Vista/7 on its website. I did initially have problems getting a good WIFI connection with the built-in Dell WLAN 1397 Mini card - it appeared to be a driver issue since it worked fine in Windows 7. I couldn't find a solution so I ended up getting a USB AC600 Wifi dongle which had its own drivers for 10. Money well spent because not only do I get an even stronger signal than I ever got with the built-in WIFI but the dongle connects to 5GHz 802.11ac (my router is AC1900 and is in a different room ~50 feet away). The built-in was 802.11g 2.4GHz.
Granted, this PC is probably on the bare minimum specs required for Kodi 1080P. I haven't tried 2K/4K or even 10bit HEVC but I sincerely doubt it would work or if it did, probably 100% CPU/GPU and dropping frames like crazy.
So what's the oldest, lowest spec PC anyone else has gotten Kodi to run smoothly on?
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.postimg.cc/VsRf8Jpw/dell-inspiron-zino-hd.jpg)
It is more or less a copy of the Mac Mini design except with Windows 7 x64. I reformatted the hard drive and installed Windows 10 Pro x64 1903 then Kodi 18.3 with a few plugins including Netflix.
Here are the specs:
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/DBhxYPm.png)
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/2H2eSHO.png)
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/ws1aXzj.png)
Despite the low end GPU it is able to play 1080P streams smoothly.
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/2olmTHE.jpg)
Local HD content also plays smoothly.
![Full sized picture Image](https://i.imgur.com/rGOb8tt.png)
All the system drivers are Windows installed since Dell only has drivers for Vista/7 on its website. I did initially have problems getting a good WIFI connection with the built-in Dell WLAN 1397 Mini card - it appeared to be a driver issue since it worked fine in Windows 7. I couldn't find a solution so I ended up getting a USB AC600 Wifi dongle which had its own drivers for 10. Money well spent because not only do I get an even stronger signal than I ever got with the built-in WIFI but the dongle connects to 5GHz 802.11ac (my router is AC1900 and is in a different room ~50 feet away). The built-in was 802.11g 2.4GHz.
Granted, this PC is probably on the bare minimum specs required for Kodi 1080P. I haven't tried 2K/4K or even 10bit HEVC but I sincerely doubt it would work or if it did, probably 100% CPU/GPU and dropping frames like crazy.
So what's the oldest, lowest spec PC anyone else has gotten Kodi to run smoothly on?