2012-10-17, 18:29
Just built a new htpc from an older gaming laptop. It's a Gateway with a Core 2 Duo ( P7350) 2 Ghz, an 128 GB SSD, 4 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia 9800M GTS GPU. It's connected to a Cisco Catalyst 2948-G-TX and I get full 1000 Mbps whenever needed. Media is served from a 6 bay Qnap TS-659 Pro + with GigE interface. It's not the prettiest to look at but it doesn't matter as I have created a small square hole through the drywall to the room behind it where I run CAT6 to my basement to uplink to the Cat switch and other stuff in my home lab, as well as a usb extender for the ir remote, wireless kb and mouse, and the bluetooth dongle for my headphones. So the only evidence of its existence in the tv room is a small ir receiver and a discretely tucked away usb hub in the book shelf next to the tv. Noise and visual aesthetics are not an issue since the laptop is in a different room through a wall, and this gives a purpose to this retired gaming laptop ( other than just being a pdc for my lab domain which is what I was using it for at one point).
I am new to building htpc's ( but I absolutely LOVE it). Was a previous boxeebox user but boxee has abandoned that device. Not that I really care, I was ready to upgrade to an htpc. I love being able to browse and launch emu's and games, etc from it. Anyway, I am just curious about the core 2 duo I have in there. It's getting pretty long in the teeth and I'm wondering how it will fare down the road. For right now it seems to do 1080p without a hitch. I can FF and RW with no issue at all and I can see the nic throughput pop up as far as 140 -160 Mbps when skipping through something like a 1080p rip of LOTR or something. So the performance right now is great. It handles my emus and stuff with no issue either. But what about when the time comes for stuff like 24p or 4k, or 10 bit? I don't pretend to really know what those are but they come up a lot in performance conversations. I do have DXVA enabled, BTW, and it seems to save the cpu some cycles.
Will this serve its role for a little while yet? Or should I be looking at some with an i3 or i5 now?
Thanks
I am new to building htpc's ( but I absolutely LOVE it). Was a previous boxeebox user but boxee has abandoned that device. Not that I really care, I was ready to upgrade to an htpc. I love being able to browse and launch emu's and games, etc from it. Anyway, I am just curious about the core 2 duo I have in there. It's getting pretty long in the teeth and I'm wondering how it will fare down the road. For right now it seems to do 1080p without a hitch. I can FF and RW with no issue at all and I can see the nic throughput pop up as far as 140 -160 Mbps when skipping through something like a 1080p rip of LOTR or something. So the performance right now is great. It handles my emus and stuff with no issue either. But what about when the time comes for stuff like 24p or 4k, or 10 bit? I don't pretend to really know what those are but they come up a lot in performance conversations. I do have DXVA enabled, BTW, and it seems to save the cpu some cycles.
Will this serve its role for a little while yet? Or should I be looking at some with an i3 or i5 now?
Thanks
