[trilea]

I want to build my first xmbc system and was wondering if I would be able to canabalize my current desktop to do it. With regards to what I want to do with the system I believe that I fall into Group #3 (Watch 1080p movies). The available hardware is as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 (dual core processor 4600+)
ATI Radeon x1300/1550
3.25Gb Ram
GA-K8NF-9 motherboard (gigabyte)

I am assuming that I would need to upgrade the video card. What would be an acceptable video card to move to?
EDIT: what other hardware would I need to change to produce a system that would be able to play 1080p movies?

Thanks

[RaggSokk3n]

Gt520 or amd equivalent (remember hdmi and bitstreaming)
What case would you use? If you have the stock athlon cooler it might get a bit loud if the case isn't noise cancelating..

[trilea]

At this point I would need a new cooling fan any way. The stock one broke and i got another fan only to discover that my mobo was too old to support it so it (3pin for the fan vs 2 pin for the mobo) so i hooked it up to the case fan and set it to max all the time. The CPU is currently also clocked to 2.6GHz.

So other than the video card the rest of the computer should be powerful enough to run XBMC?

[Dougie Fresh]

I would say give a cheap HD6450 a try and see how it runs. You should be able to find one around $20, especially with Black Friday coming (depending on your location).

If it doesn't play well, the HD6450 will transfer over to a newer system -- say with an Intel G530 and H61 motherboard if you're going cheap and easy, It's a nice reusable piece. If you want more *oomph* then the GT520, HD6570, HD6670 are all good choices, the GT520 especially if you're running a Linux flavor of XBMC, any of them for Windows.

[trilea]

Thanks for the help I figured that I would need a new video card just wasn't quite sure about the remainder of the hardware and how powerful of a video card i needed.