Check out my system, it's an Athlon 2800 (barton, 512 MB RAM, 160 GB HDD, and soon to be 6600GT video card (hopefully ). In about a year, I'll probably upgrade. But I would like to still get some good out of this vid card. So, let's say I upgrade. Could I use my old system (the one I'm using now) and convert it into a HTPC with an appropriate TV capture card? If I could, this seems like a way to still get some good out of this machine. Opinions would be appreciated.
The 6600 would be fine as a display card in an HTPC. You might want to add another stick of 512 of RAM as ram is cheap. Depending on how much recording of TV you will be doing you might want to add a large storage drive seperate from your operating system drive. And as always, make sure your power supply can handle all your components. Your XP 2800 is fine for an HTPC.
For a TV Tuner/Capture card it depends on a few factors.
-Will you be using Windows Media Center or XP? Compatibility issues.
-Will you need HDTV capabilities?
-What open expansion slots do you have on your mobo? PCI, PCI-X
Answering these questions first will narrow your choice of cards. There's lots of reference resouces out there for HTPC's. Here's a few:
). In about a year, I'll probably upgrade. But I would like to still get some good out of this vid card. So, let's say I upgrade. Could I use my old system (the one I'm using now) and convert it into a HTPC with an appropriate TV capture card? If I could, this seems like a way to still get some good out of this machine. Opinions would be appreciated.
