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[tunnie]

Looking good, my "Media Centre" spec is about 6 years old 

What you doing with the old graphics card?

From the old MCE? It was an integrated Intel X4500HD. So unless you're shit hot with a soldering iron... 

Bugger! Was hoping to get a cheapo upgrade 

6yrs old puts it in P4 territory. Its done its time. Bin it

My setup does 99% of what I ask of it, however it struggles with massive file sizes, 720 it appears to play ok. But I've got a 10Gb Tron Legacy film it really stutters on. Film like that needs to be perfect quality, trouble is a decent graphics card is same as a small PC these days.

I'd probably get something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/391204-lenovo-q180-nettop-pc-vc73euk

[TheBoy]

Looking good, my "Media Centre" spec is about 6 years old 

What you doing with the old graphics card?

From the old MCE? It was an integrated Intel X4500HD. So unless you're shit hot with a soldering iron... 

Bugger! Was hoping to get a cheapo upgrade 

6yrs old puts it in P4 territory. Its done its time. Bin it

My setup does 99% of what I ask of it, however it struggles with massive file sizes, 720 it appears to play ok. But I've got a 10Gb Tron Legacy film it really stutters on. Film like that needs to be perfect quality, trouble is a decent graphics card is same as a small PC these days.

I'd probably get something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/391204-lenovo-q180-nettop-pc-vc73euk

If its just used for playing 1080p video, just get a modest video card that has the correct hardware decoders. I know ATI couldn't properly play HD on Windows Vista/7, a blended problem where Windows caused the GPU panic, and the ATI panic recovery was so slow, it looked like a stutter. Not sure if its been resolved.

Most modern integrated video can easily manage it, and has the advantage of less power, less heat and more reliability. Many modern CPUs have integrated graphics now,, and these are normally more than capable.

If its for games, the Atom is shite. I do wonder if the CPU and its associated chipset will be able to play it anyway

[tunnie]

No games, got the Xbox for that. Used to be a big PC gamer, but got sick of constant upgrading.

So just 1080p videos is the use, current setup was "borrowed" from my previous employment. It used to run 2 x 40" screens for presentations, thought it could handle 1080p on a single 40", but appears not.

I'll remote into now and double check its specs, as I'm at work currently

[tunnie]

Just got the spec:

AMD Athlon II X2 @ 781 Mhz
2GB RAM
Matrox Millennium P690 - PCIe x1

[TheBoy]

Just got the spec:

AMD Athlon II X2 @ 781 Mhz
2GB RAM
Matrox Millennium P690 - PCIe x1

You could try these peeps...

http://www.tnmoc.org/

[tunnie]

Just got the spec:

AMD Athlon II X2 @ 781 Mhz
2GB RAM
Matrox Millennium P690 - PCIe x1

You could try these peeps...

http://www.tnmoc.org/

 

[aaronjb]

781MHz! I haven't seen a sub 1GHz desktop processor in.. 10 years?

Tunnie, a cheap £300 set-top PC will decode 1080p video with just an Intel Atom D525 and NVidia ION GPU - because all the decoding is in GPU rather than CPU like yours will be (struggling to do) .. I may try one of these next, right now I have an EB1501P:

http://shop.xtreamer.net/products/Xtreamer-Ultra2-DELUXE.html?setCurrencyId=3

Slap XBMC on it, have it sort & library all your media et voila. Add a Logitech Harmony One and you've a one stop home media solution simple enough for anyone to use..

[TheBoy]

781MHz! I haven't seen a sub 1GHz desktop processor in.. 10 years?

Tunnie, a cheap £300 set-top PC will decode 1080p video with just an Intel Atom D525 and NVidia ION GPU - because all the decoding is in GPU rather than CPU like yours will be (struggling to do) .. I may try one of these next, right now I have an EB1501P:

http://shop.xtreamer.net/products/Xtreamer-Ultra2-DELUXE.html?setCurrencyId=3

Slap XBMC on it, have it sort & library all your media et voila. Add a Logitech Harmony One and you've a one stop home media solution simple enough for anyone to use..

The reason I have gone for the specific Ivy Bridge i5 I did is it has more than enough power to do whatever I throw at it (it has to last 3yrs, ideally), including recording up to 4 channels and streaming to 2 xboxes simultaneous, yet its a 35W (at full chat) chip (and remember, that includes video card...)

[aaronjb]

Indeed, if I wanted full PVR functionality I'd go for something a bit more 'full fat' than a little Ion box; but then I'm assuming tunnie just uses a Sky+ box for that .. given his ideological leanings employment

In my case, if I want something that records (other than the very wonky, creaky and on it's last legs Sky+ box) I'm likely to go for a .. crap, the name escapes me. Senility..

[tunnie]

781MHz! I haven't seen a sub 1GHz desktop processor in.. 10 years?

Tunnie, a cheap £300 set-top PC will decode 1080p video with just an Intel Atom D525 and NVidia ION GPU - because all the decoding is in GPU rather than CPU like yours will be (struggling to do) .. I may try one of these next, right now I have an EB1501P:

http://shop.xtreamer.net/products/Xtreamer-Ultra2-DELUXE.html?setCurrencyId=3

Slap XBMC on it, have it sort & library all your media et voila. Add a Logitech Harmony One and you've a one stop home media solution simple enough for anyone to use..

Looks interesting,  but I wonder if even that is too hardcore for my needs. That Atom Micro PC above ticks all the boxes and comes with Windows 7 out of the box

[TheBoy]

Well, the upgrade hasn't gone entirely smoothly yet.

The card reader seems to have weird effects on the system board, so thats cirrently disconnected.

The cooler didn't fit. Its an old P4 cooler, that went on the old LGA775 mobo without issue. However, looks like there has been a minor spec change between LGA775 and LGA1155 coolers. Bugger. Cooler attacked with drill and angle grinder. Fits now. Have to play wait and see to see if it still has sufficient cooling capacity.

[TheBoy]

Also, the internal firewire cable is not quite long enough.

Still, I can buy a replacement
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Akasa-IEEE1394-Internal-Extension-Cable-40cm-/300601973761?pt=UK_Computing_FireWire_Cables_Adapters&hash=item45fd461c01
Can't believe they have sold 9 at that price

[omega3000]

Also, the internal firewire cable is not quite long enough.

Still, I can buy a replacement
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Akasa-IEEE1394-Internal-Extension-Cable-40cm-/300601973761?pt=UK_Computing_FireWire_Cables_Adapters&hash=item45fd461c01
Can't believe they have sold 9 at that price

 

[TheBoy]

Now my bloody Win7 x64 DVD won't play. *SIGH*.

Thank god for FTTC broadband

[Taxi_Driver]

Now my bloody Win7 x64 DVD won't play. *SIGH*.

Thank god for FTTC broadband

I always have that problem.......still perhaps i shouldnt use em as cup mats 

Important disks i always copy to HD, so that i can recreate a dvd/cd if needed