Worst pass-able hardware for a media center?

cschep · 2008-07-17 18:51:05

This is more of just a discussion topic, I'm kinda bored at work and I was brainstorming about my media center project PC and I just had a few questions for anyone who wants to chime in...

I have an old machine that's an Athlon 1gz, 256 megs of RAM. I think it's got a radeo 7200, 128 meg video card? Yeah, it's an old beast, but it works fine, and my newer systems I would prefer to keep setup and actually use for LAN'ing old games, or having multiple machines for web browsing, etc..

I was thinking to myself that this probably isn't enough hardware to make into a media center, but then I realized that my old xbox has worse hardware than that, and it's been doing most of my media playing for a year or so.

Now when I say media center pc, I mean able to play xvid movies, and dvds. I'd like to be able to play the DVDs from the drive, or from a folder on a hard drive (or maybe network share, with a 1gig switch?) Also, ideally it has a couch controllable interface. Something like Elisa. The interface can definitely be something less flashy, but couch control would be really nice.

Anyone have a similar setup going on older, slightly clunky hardware? My main goal is to not have to spend any money

If I have to, I can end up using a p4 powered system for this, with decent specs, but I'd rather try to force it out of an old beast, mostly for the challenge!

Also, I'll definitely be using Arch. That's half the fun!

ThomasBisset · 2008-07-18 00:50:17

It all depends on what role you want your PC to play - would it be as a client or a server?

If all you're planning on doing is streaming video and sound to another box, with the exception of big, fast hard disk, you could use the cheapest and worst components you could find (within reason) and not notice any major performance issues. The machine you have is more than adequate - in fact, you won't need a video card because chances are you won't bother with a GUI on that machine.

If you want it as an under the TV kind of unit, there's a lot more to consider. Again, a big and fast HDD is a must. A decent GPU and faster CPU would be handy as well, and chances are you'll need a decent sound card if you want to get some kind of 5.1 setup. Perhaps also think about noise - nothing worse than hearing fans and hard drives whirring over the the movie you're trying to watch - I have an Xbox 360 and I can verify that it is bloody annoying!

cschep · 2008-07-20 01:11:35

Yeah, I was definitely thinking under the tv type of box. The noise is a big issue right now, it's got old murky fans and the power supply is loud. I've got software installing now, so I'll let you know how it turns out, but I think it's going to be tough to solve the noise problem without spending more money than I'd like to...

Zeist · 2008-07-20 09:33:47

Assuming you're not going to watch HD content on it it should perform fine. Then again, most likely even the P4 couldn't handle even 720p completely ok.

Streaming DVD:s over network is no problem, I have done it with even only a 100mbit network, and xvid takes even less bandwidth.

My previous media center machine before my current one was a Dual P3 833MHz machine with a Geforce 4 ti4400 and the only reason I upgraded it was to be able play 720p/1080i/1080p movies, so that machine should be fine if you're not going to do that.

Last edited by Zeist (2008-07-20 09:34:00)

rhfrommn · 2008-07-24 15:00:51

You can do a media center with a lot less hardware than that. Back in the '70s my dad got by with

1. 13 inch black and white tv
2. kid to tell to go change the channel

:-)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-07-17 18:51:05

Worst pass-able hardware for a media center?

#2 2008-07-18 00:50:17

Re: Worst pass-able hardware for a media center?

#3 2008-07-20 01:11:35

Re: Worst pass-able hardware for a media center?

#4 2008-07-20 09:33:47

Re: Worst pass-able hardware for a media center?

#5 2008-07-24 15:00:51

Re: Worst pass-able hardware for a media center?

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