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Pentium II HTPC?

My TV is about to die (power supply is faulting); so I need to find a replacement. I thought now would be an excellent time to replace with a HTPC. Since I have a good CRT that can display full 1080p video, I do not need to invest in a television. I have this Dell Dimension XPS R450, with the following specs: Intel Pentium II 450MHZ 385MB SD 100 RAM 20GB HD (can install bigger then 137gb, however) 32MB ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 7200 AGP Windows XP Pro This system is quiet, and from previous testing, I can play DVDs on it. I also have another system, which is loud (probably the PSU, which is a cheap one); no ability to have wireless internet ( meaning no podcasts ), because there is only one open PCI slot, so I can install a TV tuner. Here are the specs: AMD Duron 900MHZ 512MB RAM 20GB HD (same from Dell) Windows XP Pro Radeon 9250 256MB PCI I have another system, an emachines system, but that system is slower then my pII (and it's a p3). I want to be able to play DVDs; watch television (possibly HD); playback podcasts (HD or SD); listen to music; surf the web; and playback quicktime files. I also am wondering whether I should go with MythTV (Linux, maybe KnoppMyth or Ubuntu) or just use Windows XP Pro (or should I get MCE 2005)? Btw, my main system, my Mac Mini is out of the question. My room is too small for my office setup, and my wireless internet is flakey. I am trying to avoid spending more money, if possible.

Public Comments

1. I can't imagine that graphics card being able to play video all that well, especially HD. I would definately recommend getting a newer system, but if that's all your using it for it might be alright.


2. Neither of these systems will display television the way you want it to. If you had more RAM, a faster processor and a better video card, it may.

   Trust me, it will display, but your refresh rate will be horrible.

   Sorry.



3. i doubt that pentium II supports such technology. even pentium III can't handle that technology. try building a newer system.


4. Neither of these systems will be particularly good for an HTPC. There is no way they will be able to display HD video.

   Out of the 2 systems, the socket A system is your best bet for playing DVD's, however the low bandwidth of the PCI interface the GPU is using could create choppy playback. If the machine was built by a manufacturer (ie. Dell, HP, etc) you won't b able to overclock to get more performance out the Duron.

   I would advise spending some money though. What I would do is find the best Socket A CPU you can find - eBay will be your best bet. Socket A CPU's are quite cheap as they are pretty old and nobody wants them anymore. I believe some shops may still have the newer Socket A Semprons in stock if you look hard enough. You will have to flash your motherboards BIOS to the latest version. To do this you will need to discover the manufacturer and model of ur motherboard, visit the manufacturers website, and follow the BIOS flashing instructions from there in order for the motherboard to support the new CPU. 512MB of RAM shoul be enough for most HTPC tasks.

   As for TV tuners, you could kill 2 birds with one stone by getting a PCI USB 2 expansion card for the system and install a USB WiFi dongle in one USB 2 port, and a USB TV tuner in the other port. Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but this sin't the most elegant system to be working with in this situation!

   I assume that you have a DVD drive lying around somewhere. "VLC player" is great for squeezing video playback out of even the oldest of CPU's, so give that a go and have a tinker with the settings.

   If I may suggest, these older machines would be much more suitable for something like file serving than as HTPC's. FreeNAS is an Open Source Linux distribution that allows remote access to your file server when it is connected up to your home network. Completely configureabl over a web based interface. Worth considering for backing up files, streaming music, etc.

   As for noise, you can do the 7V fan modification to your fans by connecting the red fan wire to the 12V (Yellow) wire on a PSU Molex connector, and the Black fan wire to the 5V (Red) wire on the PSU Molex connector. This reduces the fan operating voltage to 7V (12 - 5 = 7V) and will reduce noise, but inscrease system temperatures slightly.

   Hope this answer helps you out a little, and good luck with what sounds like it will be an interesting project!

   EDIT: For your OS, I would suggest either Geexbox or Amarok if your going Linux, or XP stripped to the bone edition (A google search will turn up some things on this) if your wanting to stick with windows.