My XP1800 System doesnt seem to be keeping up with the HD decoding! Surprise surprise!

What do you guys think of this setup.... Basically it needs to be quiet, fast, energy efficient be able to play HD and HDCP compliant.

I have the drives and Keyboard etc... Here is a quick spec that I put together on ebuyer (I havent looked around properly yet and pretty out of touch on hardware)

Budget is £300 max, but any less would be great. (Not looking for a game machine thats what the 360 is for!)

....So your advice is important

Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 2GHz Socket 775 800MHz FSB L2 1MB Cache Retail Box Processor   £48.57
ASUS P5VD2-VM SE P4M890 Socket 775 onboard VGA 6 channel audio mATX Motherboard          £32.72
Sapphire HD 3650 512MB DDR2 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card    140617    24 in stock    £46.72
Antec Black Fusion V2 MATX MediaCenter Case - Aluminium Front Bezel with 430W PSU      £112.35
OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC with LIFETIME WARRANTY    £32.99

Cart total inc vat:    £273.35

ps3

there is another thread for this elsewhere.  The Present school of thought says that the AMD 780G chipset is about the best for decoding HD video because the onboard GFX card has hardware decoding.  

http://www.tekforums.co.uk/posts/list/11898.page

Cheers Beaker and Egg, just had a look at that thread.....

What do you think of the below setup?

I take it the Graphics memory will be take from RAM, and will I need to up the 2GB?

How does the specified AMD processor compare to the Intel and will the fact the graphics are onboard hinder the system?

The PS3 may be an option, has anyone else got any comments on this? The thing is Ill probably use it for downloads, burning and things like 4OD etc

ASUS M3A 770 Socket AM2+ 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard               £52.74
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Socket AM2 (2.2GHz) L2 1MB (2x512KB) Retail Boxed Processor      £39.96
OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC with LIFETIME WARRANTY   £32.99
Antec Black Fusion V2 MATX MediaCenter Case - Aluminium Front Bezel with 430W PSU      £112.35

Cart total inc vat: £238.04


Cheers for your help guys

My media centre is now up and running!

Best of all.... Playing 720p Ross Kemp in Afghanistan (x264) with surround sound [Before wouldnt run properly on XP1800]...

....at about 3% CPU usage! On one core... the other core I think is sleeping    


The spec I got in the end was:

Antec Fusion Black - Lovely quietness! and had no problems with the LCD!
Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - HD processing onboard wooo!
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ Brisbane 65nm (Socket AM2) - Retail with Fan - And its energy efficient(ish) @65W

The above came to ~£250

Plus what I had already: 300GB internal SATA HD, 500GB MyBook, 500GB MyBook II, DVD+/-RW

Very impressed with this system and thanks OC and Tek for very fast delivery and good prices! Its practically silent and had no problems with it at all! and outputting via HDMI to a 40" Sammy and Sammy surround sound amp.

Cheers for all your help guys!

Hi,

Out of curiousity can I ask why you didnt go for the PS3?

It does all the standard media centre features, plus games, plus bluray, plus dvd upscaling? And its <£300

Quote from: moony1234Hi,

Out of curiousity can I ask why you didnt go for the PS3?

It does all the standard media centre features, plus games, plus bluray, plus dvd upscaling? And its <£300

The only thing his rig is actually missing is the Console Games and the Blu-Ray.  But to be fair you can get a blu-ray drave for £70 anyhow.  What he has got is a lot more useful, and more practical than a PS3.  Cant really play .AVI movies on downloaded directly to the PS3 from sources best not mentioned...

http://tversity.com/home

I use that with my 360 and it seems to decode everything, Im not to bothered about HD at the moment tho, when that comes around its going to be a case of a rig media centre

Decided on the PC for many reasons.

There are some apps I use that wont run on the PS3, i.e. DVD ripping, and other stuff.

I also use it for Burning and will use it for TV at some point (Dual tuners with pause and record)

I also have an xbox and dont really need another console.

Dont really have a need for BluRay.

Very happy with it  

It looks like good kit, fantastic value for the price really. Im tempted to take myself down the media PC route.

Ye I was surprised when I added it up, not bought any kit recently, if you wanted a system without the HD, and a less pretty case you could knock a load of money off that as well!

...Saying that, the mobo wasnt expensive, but the case was £110ish (I think) so if you put it in a £30 case you would be looking well under £200!!!

Also Im running "Vista Codec Pack" and MPC (On XP of course) and have found it to be flawless at playing stuff back, I have found other codec packs dont like any glitches in xvids etc, and cause dodgy issues but this pack seems to run it without any problems! Just to let you guys know.