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[DeepPurple23]

I'm currently using an old laptop to handle my HTPC duties.  Mainly, I was using it for audio so it worked great as it output the signal to my Oppo 105.  But now I'm seeing the advantage of ripping all of my DVD/Blu-Rays and HD DVDs into a server (think Kaleidoscope) and going from there, not a huge collection but 800 or so, so it'd be nice to have them all at my finger tips and organized.  In any event, the laptop won't output a 1920 X 1080 resolution picture, so I'm thinking of building a HTPC.  Since it sits in the room with me I want it as quite as possible.  Therefore, I'm thinking of use the nVidia 720 as my GPU, it's got a passive heat sink so no additional fan noise.

Does anyone have experience with this card and if so, how has it gone?

[mojave]

What laptop do you have?

You will be better off using the Intel GPU on a current Intel processor (Haswell or Devil's Canyon) than the Nvidia 720.

[DeepPurple23]

The laptop is an older HP Pavilion dv4 using and Intel core duo2, but I don't remember which one.  I've put Win 8.1 on the lappy and that runs without issue.

Thanks for the feed back, I will probably go the route that you suggest.  I do my ripping from my main computer so I don't use the HTPC for that function, solely for playback.

[dmarkovi]

I don't see why your laptop won't be enough. I used an ECS liva pc and I would think the your processor is just as powerful. Not sure exactly what processor you have but it will probably be enough for 1080p output as long as none of your files are encoding in h.265.

[DeepPurple23]

I thought that it would be fast enough.  It may be in the settings.  While the files are the correct resolution, it seems to be stuck playing the resolution to fit the laptop's resolution, not what is capable over the hdmi, I keep thinking that there must be a setting some where, but I have yet to find it.

[dmarkovi]

try windows key + P and select second screen only.

[DeepPurple23]

Thanks for the clue about the window key + P, that did the trick.  I was able to get the lappy sending a 1080 signal.  Now I just have the fun tweeking with the sound.  At the end of the day the CPU might not be fast enough or maybe its a lack of RAM, but it may save me from building a whole new rig.

Thanks to everyone.

[dmarkovi]

Start a video. Then press escape and the movie should continue to play in a small box. Then windows + x, select task manager and you can then view cpu and ram usage to see what is getting maxed out while playing a video.

[DeepPurple23]

Thanks for the info.  I used the windows+x and had the usage up while it played.  CPU between 26-34% and RAM right around 30%.  So the RAM is not an issue.  The CPU would seem fine as well, but everyone once in a while it would make a huge jump in usage but very rare when the window was open.  The picture looks great, but occasionally will stumble and it doesn't seem to happen when the usage window is up so I don't know what is going on, but I'm thinking maybe win 8 has some other operation running in the background.  I'm going to keep testing and playing with the settings.  I'll let you guys know what I learn.