INTERACT FORUM

Devices => PC's and Other Hardware => Topic started by: fitbrit on January 13, 2011, 10:49:14 pm

Title: Socket 939 based HTPC still has it in the hi-def world!
Post by: fitbrit on January 13, 2011, 10:49:14 pm

This was also posted in the AVSForum:

Just a cool story, bro; I know, I should get a blog. I just wanted to share with you that old hardware can work fine as a modern day HTPC.

Specs:

• Thermaltake Bach case with VFD and iMon remote
  
• Seasonic 500W PSU
  
• AMD Opteron 180, stock frequency at 2 x 2.4 GHz
  
• 2 GB OCZ RAM (4 x 512 MB)
  
• ASROCK S939 SATA2DUAL or something like that motherboard.
  
• ATi/AMD Radeon HD5450, but was an nVidia GT240 until yesterday.
  
• Auzentech HD X-Plosion sound card, installed but not in use currently.
  
• Netgear gigabit ethernet PCI card (GA311)
  
• 500 GB Maxtor hard drive, bought before Seagate announced merger/takeover of Maxtor. Only a few gigs are in use, as the media is on a
  
• 27+ TB unRAID server.
  
• J River Media Center software for organising, playing and networking all my media around the house... and beyond.

I've been upgrading my original HTPC since 2007, and most recently, I reformatted it and installed Windows 7 Ultimate. This was a stop-gap measure until I got a Core i3 or SandyBridge CPU/Mobo/RAM combo.

I'd previously had WinXP and then Vista Ultimate on this HTPC. When I tried to install a passive Radeon HD5450 with Vista, it failed to bitstream HD audio, no matter which drivers I used.

A few months later, more mature drivers in the bag too, and with Win 7 installed, the 5450 went in like a charm. It showed the HD audio codecs as recognised immediately, and has no problems whatsoever bitstreaming them with ffdshow.
My 25 GB Avatar rip with DTS-HD MA plays like a charm and everything else I've thrown at it too.

I'm delighted to say that my S939 based dual core HTPC from 2007 can function as a perfect playback machine. This motherboard still has an AGP port! (But also a 16x PCIe which is what I use for graphics, of course). And to think that I sold a barebones PC with the same innards a couple of weeks back for under $100.

It's currently driving a 23" 1080p touchscreen, and an Epson 8350 1080p projector in my basement. For now, instead of cloning displays on the video card, I'm running an HDMI splitter from the output of my Yamaha V663 receiver - one that was supposed to have EDID issues with ATi cards. I've already got an Onkyo TX-NR5007 to replaces the Yammy, and that same model receiver plays very well with my i3 based HTPC in the media room. When the basement construction is done, I'll break out the Onkyo.

My only gripe is that it uses much more power than my i3 HTPC, and is a fair bit noisier. However, when the door and foam surround of my AV cabinet is installed, that should be less of an issue. Since it's the basement theatre it'll see less use anyway than my media room.