Windows 7 on Socket A nice OC

[ocgw]

I just resurrected a PC of mine from over 5 years ago to experiment on (4th PC in my Home Media Network now lol)

Just got windows 7 installed on a Gigabyte GA-7N400 PRO2 Rev.2 w/ a Socket A AMD 3000+M, Gigabyte 6600GT and 1GB (2x512mb) of Kingston DDR400

Stock clock on the 3000+M is 2.2Ghz, 16.5x133, I have it @ 16.5x150 for 2.475Ghz, Windows experience score on cpu went from 3.3 to 3.9 w/ oc

Gonna' try installing a Hauppauge HVR-1600 ATSC HDTV TV Tuner card

ocgw

peace

[joecass]

ocgw: sounds like you have tons of experience with home theatre pc's..... just a dumb question... I have a similar setup, an old Athlon XP 3000 running WinXP, not overclocked, 2.167Ghz. Video card is FX5200 with 128Mb of memory. Recently I picked up (for cheap) an ATI 650 USB HD Tv tuner card, it works very well, but the computer can't keep up with the HD
playback.... it's kind of choppy and sometimes the audio sounds like a chipmunk. Recorded pic is great, though...
I've read that you need at least a dual-core CPU to run HD video, is this true ? or does the amount of video card memory
play a significant role ? Current video card is the old AGP type, wondering if I upgrade the card, will the playback improve...
I'm just experimenting for now, eventually I'll upgrade the whole system and install Win 7. BTW, I use either the built-in
ATI software for playback, or Power DVD 9, it's hooked up to my LG Plasma via DVI-to-DVI connection

[ocgw]

ocgw: sounds like you have tons of experience with home theatre pc's..... just a dumb question... I have a similar setup, an old Athlon XP 3000 running WinXP, not overclocked, 2.167Ghz. Video card is FX5200 with 128Mb of memory. Recently I picked up (for cheap) an ATI 650 USB HD Tv tuner card, it works very well, but the computer can't keep up with the HD
playback.... it's kind of choppy and sometimes the audio sounds like a chipmunk. Recorded pic is great, though...
I've read that you need at least a dual-core CPU to run HD video, is this true ? or does the amount of video card memory
play a significant role ? Current video card is the old AGP type, wondering if I upgrade the card, will the playback improve...
I'm just experimenting for now, eventually I'll upgrade the whole system and install Win 7. BTW, I use either the built-in
ATI software for playback, or Power DVD 9, it's hooked up to my LG Plasma via DVI-to-DVI connection

You can have a great SD HTPC (DVD) w/ a early P4/AMD single core cpu PC, but for HD HTPC or to run Media center you need a dual core, and a vid card w/ hardware acceleration

Dedicated video memory is good for gaming but does nothing for vid playback

I am in the process of evaluating if a Athlon XP OC'd can run media center now, have not proved it yet

Gonna' try MyMovies/Media Center/PDVD7 on the Athlon XP "for kicks", already know that it will run a HDTV card (1080i/720p) on XP and play DVD's w/ PDVD7

Sounds like w/ just a vid card upgrade you can have a smooth running HD HTPC for now until you do a serious upgrade

ATI has kept agp alive w/ up to date vid cards, can pick one up cheap @ newegg

ocgw

peace

[joecass]

thanks for the advice..... actually, as it is right now, the Athlon is recording ATSC HDTV @ 1080i, bit rates reported by Power DVD 9 showing very high readings, up to 25 Mbps. In my system I have an LG LST 3410a HDTV hard drive recorder, I compared PQ of the Athlon recordings, it's essentially the same. The only problem with the Athlon is the hiccuping on playback.
I already upgraded system memory to 1256MB DDR400, if it's just a video card upgrade, it might be worth it

[yoda313]

@joecass - an option you might want to consider is getting wdtv media player instead of upgrading your pc. It can play high def files you record from your pc on a usb drive. Just record on the computer and transfer the files to a usb harddrive. The wdtv media player does all the hardwork. It also has hdmi out and fiber optic out. It goes for under 150.00. There is a new version with a lan port - the old one does not.

That way you wouldn't need to buy a new computer but just get the media player.

Something to consider. Probably the same price as upgrading your computer and you get a whole lot more for playback options.

[ocgw]

thanks for the advice..... actually, as it is right now, the Athlon is recording ATSC HDTV @ 1080i, bit rates reported by Power DVD 9 showing very high readings, up to 25 Mbps. In my system I have an LG LST 3410a HDTV hard drive recorder, I compared PQ of the Athlon recordings, it's essentially the same. The only problem with the Athlon is the hiccuping on playback.
I already upgraded system memory to 1256MB DDR400, if it's just a video card upgrade, it might be worth it

What video playback software do you use?

ocgw

peace

[ocgw]

My Athlon XP system is running DVD's smoothly w/ Win7 Ultimate MC7/MyMovies3/PDVD8

Windows 7, really not that big of a resource hog

ocgw

peace

[joecass]

I use either the ATI software that came with the ATI HD 650 USB card, which is called Catalyst Media Center, or Power DVD 9.
DVD's play perfectly. I want to keep this Athlon system going for a while, since most of my older software is not compatible
with Vista or Windows 7. Spending $150 on an external media player sounds good in theory, but I think I'd rather sink the
bucks into new hardware, i.e., motherboard, cpu, memory & hard drive when the time comes. Considering an Athlon II 250
dual-core cpu, a medium-priced AM3 motherboard with integrated video or some similar combination strong enough to play
HD video files. Maybe I'll give a shot to upgrading the AGP video card for now, and see what happens.....

[ocgw]

I use either the ATI software that came with the ATI HD 650 USB card, which is called Catalyst Media Center, or Power DVD 9.
DVD's play perfectly. I want to keep this Athlon system going for a while, since most of my older software is not compatible
with Vista or Windows 7. Spending $150 on an external media player sounds good in theory, but I think I'd rather sink the
bucks into new hardware, i.e., motherboard, cpu, memory & hard drive when the time comes. Considering an Athlon II 250
dual-core cpu, a medium-priced AM3 motherboard with integrated video or some similar combination strong enough to play
HD video files. Maybe I'll give a shot to upgrading the AGP video card for now, and see what happens.....

+

The Athlon II cpus are nice, my 2nd PC has a Athlon II 245 running @ 3.8Ghz @ only 41c* (both cores 100% utilization) on a matx mobo w/ limited v options, gonna' put an full atx oc'n mobo back in there and see what it can do

But if I had it to do all over again I would have waited and put in a AMD Propus $99USD quad in my 2nd PC

ocgw

peace