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Old PC's as HTPC?

spyder
By spyder
in Home Theater Equipment
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I've looked around on gumtree, there are some old machines, like the small form factor PC's that are generally found in offices, they are going very cheap individually, examples are ones going for £60, comes with Windows 7 pro, 4gb RAM, medium storage capacity, part of job lots that are willing to sell individually. Most of the processors are either a core 2 duo or, pentium, in rare cases an i3 or 1/100 i5 if lucky. Are these suitable for use, I would ideally use it to connect to my TV, do light surfing, editing docs using a bluetooth keyboard mice combo (mini ones), installing popcorn time and watching films. Im pretty sure these machines have been already fully utilised in the office, they look pretty alright in their conditions.  

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The point of this thread.. is?

CPU: Intel i5 4690k @ 4.3 GHz       GPU: MSI GTX 980                      Cooling: be quiet! Pure Rock                     OS: Windows 7            Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z

Motherboard: AsRock Z97 PRO4   PSU: Corsair 600W CX600M       Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Ultimate   SSD: Intel 120GB 520   Headset: HyperX Cloud II

RAM: 12GB Crucial Ballistix            Case: Corsair 750D                       Mouse: Logitech G502                         HDD: Seagate 1TB        Speakers: Audioengine A5+

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I've looked around on gumtree, there are some old machines, like the small form factor PC's that are generally found in offices, they are going very cheap individually, examples are ones going for £60, comes with Windows 7 pro, 4gb RAM, medium storage capacity, part of job lots that are willing to sell individually. Most of the processors are either a core 2 duo or, pentium, in rare cases an i3 or 1/100 i5 if lucky. Are these suitable for use, I would ideally use it to connect to my TV, do light surfing, editing docs using a bluetooth keyboard mice combo (mini ones), installing popcorn time and watching films. Im pretty sure these machines have been already fully utilised in the office, they look pretty alright in their conditions.

Yes! If you can get an i3 or an i5 unit with HDMI output, you'd likely be alright. The built in HD Graphics would support hardware accelerated decode for the most common video formats and should bitstream the popular lossless audio formats.

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The point of this thread.. is?

Well I was asking if I should invest into obtaining one of these systems

 

Yes! If you can get an i3 or an i5 unit with HDMI output, you'd likely be alright. The built in HD Graphics would support hardware accelerated decode for the most common video formats and should bitstream the popular lossless audio formats.

Thanks for your input, I am just hoping I can find one with an i5 with ease. 

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Thanks for your input, I am just hoping I can find one with an i5 with ease.

Any i3 or i5 using the integrated graphics should be alright. Just confirm the existence of the HDMI port, as many office systems skip this in favor of Displayport or DVI.
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Any i3 or i5 using the integrated graphics should be alright. Just confirm the existence of the HDMI port, as many office systems skip this in favor of Displayport or DVI.

Displayport and DVI are fine too, you just need a cheap adaptor, right?

PC SPECS: CPU: Intel Core i7 3770k @4.4GHz - Mobo: Asrock Extreme 4 (Z77) - GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 680 Twin Frozr 2GB - RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2x4GB (8GB) 1600MHz CL8 + 1x8GB - Storage: SSD: Sandisk Extreme II 120GB. HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB - PSU: be quiet! Pure Power L8 630W semi modular  - Case: Corsair Obsidian 450D  - OS: Windows 7

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Displayport and DVI are fine too, you just need a cheap adaptor, right?

True. That normally works, particularly for DP. DVI to HDMI is a hit or miss depending on the implementation (audio may or may not work).
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I honestly wasted my time doing this. From my wife being frusterated with the looks, to me configuring stuff on it to work nice. I ended up just buying an Intel NUC. Fast, efficient and made pretty much for this purpose. Cost me more yes, but looks amazing. Also, Gigabyte makes one too and ASUS as well. They are what you are looking for.

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I honestly wasted my time doing this. From my wife being frusterated with the looks, to me configuring stuff on it to work nice. I ended up just buying an Intel NUC. Fast, efficient and made pretty much for this purpose. Cost me more yes, but looks amazing. Also, Gigabyte makes one too and ASUS as well. They are what you are looking for.

Was looking to getting a NUC but you have to purchase the SSd and ram separately increasing the budget.  

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@spyder

There're complete cheap SFF PCs for sale

How much are Asus EB1036 models in your country?

They go for in the ball park of £214 from online shops. 

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They go for in the ball park of £214 from online shops. 

Damn, forget it then... here they're cheaper with a 64 GB SSD tho 2 GB of RAM

This is a signature.

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all my htpc's are old 775 quad core pc's

with a cheap hdmi videocard

with xbmc/kodi on them

and are perfect

just make sure they have gigabit ethernet on them

If you need remote help fixing something on your computer

I can help over Teamviewer if you wish

just msg me on my profile

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all my htpc's are old 775 quad core pc's

with a cheap hdmi videocard

with xbmc/kodi on them

and are perfect

just make sure they have gigabit ethernet on them

No chance of running wired because the machine will be in my room, the router is in the living room which is downstairs so I'd rather use internet connectivity wirelessly. 

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No chance of running wired because the machine will be in my room, the router is in the living room which is downstairs so I'd rather use internet connectivity wirelessly. 

run the cable through the ducts

or buy a set of powerline adapters

If you need remote help fixing something on your computer

I can help over Teamviewer if you wish

just msg me on my profile

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run the cable through the ducts

or buy a set of powerline adapters

It will have to be powerline then

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Core 2 Duo and a cheap passively cooled GPU with an HDMI port on it is all you need for 1080p video from an HTPC.

 

My HTPC used to be a Pentium Dual Core with 2GB of RAM (DDR 2 days) and it was fine also.

 

 

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