HTPC Stuttering

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

So I have created a HTPC from an old work PC and am getting stuttering during video and music playback.  System monitor shows a random spikes to 20% on 1 core.

 

CPU: Intel 4790

MB: Generic Dell

PSU: 290W generic

GPU: Some random

SSD + HDD: Samsung 830 + WD Green

 

Kind of stumped, any ideas?

[RadiatingLight]

That CPU seems more than capable, especially with an SSD.

 

My two thoughts are that either the OS is extremely bloated (if you haven't done a clean install, I'd do that first), or that it might be trying to GPU-accelerate video playback, and is ending up using a terrible/weak GPU which is bottlenecking the CPU.

 

I'd clean install if you haven't done that already, and then try to take out the GPU and see what happens.