Would a 233 mhz MMX make an okay HTPC?

[John Holmes]

I have one that the wife wants to let the kids use. I think it may have a better use. :B

Or is it not worth the effort?




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[SiliGoose]

I don't think it would run a software DVD player. If it did, it certainly wouldn't be very smooth.
It might do an OK job playing back MP3s -though that's fairly processor intensive too.




-Sili

[John Holmes]

Thanks for the the advice Sili. Looks like the children win!




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[SiliGoose]

It probably makes a pretty good Internet surfer though, right?




-Sili

[John Holmes]

Yes it does. It was our primary PC until about 9 mos ago.

It's no big deal. I was just kicking the idea around but, I don't own a Hi-def monitor/tv yet anyway. And the kids will have there own PC thus, freeing up our pimary system in a multitude of ways.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[JonMarsh]

With a Hollywood Plus card, it would work. That card does essentially all the processing on the video board, then uses a chroma key screen to overlay on the regular video. CPU loading is qutie low. Or, it can drive a monitor seperately. The quality doesn't quite compare with the current nVidia and ATI boards, or a Matrox G400, but the S-Video output driving a regular TV is actually pretty good, considering. Friends seeing the Hollywood plus two or three years ago on a test system were pretty impressed. I may have a couple of those still lurking around in boxes, and you can get up to date drivers from the web. If you're interested, let me know, and I'll see if I can find one and send it to you- I'd rather have it in use than toss it in the trash can. It would be a cheap way to make a low end PC DVD capable. Maybe for your kids?

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
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[John Holmes]

Jon,

Thanks for the info. And, I may take you up on the card.

I spoke with my wife about it today. After considering what the total cost maybe to make an HTPC (don't own a DVD drive yet), it may make since just to give the kids this unit and start fresh. They would be doing word processing more than anything else so, it's a good system for them.

I get the impression from your post, that it will work but, might not be worth the investment in the long run. If I decide to do it, you can bet, it will be in my HT and not the kids rooms! :B




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[JonMarsh]

You've got mail....




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....