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Desktop PC vs. Home Theatre PC
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09-18-2010, 11:57 AM | #1 |
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Desktop PC vs. Home Theatre PC
Question: Is it possible to use an above average Desktop PC instead of a Home Theatre PC with my TV.
Pupose of Use: Watch Internet, videos, hulu, youtube, music, dvd's, downloaded videos while on my TV. No gaming. Home Theatre PCs are quite pricey and I don't care for the use of a TV tuner. And I don't care that it looks like a "living room piece". So would I be able to use something like this (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pav...&skuId=9840504) as my "Home Theatre PC" and hook up via HDMI? Or is this unit missing something /would need to be upgraded? Thank you for your input. |
09-19-2010, 03:27 PM | #2 |
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I have that same computer, and I love it. I did upgrade the video card and PSU (they were free replacements from another PC), since I use it for gaming. The GPU that comes with isn't the best, but it is a lot better than on-board video. It should be fine for watching movies.
The sound card is built in, but it does have a toslink connection. It might be good enough for HT duty. I don't know how hard core you are about that sort of thing, but I'm satisfied with it for gaming purposes. If you plan on ripping a lot of your BD/DVDs, 1TB should be plenty of room. I installed an additional 1.5TB drive, but that was another 'free' upgrade from another PC. |
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09-19-2010, 08:53 PM | #3 |
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1TB will not hold many BD's ... I have a 3TB server and over 1.5TB are just movies and that is dvd's ... I also have hd-dvds on there and they are about 30GB each ... a full image of a BD can be that or higher I have about 500GB left and havent finished ripping my hd-dvds yet nor have i started the BD's
for streaming BD's I would suggest a higher end gaming pc or a dedicated htpc as it is extremely taxing on the processor to buffer a large file like that ... even more so if you want to stream over the network
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09-20-2010, 03:30 PM | #5 |
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You really shouldn't even consider that.... I can find or build you a machine that's a lot better for cheaper....
the RAM is borderline useless (over-exaggeration), and it's a 5400RPM Harddrive. this combination is going to drive you NUTS, especially as a home theatre machine. Beyond that the video card isn't too stellar |
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09-22-2010, 10:06 AM | #7 |
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HT PC are very
My Desktop PC was supposed to be my HTPC and gaming. I spend more than $2100 when the Core i7 first came out. Mind you, I built this though. My specs are.... MOBO: EVGA X58 3x SLI CPU: Core i7 RAM: 6GB HDD1: 2x250GB SATAII RAID 0 HDD2: 2x500GB SATAII RAID 1 Case: LianLi A05 Video: ATI 4870 Sound: Onboard Then I found out later that you can't stream DTS or Dolby True HD and DTS HD. Well you will need to spend a fortune to get those. So from what your purpose is just build a nice desktop PC with the stuff you want/need. It will not look fancy but thats ok
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09-27-2010, 10:18 PM | #8 | |
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Quote:
What do you mean you can't stream DTS..etc? You can just pop the hdmi cord in the back and it'll work, no? |
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