I was wondering how low you could go with hardware that would still be able to smoothly run HD movies.
My current plan is around $215 CAD w/o a hard drive: Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.2 GHz – 1GB DDR/SDRAM – 512MB X1600 Pro AGP – 350W PSU – ECS P4VXASD2+ – Bluray/DVD-RW drive.
As for the hard drive, could I just get a 7200RPM IDE HDD? Also, I’m planning on installing XP Pro SP3, unless Ubuntu somehow has an advantage.
I’m not wanting this to be a media center only computer… just want it to be a normal computer with just enough oomph to play HD movies.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT1: Forgot to mention that the Bluray/DVD-RW drive is SATA, but I was planning on getting an SATA-IDE adapter or a PCI card with SATA.
EDIT2: Oh yes… if I get a PCI card with SATA, would you then recommend I use an SATA hard drive as well? That would leave all the IDE ports on the motherboard unused… is that a good idea?
Solution:
The CPU should be fast enough, but it maybe too close. Depends what else you have running on the system.
About HDD, if you are buying a new one, by all means go for SATA. It’s a newer standard and most of the modern drives you buy now would be SATA. It also supports higher overall speeds, although it is doubtful your HDD would actually be bound by the interface limitations.
If you already have an IDE drive, that would be fine. It may not be the best option, but it most likely is not going to be the limiting factor for playing 1080p movies.
As for SATA-IDE or PCI SATA card, by all means go for the PCI SATA card. It’s the better option and probably cheaper too.