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Hey there,
I'm new to the htpc world and willing to set up my first device.
I managed to sponge an old pc (Core 2 Duo E8500) from my office,
so first of all I want to put a graphics card in it.
It should be able to play 1080p movies, not necessarily in 3D because my TV can't play it (of course I wouldn't complain if it was future-proof),
Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master, and it should connect through hdmi (including audio).
I would prefer to save some bucks to having the card completely noiseless, as the pc will be standing behind a wall...
The System will be running with WinXP SP3.
Can you give me advice? Best would be if you are using a similar system with WinXP, so you could tell me if the drivers work...
thnx
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Don't use Win Xp, use Linux or Win7 instead. Because Win Xp does not support Graphics Acceleration on GPU.
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Hello Captain,
thanks for your reply...
A friend told me, the E8500 should be strong enough for my purpose.
But if he was wrong I would use XBMCbuntu...
I stuck to Win because other os means other drivers, and Windows is the only os I ever used...
Which card would you suggest if I used XBMCbuntu?
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Driver management in Windows 7 is much easier than Windows XP.
For Linux, if you're just watching videos and no gaming, something like the Nvidia GT610 will do well.
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With just about every card/configuration you'll find people having problems with audio or video not working for whatever strange driver/configuration/defect reason. The GT610 is supposed to pass audio via HDMI when properly configured.
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Kib
Team-Kodi Member
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whatever you do, if you want to run linux, better to go with a fairly decent Nvidia card as opposed to Ati.
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OK guys I guess I'll order one and try my luck...
Thanks.
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Linux Mint is a good distro if you have never used Linux before. There isn't much to do to it to get it running XBMC and it's fairly close to windows xp in use.
It also installs all the codecs required in its initial install.
If you google linux mint and grab the 32 bit Mate Version which has everything ready to go more or less.
Linux mint is also a derivative of Ubuntu, so 99% of the commands you find for ubuntu will work in linux mint. Like installing the google chrome package which you literally just double click after download.
If your going to use an nvidia card it's failry straightforwad to install the drivers.
Once you have linux installed open the start menu and click on terminal to open a terminal and enter the command lines below into the terminal.
1. Add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
2. Update the system:
sudo apt-get update
3. Install the nvidia packages:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings
Reboot the computer. You now have the nvidia drivers running. Use the Nvidia Config option under system to change the resolution if you want to change it and not the display option under settings or you will have some crazy artifacts start showing up.
Next If you click on the sound icon in the bottom right corner and open settings you can play around in the output settings to get sound running to your TV.
It helps if you have a youtube video or something playing so you know when you have selected the correct output.
Install XBMC using a the terminal and the install command lines for ubuntu in the wiki and your good to go. Set the audio out to HDMI in XBMC.
I'm currently running an E8500 myself with an Asus geforce 210 and I have no hiccups at all. A newer Nvidia card will do wonders for the PC. One thing to take note of. I spent 2 days trying to get my video card to work and it finally dawned on me to update the bios, if you are having issues with the older motherboard.
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All terminal is is the command line for linux. Similar to a dos prompt for windows. It's found in the start menu.
Ubuntu is ok but with the new Unity desktop and some other changes it can be very confusing for someone that has never used linux before to try and navigate around.
Linux mint installs everything you will need like codecs, burning software, office software etc. The only thing it doesn't install is the nvidia drivers and XBMC itself. Any installed software you don't want can be removed through the software manager which is like windows or android market. You can find it in the start menu as well.
For Nvidia cards it uses an open source driver that works perfectly fine unless you want to use it for video streaming. So with the 3 command lines above you have the drivers installed.
Linux mint does have 4 different desktop environments. XFCE which is light use but missing items that you need to install.
KDE which is for higher end machines. Cinnamon which is ok but can become very laggy. Mate which is closest to a windows desktop and very easy to navigate.
I have tried all 4 version of Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Bodhi linux, Snow Linux, XBMCBuntu and a couple of others.
XBMCbuntu works very well but I had issues getting the nvidia card to work with it and I wanted to be able to use Netflix as well which I could never get to work in XBMCbuntu even using the directions in the forum here.
Out of all the other OS's Linux Mint 14 Mate worked the best and is the most stable. I have no skipping or buffering. I have 4 PC's I maintain for my family and a friend and none of them have issues at all.
Also with it being a forked version of Ubuntu any programs or command lines for ubuntu will 99% of the time work for linux mint.
