home theatre PC specs?
#1
I was looking at getting an Intel quad core2 775 with 8gb memory and a decent pci-e nvidia card with TV out.

would even the lowest end intel quad core core 2 CPU be ok?

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#2
Overkill.
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#3
TV out? What does that mean? Are you talking getting a TV tuner?

What's your budget?

What is your typical usage scenario?

Which CPU(s) are you looking at?

What other parts are you going to purchase?
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#4
These days it is very difficult to find a card with the traditional "TV Out" which usually means some form of analogue TV output mechanism, like composite, s-video or component. You would only want one if you had a TV without Digital (DVI at a pinch, or usually HDMI) inputs. With the price of TVs these days and the difference in quality you'd be better to invest in a decent HDMI 1080p TV. OTOH if you are stuck with an analogue TV the Raspberry Pi is one of the few machines you'll find with hardware acceleration and composite out. And they are cheap! But composite is the least desirable analogue format, if you have s-video (a bit better) or component (best analogue format) inputs then look for a second hand nvidia card like an 8400 with the right output for your highest spec input format. Don't go lower than the 8xxx series or you will miss out on VDPAU decoding.

On the other hand if by TV Out you mean HDMI out, then get a reasonably low end nvidia card, like a 620. The upper end cards sometimes are not best for an htpc. They cost way more than you need to decode Bluray quality video, and some higher end cards perversely don't have HD Audio out.
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#5
I'm using my old PC as a HTPC... It plays anything I throw at it no problem!

Full spec:
Dell Inspiron 531
CPU: AMD 2.4GHz Dual Core
RAM: 2GB Corsair XMS2
HDD: Seagate 2TB (7200rpm)
GPU: 1GB ASUS AMD Radeon HD 6570 (With HDMI out)
Sound card: Auzentech 7.1 DTS Connect/Dolby Digital Live (With optical out)
OS: Windows 7 (32bit)
XBMC: 13.1 (Gotham)

Anything more than the above is overkill IMO.
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home theatre PC specs?0