Old computer revived as a Media Center: Am I wasting my time?
804458
You'll need to upgrade to Windows XP, if you haven't already. Also, you'll need more memory -- at least 1 gb. Maybe a bifgger hard drive, too.
1389635
pci express video slot or regular AT slots, i would not buy a used pc from this seller. it might power up on test, but unless it is run for 72 hours or more and ALL components tested (power switch and fans to cpu to mbd to all drives to memory chips to extn slots to banks to cooling fans to cables) for a decent period of time, you might get a lemon. i find it impossible to find the time and energy needed to reship a 25 lb pc back! good luck with your decision.
390843
yup, that's actually what I ended up doing. I have two of these, one as a vmware esxi box and the other is my lab machine with one cpu that im currently testing Joyent SmartOS on. This motherboard is a beast, you'll be very happy if you end up buying it
1389077
Media Center software exists for various operating systems, including Windows Mac and Linux based systems. I've written batch files for use on Windows and scripts that work on Linux. If anyone is interested, examples of the batch and script code is at http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=820
879873
I wouldn't bother. You could easily buy an ssd and ram and do it yourself quite easily if your at all familiar with computers.
8822
Unfortunately it's not. BUT I've had multiple large programs running at once and it doesn't bog at all. For everyday media/home use it doesn't skip a beat!
1326099
anyone have any thoughts? my primary use would be music, both (admittedly out of date) CDs and mp3
2245974
I think so, if the hard drive old has similar connection it'll working good.Good luck.
1501706
Honestly, Robert, I've been using it for system backups/restores. I haven't tried it for streaming.
455679
Scrupples' answer sounds about right. Maybe look for a budget monitor. I wonder if you could back up your old computer and then load the files onto the Dell. I'm not the most computer savvy guy BTW.
902852
Definitely. Whether its with OpenELEC or XBMC under windows, this will get the job done for you
645316
Sure, but if you already have this machine, you might trying setting up a Win8 VM on it. That would allow you to keep your installation reasonably virgin, and minimize the risks of changing the OS and bungling it all up.
638152
Be advised, the processor is not adequate to use this device as a media server if you need to do any heavy transcoding. For backup and media downloading/organizing it works great. I'd really like to see an upgrade version with a powerful processor.
961065
The old computer will need to be powered up, whether by battery or a/c power. The process will require that the hard drives of both computers be running.
343250
Ok, thanks for all these infos, but I know nothing much about computers except to use them, so I bought a msi u120 because I need to use it for personal office work and web browsing as well as msn chat. I'd also like to install a genealogy program on it. Can anyone tell me if its power will be enough for that. Don't laugh, but I'm pretty lost and I didn't even receive the beast yet. probably sometimes next week. so any advice before I start it and its capacities will be welcome. Don't laugh again, it's the first time in years that I buy myself a computer and my first laptop too.
660644
Yes. This is what I was trying to achieve. Power and sound imaging is not that strong for my needs or what I imagined it could be. But not a bad deal to recycle some old speakers which greatly served my other purpose.
1558604
Yes, this should work fine so long as the memory in your computer currently is NOT sodimm