Intel P4, 2.4GHz - is it of any use

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Forums › HTPC › Intel P4, 2.4GHz - is it of any use

alisam

135 posts

Master Geek

Topic # 83829 21-May-2011 13:36
I have an old Dell Dimension 2400. Pentium 4, 2.4GHz, 40gb drive Microsoft XP Home, 512mb Ram Is it of any use as an HTPC. If not, any suggestions (and yes, I do know most of the silly ones)?

Ventura

87 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 471897 21-May-2011 14:04
If it is a Sata drive drop a 1Tb drive in and use as a NAS.

JimmyH

785 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 472015 21-May-2011 21:48
Should be fine for running at least an older version of MAME. If you fancy carpentry, you could buy a few controls or an X-Arcade setup, and build an arcade cabinet to put it in.

kyhwana2

2187 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 472019 21-May-2011 22:00
Not really. It probably won't play HD content unless you put a video card in there that'll do hardware video decoding. But it also doesn't realy have enough RAM.

joker97

4101 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Reply # 472022 21-May-2011 22:07
don't try htpc ... unless you want random lag and lag everytime you click something or change the channel or touch the thing it could be a very fast very large non portable netbook? Apologies for poor typing standards when on Samsung Galaxy S4

xpd

Minecraft n00b
5347 posts

Uber Geek

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Subscriber

Reply # 472072 22-May-2011 08:22
Ive just built a P4 2.4 (2GB and a 7600 video card) for myself....- still runs a bunch of games I like to play... XPD / @DemiseNZ / Gavin Website CPU : Intel E5300 GFX: Geforce 9800GTX/+ RAM: 3GB DDR2 A+ - MCDST - MCTS CCNA Arriving soon.

password1

57 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 472797 23-May-2011 09:31
My HTPC works with the same cpu. It is an old HP D510 compaq office pc. Just put a bit more ram in there and a new hdd, and it will go well.

Nety

2553 posts

Uber Geek

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Reply # 472915 23-May-2011 12:41
For SD stuff it would be OK with the right software but if you have a HD TV I would not bother as you will just want it to do HD stuff. Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

alisam

135 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 473117 23-May-2011 18:27
Thank you for your help. I can see that it is not up to the job as an HTPC computer. I asked at work and someone has a need for such a machine which is primarily to use it to log into work and work from home. I know it is well up to the job (because I used to use it), so I am happy to donate it to them.

JonnyCam

215 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 473165 23-May-2011 20:53
I use a P4 2.4Ghz with 1 gb ram, and an ATI 2600 AGP video card and it plays my 1080i freeview recordings just fine. I use this as a client to my GBPVR / NPVR server upstairs. Running Win7.