New use for old nags?

[ajones]

I've been thinking for a while about retiring an old system that I gave up upgrading about 12 months ago when I passed it onto the missus. I've now moved her onto a laptop, so this machine is sitting pretty much unused.

Before I retire the old nag permanently, I thought I may try creating a HTPC out of it. So, do you guys think it's worth bothering? I mean, is this hardware upto the task if I just buy a TV capture card thingy (flash case comes later if it all works!) and bang in MCE?

ABit KT7A-RAID (doesn not have USB2.0)
Althlon XP2400 Chundabird
1Gig DDR266
GF 5200 (256M)

If not.... well I guess the guys at Scan can start rubbing their collective mitts together again

[Mike22]

I'd say those are perfectly adequate specs for use as an HTPC. Throw in a decent digital tuner and a fairly large hard drive (maybe put it in a Silverstone Lascala ) and you've got yourself a nice system!

[ajones]

Was hoping wonebody would say that! Need to research those tuners now and find the best combo.

Thinking about getting the Zalman HD160 , but I need to check whether how many USB ports it needs, as the KT7A only has 2 on on the back and a single header for 2 more.

This should keep me out of trouble for a while.. want to set up NAS over the wireless network as well.

[RavenNight]

Yep if your looking for tuners the compro one I've got it pretty tasty however i don't know what the MCE compatability is like...