[allauddin]

Can you give the spec of the seven year old Desktop,

I am sure it will not have pcixpress slot, so all the latest graphics card is of no use to you.

Altenative is to go for USB to HDMI adapter.

Quality of video cannot be guaranteed in USB to HDMI.

Better use the direct VGA cable connect to the D-SUB of the LCD and seperate audio cable.

Note for Prateekam.

In your snaps I cannot see any CPU Fan.

Install the Front FAN rather than the Side FAN.
Fix the HDD properly with all screws to the cabinet (if has screw fittings) . You cabinet itself acts as the heat sink for the HDD which is very important.


Whoever wish to buy HDD go for WD RE4 version HDD these are enterprise class HDD.

For High speed data transfer from HDD we can go for RAID 0 config, in this your data will be split into 2 HDDs (Minimum Requirement) , but the failure rate doubles directly, even if 1 HDD goes bad all your data is gone.

if you dont care about cost then we can go for RAID 10 with 4 HDD setup. you will have redundancy and speed.

For all these setup it needs enterprise class HDD.

For gamers and graphics freaks you can buy G-Skill RAM also.

For Animation and rendering you need both processing and Graphics power, go for i7 processor or dual processor based workstations from supermicro.

******************
One of super micros workstation config
Supermicro Workstation(With E5620):
Technical Specifications -
Processor 2 x Intel® Xeon E5620 (Quad-Core, 2.4GHz, 12M,
5.86GT)
Chipset Intel® 5500
RAM 24GB DDR3 ECC REG (Max 48GB, 06 DIMMs)
Drives 2 x 250 GB SATA 7200 HDD & 1 x 1000 GB SATA
7200 HDD
Ethernet Dual Gigabit(10/100/1000Mbps) Ethernet
VGA NVIDIA Quadro 2000
Audio Realtek ALC883 7.1 HD Audio
Exp. Slots 1 x x16 PCI-E 2.0, 1 x x4 PCI-E 2.0(in x16 Slot), 1 x
x4 PCI-E, 2 x PCI 33MHz
RAID 0,1,5,10 (Windows) / 0,1,10 (Linux)
Ports 1 Serial, 8 x USB, 1 x PS/2, 2 x Network, I x Video
Kbd/Mouse None/Optional extra
Monitor None/Optional extra
Chassis Tower
Power
Supply
300W High-efficiency Power Supply

Approx cost 1.6L

This is what the studio guys are using.

If you need more graphic power , then quadro 4000 and 6000 are also available.

One more option is go for i7 processor based system with sli technology for graphics processing.

Be careful , in sli setup all need to be certified products which support sli, otherwise it will fail.

[anku94]

Originally Posted by devarshi84

I am looking for a cheap gpu with HDMI and DVI. any suggestions?

the use is to hook up my 7 yr old desktop with tv to watch downloaded videos.

Originally Posted by allauddin

Can you give the spec of the seven year old Desktop,

I am sure it will not have pcixpress slot, so all the latest graphics card is of no use to you.

@allauddin has a very good point. My PC is 7 years old too, and it has only an AGP port. AGP cards went out of production a while ago, and I'm not sure if cards supporting HDMI/DVI were ever available.

Could you check what port your PC has ?

[slicvic]

Here's my conifg, had built this in December and meant to post it here, but somehow didn't till now.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 4.0ghz Processor
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 Mother Board,
4 GB DDR3 RAM ADATA 1333Mhz
500GB (Sata) 7200rpm Hard Disk Drive,
ATX Cooler Master Elite 4308
Cooler Master 350 watts SMPS
Logitech K340 Wireless Keyboard
Logitech Wireless Mouse M215
L.G.DVD Writer

Have hooked it up to a 40 inch Samsung Series 5 LCD TV via HDMI

Wanted USB 3 support on the motherboard, so went for that particular configuration. Got a Western Digital My Book 3.0 External Hard Drive for storage of media and the USB 3 ensures fast transfer.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by devarshi84

I am looking for a cheap gpu with HDMI and DVI. any suggestions?

the use is to hook up my 7 yr old desktop with tv to watch downloaded videos.

Even if you get a graphics card, your 7 year old CPU may not be suitable for downloaded HD movies. These are heavily encoded and require powerful CPU, else you will get video and audio drop outs. I have quite a collection of HD movies and most of the videos strutter on HP core2duo laptop, but zoom through on the Sony Vio. I have checked the CPU usage on my Dual Quad Xeon workstation, most of the time the HD videos use up two cores (26%) and rarely only one core (13%).

My son bought a dedicated media centre box for 3k which acts as a processor for videos streamed from an external disk to a TV, without the need for a computer. That may be the best and cheapest option for you.
ASUS O!Play Mini HD Media Player. ASUS OPLAY_MINI/1A/NTSC/AS

3K for the device and another 3k for an external hard disk, much less than a dedicated graphics card with 1GB RAM!

[octy9833]

Hi friends,

My config is here
Phenom 2 x4 BE 965
Asus M4a88t-m motherboard
2*2 gb ddr3 1333 Mhz Ram
20 inch screen(1600*900)
Msi GTX 460 Hawk Talon Attack GPU
600W seasonic PSU
creative 4.1 audio setup

Systems good and runs all the games i play. Now need to upgrade to a GTX 560(itch).. How i wish there was a buyback or step up program in bangalore for Graphic cards like they have in US...

Regards

[slicvic]

Go through the following thread for more information on the media players

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadget...ontent-tv.html

Hope its helpful

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Aroy

I have checked the CPU usage on my Dual Quad Xeon workstation, most of the time the HD videos use up two cores (26%) and rarely only one core (13%).

Something is wrong. Are you using VLC by any chance?

[devarshi84]

Didn't occur to me that AGp has been stopped and that none will have an HDMI. IS DVI advisable for HDTV? The pc runs even big youtube HD videos just fine.

The specs are

Intel Celeron Tualatin 1.00 ghz running at 1.3 (32kb l1 and 256kb l1cache) 133mhz fsb
512mb SDRAM
intel i810 board with integrated gpu. released in 1999. hehe
80gb 5400rpm hdd
creative audigy2 (Not installed yet)

boots in about 20 seconds flat though. WIll update after checking if it has PCI by chance.

Update: Board has PCI, no PCI-E though.

[cranky]

DVI and HDMI are electrically compatible. A DVI-HDMI cable is enough.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Something is wrong. Are you using VLC by any chance?

I have tried all the players and the windows media player 64 consumes the least CPU. The CPU plays a major role in the decoding and some *.mkv HD movies are heavily coded. Try "Fifth Element" and a core2duo will strutter in some places.

The basic blue ray disks require very little CPU, but some of the compressed HD movies a lot. Anyway, the Asus media centre appliance does a stellar job and you do not need a PC with it.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by cranky

DVI and HDMI are electrically compatible. A DVI-HDMI cable is enough.

The HDMI carries the sound also, while a DVI does not.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Aroy

The CPU plays a major role in the decoding and some *.mkv HD movies are heavily coded. Try "Fifth Element" and a core2duo will strutter in some places.

In fact, CPU's role should be minimal in a well designed system (GPU + OS + Drivers + codec + Player).

Only thing CPU has to do is to fill decode buffer of GPU. GPU can decode HD codec natively.

My Android tablet with 1 GHz CPU + NVidia GPU handles 50 GB ISO images without any issue. Reason is Video + Audio decoding is off-loaded to GPU.

If CPU is being used, that means some layer is not doing it job.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

In fact, CPU's role should be minimal in a well designed system (GPU + OS + Drivers + codec + Player).

Only thing CPU has to do is to fill decode buffer of GPU. GPU can decode HD codec natively.

My Android tablet with 1 GHz CPU + NVidia GPU handles 50 GB ISO images without any issue. Reason is Video + Audio decoding is off-loaded to GPU.

If CPU is being used, that means some layer is not doing it job.

Some of the latest cards come with decoders, but most of the popular cards do not, and require quite a hefty CPU. Here is an interesting article explaining what I mean
Accelerate x.264 1080p movies over the GPU Guide

I doubt that most of the Laptops have this capability in their video cards.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Aroy

I doubt that most of the Laptops have this capability in their video cards.

That article is from Feb 2009. And even that article states:

Today we are going to open up and investigate this topic, we'll show you how you can accelerate x.264 content nearly 100% accelerated and post processed (enhanced) with nothing other than your graphics card.

My laptop with onboard intel GPU (i5, purchased August 2010) handles HD playback with almost no load on CPU. This includes HD sound being bit-streamed to 7.1 receiver over HDMI.

If I use VLC, it uses CPU by default and then usage jumps to 25%.

[cranky]

Originally Posted by Aroy

The HDMI carries the sound also, while a DVI does not.

A PC video card on an AGP slot has no audio....

btw this is the exact configuration I use for my HTPC hooked up to a 42" LCD HDMI of the TV to DVI of the PC. And I don't know why you would use TV speakers if you were connecting to a HTPC.

From Wikipedia (will post an alternative source later): "Both DVI and HDMI share the same electrical specifications for the TMDS and VESA/DDC links."

Audio is a feature, it has nothing to do with electrical compatibility. The cable works. Both ways. It is currently serving the reverse role to hook up a 22" monitor to the HDMI output of my motherboard (I'm too cheap to buy a DVI-DVI cable).