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jiminyjetson
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cheap HDMi AGP card?

Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:37 pm

I've just built a cheapo media center for my new 32" hd LCD. It's currently running and old GeForce 4, which is struggling a fair bit. I'm looking for a new NVidia card (has to be nVidia as i'll be running linux with mythTV when i get a day spare to get it up and runing - and i don't want to mess around getting an ATi card to work under linux). I have 4 criteria:
a) HDMI output
b)Cheap
c) AGP
d) passive cooling

anyone got any ideas? i've been trawling ebuyer and the like, but not having much luck finding anything!



edit: is HDMI actually necessary? my TV has a VGA input, which i'm using at the moment. i'm not going to be playing HD DVD's or anything. just regular DVD's and maybe Hi-res DivX. I have to admit i don't know a great deal about AV stuff!
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Nitrodist
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Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:47 pm

I don't think there's any HDMI cards out there. They just output in DVI, which is the same thing. You could just get a DVI to HDMI converter, however.

Really, if you're looking for a fantastic HTPC video card, take a look at the ATI 2400/2600 series. They feature HDCP (which the Nvidia 8500/8600 doesn't), H264 hardware decoding, and VC-1 decoding.

ATI will be coming out with the cards sometime in AGP but for now they're just PCI-e :( Too bad nvidia has dropped support for AGP already.

Of course, if you don't mind not having HDCP support then the 8500/8600 series looks good as well.

Read the review here and decide for your self.

Yes, HDMI isn't totally necessary 8)

On a final note, if your PC can handle the videos on its own without hardware acceleration, then just picking up any old card out of the last generation will do you good. A 7600 sounds good, a 7900GS sounds good as well. However, I'm no expert in these things, but I am capable of playing 720p content on my P4 2.533ghz with a 6600GT in it.
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Usacomp2k3
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Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:45 pm

Nitrodist wrote:
I don't think there's any HDMI cards out there. They just output in DVI, which is the same thing. You could just get a DVI to HDMI converter, however.

Incorrect :wink:
Newegg link to all their HDMI cards

However, you are correct in saying that pretty much all he needs is a DVI port.
 
king_kilr
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Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:17 am

As others have said, anything with DVI will work, they are the same technologies, HDMI just includes audio.
Damn the torpedoes , full speed ahead.

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jiminyjetson
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Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:13 am

Cracking - that's a big help. Those ATi 2400's seem very, very nice indeed. I'll have to see how much more the AGP variants cost.....and go through the hell of getting it running properly under ubuntu (is it still hard to get ATi linux drivers? - it's been a while since i've done it!)
new rig: C2D e6400 (THE OC RETURNS! (currently 3.6ghz @ 1.45v)), gigabyte DS3, g. skill 2gb DDR2 800 6400, Hiper type M 670W PSU, 9600GT, 320gb Seagate Baracuda, Antec P180 Case
maxxcool wrote:
CRONK!
TRAINWRECK!
 
Usacomp2k3
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Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:43 am

jiminyjetson wrote:
Cracking - that's a big help. Those ATi 2400's seem very, very nice indeed. I'll have to see how much more the AGP variants cost.....and go through the hell of getting it running properly under ubuntu (is it still hard to get ATi linux drivers? - it's been a while since i've done it!)

You'll likely lose all the onboard video decoding due to ATI/AMD's lesser linux drivers.
You might be waiting awhile for AGP though. That train has left the station.
 
jiminyjetson
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Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:48 am

actually, been cruising around for windows-based media center software and found a few things that have swayed me away from a linux system, as MediaPortal seems pretty sexy (and doesn't involve a whole day of tears due to my lack of linux know-how) - so i'm now only restricted by AGP, price and noise :)
new rig: C2D e6400 (THE OC RETURNS! (currently 3.6ghz @ 1.45v)), gigabyte DS3, g. skill 2gb DDR2 800 6400, Hiper type M 670W PSU, 9600GT, 320gb Seagate Baracuda, Antec P180 Case
maxxcool wrote:
CRONK!
TRAINWRECK!
 
Usacomp2k3
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Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:01 am

You should at least give windows media center a try.
 
jinjuku
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Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:28 am

The Sapphire Radeon 2400 w/ 256MB PCI-Express is $59 and it is PASSIVELY cooled. Heck of a deal for HTPC.
Computers and OS's are tools, not religions. Use the best tool for the job.
 
jiminyjetson
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Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:07 pm

alas, stuck with AGP. PCI-E would involve replacing pretty much all of my components....and i simply can't afford it rightr now. My geForce 4 has just died about 10 minutes ago, so looks like my hand is being forced. will probably just go for a passively cooled agp GeForce 6200 - will play movies well enough for now. if the system becomes too slow at any point, i'll just blow a few hundred pounds on it and make it all dual-core and shiny.
new rig: C2D e6400 (THE OC RETURNS! (currently 3.6ghz @ 1.45v)), gigabyte DS3, g. skill 2gb DDR2 800 6400, Hiper type M 670W PSU, 9600GT, 320gb Seagate Baracuda, Antec P180 Case
maxxcool wrote:
CRONK!
TRAINWRECK!
 
leor
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Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:33 pm

I wish they had more HDMI options. I have to upgrade from a XFX 7900GT (2 actually) and my only options are an 8600GTS which is slower, and a 2900XT which is way too expensive, big and hot.
 
JustAnEngineer
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Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:18 pm

How about this Radeon X1650 AGP for your Windows-based HTPC? For Linux, there's this GeForce 7600GS AGP.
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jiminyjetson
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Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:52 am

both very tempting cards. i'd probably lean more towards the 7600, given the choice. I'll see if my HTPC comes back to life when i throw in a 6200 (i'm worried i might have wrecked my mobo). If not, i'll have to replace the whole lot - which means core 2 duo and a PCI-E card (which would give me a bit more choice!)

is it sad that i'm actually secretly hoping that it IS the mobo that's broken, just so i can make a new system? :(
new rig: C2D e6400 (THE OC RETURNS! (currently 3.6ghz @ 1.45v)), gigabyte DS3, g. skill 2gb DDR2 800 6400, Hiper type M 670W PSU, 9600GT, 320gb Seagate Baracuda, Antec P180 Case
maxxcool wrote:
CRONK!
TRAINWRECK!
 
Kurotetsu
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Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:08 pm

If the announcement of an AGP version of the HD3850 hold out, that would be a great option for this.
 
Nitrodist
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Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:43 pm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814161209

Hmm, $140 with $20 MIR for HD video processing on any AGP machine... very tempting.
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Scrotos
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Re: cheap HDMi AGP card?

Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:26 am

How handy! Found this link in google when I was looking for "agp hdmi". Good newegg link. $30/$20 for a low-profile AGP card with HDMI. Exactly what I was lookin' fer!

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