Do You Think a 1Ghz PIII Machine Could Run XP MCE & Record?

[racketboy]

Once Windows 7 launches, I'm gonna put it on my old machine and give it to my parents.
Their old machine is a 1Ghz Pentium III and I'm wondering if its got enough muscle to run XP Media Center Edition and be able record standard def stuff and playback efficiently.
Thoughts?

[Hobie-wan]

If you turn off all the unnecessary shiny interface stuff, it has at least 512 memory and isn't bogged down with background crap, ie less than 35 processes running after getting to the desktop, it should be more than fine for playback. I tested some 720 wide divx files on my old celeron 333 with XP pro and 256, though I had it running really lean, So i imagine as long as the machine stays clean it should probably be fine for recording too, though I haven't done recording with any machines.

[deathclaw]

I would reinstall it and customize it with nLite first...It is unbelievable what it is able to do.

[racketboy]

If you turn off all the unnecessary shiny interface stuff, it has at least 512 memory and isn't bogged down with background crap, ie less than 35 processes running after getting to the desktop, it should be more than fine for playback. I tested some 720 wide divx files on my old celeron 333 with XP pro and 256, though I had it running really lean, So i imagine as long as the machine stays clean it should probably be fine for recording too, though I haven't done recording with any machines.

Yeah, I guess recording is my biggest concern.
I'd hate to invest $50 to $100 in extra parts for the thing just to find out it doesn't cut it.
Like I don't have a spare tuner and remote. I'd have to yank them out of my main media center to test.

[fox099]

It probably wont have a problem running XP, but I would take the previous posters advice and clean up the install as much as possible! What are you using to record? Happague or AverMedia?

[racketboy]

Happague

[Ziggy]

RAM should be really cheap for that computer. What is the max amount of RAM you can put in it? You definitely want to max it out.

Also, if the video capture card doesn't do its own processing (like a cheaper one) using it to record will be very heavy on the CPU. Taken from the description of one card: "The digitizing of the analog video signal and the resizing of the video image is performed by hardware on the [TV tuner], thereby not slowing down the CPU." Most cards will tell you what you need to run it (just like a game does) ie: CPU, RAM, video card, etc.

And does the computer have a dedicated graphics card slot (probably AGP if it does). You definitely don't want to be using any on board video. If the computer doesn't have an AGP slot, you could always get a PCI video card. It would still be better than using on board.

[racketboy]

Well, I did a search for the tuner card I use in my current setup (Hauppauge 274)
It says the required processor is "Pentium III processor 1.2GHz or faster"
So does that necessarily mean I'm out of luck with the 1Ghz PIII?

[Hobie-wan]

Per Ziggy's note, if you do need a old AGP card, I've probably got on in my pile that I can send for postage cost.

[racketboy]

Per Ziggy's note, if you do need a old AGP card, I've probably got on in my pile that I can send for postage cost.

Cool! Any TV-friendly outputs?