Dedicated TV PC

[peekaboo]

I have a Sony Bravia KDL40WL140 LCD TV (1920x1080 120Hz) and right now I have it connected to an AMD Duron (650 MHz), 884 MB ram with an Nvidia MX420 (agp) graphics card.

The system works but isn't very snappy (as you can imagine).
Under Ubuntu, I can use the entire screen but under Windows the card only goes up to 1280x1024 for some reason.

I'm considering building a dedicated PC for this TV.

1. Would installing a more powerful agp graphics card do the trick (give me a snappy system capable of playing hi-def movies? (keeping in mind the cpu is 650 MHz)

2. What would be a recommended system to build?
I don't play games but I'd like to watch movies (regular and Hi-Def) that I stream from my other computers?

[glc]

I think you will need more horsepower to do hi-def. I'd look at something with one of the new boards with onboard graphics that have HDMI - such as:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813131332

That, with one of the dual core Pentiums such as a E5200 and a 2x2 kit of DDR2-667 or DDR2-800 should do the job fine.

[peekaboo]

I was hoping to make this a not so expensive build.
What about something like this:
mobo or mobo, cpu, ram?

[glc]

If you are going to go to the trouble of building a system to do this, go HDMI. You will not regret it.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS

Newegg.ca does not stock that board or I would have recommended it originally. Since Newegg opened up Canada, I don't bother with NCIX any more, I'm too lazy to dig through their listings, I'm used to the Newegg interface.

[peekaboo]

What do you mean by "go to the trouble", what are my alternatives?
I don't understand the HDMI motherboard issue. Isn't HDMI capability up to the GPU?
I'm really happy with NCIX. They match prices and I save shipping costs because their Vancouver store is very close by.

[glc]

I am not dissing NCIX, I just like Newegg's interface better. Like I said, I'm lazy.

The linked motherboard (from NCIX) has onboard video with a HDMI jack. The cheaper boards do not, all they have is VGA. I'm trying to save you the necessity of possibly having to buy a video card. I recommend you spend the extra 40 bucks, connecting a computer to a TV with HDMI will pass both digital video and audio to the TV. There comes a point where cheaping out gives you subpar results.

[peekaboo]

I see.
I have an extra ATI Radeon HD 2600 gpu so I was planning to use that with a DVI-HDMI adapter but going the motherboard route may be a better option.

In the meantime my wife is not impressed with my plan of building a dedicated pc so I may have to go the agp gpu route. We'll see how that goes.

Would a Radeon X800 or something like that be too much for the 650 Mhz Duron?

[glc]

That Duron doesn't have anywhere near the power needed to process hi-def content. A new video card would be a waste.

A HD 2600 with DVI->HDMI will work fine on a new system if you already have it, but you will have to use separate audio cables.