# Computer Build ... need advice!



## omasood1 (Feb 27, 2011)

Hello there, 

I have the following:

Core 2 duo HP 2.2 GHz
2 GB Ram
ULTIMATE HD 7750 1GB GDDR5

Using that with an Onkyo setup (Amp, speakers and sub)

Epson Projector with a 120" screen

I am wondering if this is decent enough just to play movies ... I am not much of a gamer and only using this specifically for one purpose. 

I hooked everything up yesterday and played a H264 BRRIP 720P movie ... but it was not satisfying. Seemed like the frames were not smooth. Sound too was an issue ... any explosion or loud noise was also an issue. But when I would play music separate it would be perfect? 
I was using VLC player for all of this ... kind of new at this so any advice would help :dontknow:

Thanks in advance ...


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## megageek (Oct 27, 2011)

If its windows 7 64 bit, id recomend 8gb of ram. That'll probably solve most of your problems. Ive noticed with windows 7, 2gb aint cutting it. Ive upgradded to 4gb but if its the 64 bit version, id recomend 8gb ddr 3 of course.


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## omasood1 (Feb 27, 2011)

megageek said:


> If its windows 7 64 bit, id recomend 8gb of ram. That'll probably solve most of your problems. Ive noticed with windows 7, 2gb aint cutting it. Ive upgradded to 4gb but if its the 64 bit version, id recomend 8gb ddr 3 of course.


But I have XP ... thats why I don't get why I would have that issue :S


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## megageek (Oct 27, 2011)

What size was the file? For 720p id be expecting about 3-4 gb for solid quality. 2.5gb minimum!


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## omasood1 (Feb 27, 2011)

megageek said:


> What size was the file? For 720p id be expecting about 3-4 gb for solid quality. 2.5gb minimum!


Yes it was around 2.03GB to be exact. I will try more files and see what the result is. But the sound is affected as well? Like I said last time seems like the speakers weren't able to portray the explosions and loud noises ...


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## jerryrigg (May 1, 2012)

i'm not trying to contradict anyone here but 720 shouldn't be huge stretch for that machine. i have an e4600 (2.4ghz c2d) 2gb of ddr2 800 and a 1gb xfx ati 5670. i can play all the current game titles with that "rig" at a higher resolution (1440x900) and that's generating the graphics on the fly rather than decompressing form a file. i can't fathom you having a similar (better in a few ways) and having issues with video playback at 720. this home theater isn't my strong suite but i can tell you that you will not use 8gb of memory my friend. i have noticed with some of the "brrip" movies, that some formats play better than others. i also know vlc makes more use of the cpu than gpu use. that being said, i wouldn't bother with an upgrade just yet. i suggest you try recoding it. there's a freebie out there called "super" that i use from time to time to make things easier on my wii. there's also a good one "xmedia recode". i'd just recode them to a different format (like avi) and not change the bitrate of anything. that should get you going.


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## megageek (Oct 27, 2011)

Agree. With xp, your not gunna need 8gb of ram for what you want to do.
Just out of curiosity, can you watch hd stuff on youtube?


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## jerryrigg (May 1, 2012)

lol never bothered to try till now. it works fine turning it up to 1080. i know i'm not running a full 1080 though because the monitor limits at 1280x1024. i was using it without issue on the 1440x900 before while i shipped my motherboard in my good computer off for an rma. when i tried it, i seen no stuttering or anything. was as smooth as you'd want. it's nothing high end either it's a
hp dx2400
e4600 (2.4ghz/800mhz bus c2d)
2gb of ddr2 800mhz
oem hp board (made by asus though)
ati 5670 1gb version
dvd writer 
120gb sata I hdd seagate
windows 7 32bit (might be pirated.. i plead the 5th lol)
was showing just under 1/2 the cpu in use and about 700 and some change use of memory (checked via gadget after 1/2 screening the window). i also have been known to run bf3 with the same tower at 1440x900 with a few tweaks in the video settings for the 5670 of course. i'm fairly certain if a tower can run that with good settings, it should have no issues playing video. his tower is almost the same thing i have (slighty lower clocked cpu and the 7750 is a step up in a newer generation) so i think his hardware is ok based on my experiences with my "backup"/living room pc. could have been the file being buggy or the format. come to think of it, i've even recorded with fraps and encoded it to avi with the resolution at 1440x900 on that same computer. it all played fine raw video or encoded at the same resolution at 25fps. i'm almost certain it would play flawlessly with a different format.


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

Try XBMC (free) for playback ....dont forget to tweak the sound and video settings to get the best result...
On your rig Im assuming your using onboard sound ...if this is true you could upgrade for a few $$ and greatly improve the SQ.....I also agree with upping the RAM to at least 8 gig ...RAM is also very cheap right now....


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## billyo (Nov 14, 2011)

I use only 2Gig of RAM and a 512K video card (Radeon HD5450) and it will do a 1080p BD running bloatware Cyberlink software with no problems.

A BRRIP would be even easier to play.

The solution is not in more RAM.


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## megageek (Oct 27, 2011)

Yep.


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## jerryrigg (May 1, 2012)

thank you.. that was exactly what i was saying about the memory. that machine should really break a sweat running a video.


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## Gregr (Nov 2, 2010)

Wow..., nice video card. I think I just found my next GPU. 

I assume your MoBo (motherboard) is unnamed factory installed and works well with DDR5. 

Well I can add a couple of things right of. With WinXp you are limited to 3GB of RAM being recognized and there is much debate whether or not more is of benefit. I have 4GB of DDR2 and although I have never seen more than 2.87GB recognized (or something like that) I always felt my rig ran much better with 4GB than with 2GB. Anyway with Win 7 all four are recognized. With the new MoBo and Win7 my rig will recognize all16GB of DDR3 when I put them in.

Another Win7 benefit is DirectX support. I believe your GPU is using DirectX 11 (Yep it is) well WinXp doesn't know squat about DX11 and I doubt service packs and updates made this problem/Q any better. But be sure your MoBo is up to date and WinXp is also and then go into your GPU and see what is there for legacy support.

Oh its late..., I'll get back to you seems to me there is more to think about and I can't think right now I need sleep......


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## Gregr (Nov 2, 2010)

Skip right over Vista, you need Win7 to use DX11 which is the platform your Video card is set up to play. It is all the newest Tech stuff. Open GL 4.0 (you have Open GL 4.2) gives you some of the features of DX11 (antialaising, etc) that are recognized by WinXp but it is not DX11.

With Win7 you can buy and install up to 32 GB of DDR3 RAM $80 and up for 16GB of 1600Mhz DDR3 Corsair Vengeance, but you gotta know what MoBo you have and check to be sure the RAM is compatible. You could find a great deal on 2166Mhz Deliminator RAM w/CAS Latency timing of 7 7 7 21 and BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) becomes a thing of the past.


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## adamon (Jun 3, 2012)

If you could wait a few more weeks to a month, you might as well get the new ivy bridge processors. The boost is not really of a performance level but rather an efficiency boost that you could really use. Considering those, it would be a great upgrade if you are coming from the older Intel processors but not much if you are jumping and coming from the sandy ones.


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## jerryrigg (May 1, 2012)

the ivy brdge cpus are out already now. not cheap but not bad for the latest thing either. the positive effect on the light bill is ok but i doubt one would notice it over some lower wattage (or tdp for us geeks) chips that are out now. they even come in 1155 socket but i would check to see if a chosen board in particular supported the ivy bridge cpu of choice. i believe the poster had an issue with a 720p brrip in h264. he was running a 6770, 2gb of ddr2 and a core 2 duo at 2.2ghz if i recall right. anyway that machine should have no issues with a 720p video. it really doesn't make much sense unless his memory is filled with in the background as well as cpu processes. personally i have never cared for the h264 format. my wii tends to not play them as i would like. if my htpc (pent. d 945/3.4ghz/800mhz/4mb, 2gb ddr 400mhz, and ati 2600pro 256mb 8xagp running windows 7 x32/x86) doesn't play it, i just encode it in avi. never seems to happen though. it did before when i was running a p4 3.0 but the dual core is great. i've even ran "1080p" videos without issue. anyway if one wants to get an ivy bridge here they are 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...iption=ivy&name=Intel&Order=PRICE&Pagesize=20


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## Gregr (Nov 2, 2010)

I have to report that I was mistaken in my statement about Win7 solving your RAM question. It is actually moving up to WinXp 64bit, Vista 64bit, Win7 64bit and the next Win8 in 64bit that will recognize up to 32GB of RAM; not the Windows OS in 32bit. Sorry for any confusion.


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

Your video playback problems are almost definitely software and settings related. Your harware should be more than capable. 1080p is not very demanding on a computer these days.

I would check if hardware acceleration is turned on, et cetera.

You do not need new hardware!

My simple athlon x2 system plays perfect 1080p with 4gb in win7 x64 and is not strained at all, on-board graphics.


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## Gregr (Nov 2, 2010)

Riyadh,

Your problem is not with you processor (CPU) and certainly not a problem with your video card (GPU).

The issues with video playback being jerky has everything to do with WinXp API (programming Interface) with DX11protocol on your video card. Your WinXp does not do well with DX11 however your Video Card is based on DX11. 

You could have support for DX10 or DX9 in your Video Card software. Because WinXp will not work with DX11 you will have to scale back your video card settings try looking for DX9 or DX10 support in your control Panel; Display settings. Another term used is Legacy Support under Display settings..., or right click on your "Desktop" and click on "Preferences". Look for your video card settings. 

It could be easier to upgrade to Win7 64bit. But before you do that you need to check your software to be sure all software will work with 64bit upgrade from 32bit.

Its a learning curve any way you go. Take your time to enjoy it.


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## Gregr (Nov 2, 2010)

Riyadh,

I almost forgot Wikipedia has a great description of DX11 protocol if you read just a little you will see why I recomend looking to scale back to DX9 or DX10 or upgrade to Win7 64bit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX

Take a look this is very informative


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## Gregr (Nov 2, 2010)

This link takes you directly to DirectX "Compatibility" with Windows OS's 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX#Compatibility


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## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

omasood1 said:


> Hello there,
> 
> I have the following:
> 
> ...


Your video card is fine; if not overkill, CPU is acceptable. RAM is the cheapest component in a PC these days, you could add more but the limit maybe your motherboard and/or operating system. 8GB kit (4gb x2) should cost $50.

The issue here maybe software. What OS are you using? Also I would consider a good dedicated player with GPU decode accelartaion like Cyberlink (good stuff) or WinDVD. Windows 7 64bit Pro or Ultimate, skip the home versions. I would skip the OEM version since it's a one time use DISC and is locked down to that one machine like a ball and chain. Going for the full retail box version lets you delete it from your old computer and reuse it on a newer one.


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