[mythtv-users] "Good Enough" specs for HDTV?

[Scott]

After looking through the list for a bit, I've found some posts that
half-answer my question, but none that tell me exactly what I need. That
being said, I'm hoping that you all could help me figure out just what I'm
going to need to spend some money on in the next few weeks... I've got an
HD-Ready TV and an older desktop sitting around, so I figure I can make a
decent DVR system for my dorm room this coming semester.

As it stands, the desktop has the following hardware:

GIGABYTE GA-7VT600-L Motherboard
AMD AthlonXP 2500+ (~1.8GHz)
512MB DDR RAM
SBLive! 5.1 Soundcard
GeForce4 Ti4200 Video card
80GB HDD

I'm already planning to purchase a pcHDTV-5500 card for the TV capture, but
I'm wondering if my system specs will be good enough to run HD channels
smoothly. Sadly, the TV my roommates and I bought (used and fairly cheap...
we're college students, after all :P) only supports 1080i for its HDTV
display, so that's the only mode I'll be able to use. I've read that the CPU
requirement is a P4 3GHz for HD video, but I've also read that using an
nVidia card + XvMC can reduce the CPU requirement. It wouldn't be a big
problem to pick up an FX5200 considering they're pretty cheap, but I'd
rather not have to buy a new motherboard + CPU. Would a slightly more
expensive GeForce 6200 card serve me better, or do you all think the FX5200
would be fine?

The way I see it, once I have a decent base system (motherboard, CPU, video
card, sound card) everything else can be upgraded fairly inexpensively, so
I'm hoping to get all of that squared away now. Any thoughts/help you all
could provide would be much appreciated! :D Do try to keep in mind, however,
that I'm attempting to keep the costs of this project down as much as
possible...
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