22 January, 2013
I have an HP m7780n Media Center PC with TV tuner card (stock), which I bought in 2007 and have made the following upgrades to it over the years (from oldest to most recent):
*Netgear GA311 Gigabit Ethernet card - I got this because the
on-board network hardware didn't work with OSx86... I was just curious
to see what the performance of OSX was like, compared to Windows
Vista... on the same hardware. The inability for OSX to recognize the
on-board ethernet (without the GA311) was actually quite sad.
*RAM.... upgraded from 2GB to 4GB.
*PNY Nvidia GeForce 520 GT - The stock 7600 GT was showing its age, not being able to play many game titles that have come out since 2007 and later. Read my review below!!!
*Antec TriCool 92mm (Part # 761345-75121-6) - The stock Foxconn case fan (PV902512L-G) (HP Part #: 5188-3722) was making a horrible buzzing sound (Nov. 2012-Jan. 2013). Sure, I could've cleaned it with compressed air and lubricated the inner parts with some WD-40... but I didn't want to run the risk of the thing sparking from too much friction build-up due to a potentially worn-out ball-bearing. The TriCool 92 seems to be working just fine on it's lowest setting (out of 3 fan speeds; selectable with a hardware switch on the fan's cable). I booted into the BIOS and made sure to see what kind of RPM's the older Foxconn fan was putting out and it read around 600-700rpm. With the Antec fan, I set it to the lowest setting of 1200rpm, and the thing is STILL quieter than the Foxconn fan, while blowing the same amount of air from the CPU case (if not more). The only difference with the new fan, I found, was that in order to get it moving, I had to connect it to a vacant molex plug in addition to the 3-pin socket on the motherboard... without the additional power from the PSU, the fan refused to start.
Review: As of January 2013, I'm still able to watch TV, record HD over-the-air (OTA; ATSC) TV shows, play ALL of my old game titles form my Windows 98-XP days. I can now even enjoy my newer favorite titles:
*Mafia 2 - 800x600, with all graphics settings set to low
*Assassin's Creed - 800x600, with all graphics settings to maximum.
*Assassin's Creed II - 800x600, with most graphics settings to medium
*Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - SAME as ACII
*Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Same as ACB, but with slightly more graphics settings set to low
*Assassin's Creed III - 800x600 with all graphics settings set to low
The whole point of me even bothering to play these games in their low resolution is that I CAN still enjoy them all on the same computer I've been using to record all my TV shows on.... and I didn't have to build an entirely new PC from scratch, nor did I have to shell out another $1,000-$2,700 for a totally new PC.
And believe it or not.... but at least for me, ALL of these games look great with the above settings! I guess I'm not as "spoiled" so many of you who boast and brag about being able to play the latest and greatest titles at maximum resolution... Not that I'm jealous... I'm just practical.
I guess I can squeeze out even more performance and even more years of use out of this machine if I installed Linux and ran all my Windows games (and apps) in WINE.... but for now, everything is working exactly how I want/need them to work. I'm quite happy with that!
