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Mini ITX help

P

Phil Dixon

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Joined
Jul 21, 2011
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105
I have a VIA EPIA LV1200 mini itx based PC in my jukebox. It should be more than man enough to handle playing tunes (which it does) but is lousy at video, checking the task manager the cpu is under pretty much constant load. It's got the max 1gig of ram in it. Any ideas what I can do to reduce the cpu load or improve performance?



EPIA Nemiah 1.2ghz processor

120gb Seagate barracuda HD 7200 rpm

1ghz ram

XP Pro SP2
 
are you using the cut down version of Xp? I understand that used to solve a lot of issues with regards to cpu loading...
 
no just standard but have pared it down by removing what I can... ~I need to replace the hard disk anyway so will be reinstalling. Got any details of the right OS to install? needs to be widoze for the juke software.
 
Will see if i dan dig Mini-xp out tonight. Used it on my mame cab when i built one - definately helped! Gotta be worth a go at least!
 
If your tied into Windows because of your juke software then I guess that's what your using to play the vid files so using a different media player isn't an option. As Paul mentioned, you can use a lite version of XP that has a lot of the non essential stuff removed so will consume less resource (use something like nLite to create a cut down version). Also go through your Windows services and disable any that aren't required to make the PC and juke software work.



The best ways to speed up your machine would be to either replace the CPU with a faster one or overclock what you've got if your MB BIOS allows. I've had a look at the VIA website and it doesn't look like replacing the CPU would be too easy as getting hold of something that fits the socket could prove tricky. Don't know about the overclocking route but these type of machines don't generally have the right BIOS options and even if they did then finding software that could reliably monitor the CPU temps would be hard (don't overclock without being able to check this).



If using a chopped XP still doesn't give you the right level of performance then maybe consider ditching Windows for Linux and finding some new jukebox software.....sorry I couldn't be more helpful
sad-1.png
 
"Mini-XP"



Windows XP Pro SP2 Unattended



Thank you for your interest in this stripped out 125Mb

Edition of XP. I clocked mine in Task Manager using

only 49Mb of RAM. Windows XP usually uses 300Mb of

RAM at the best of times. This "Mini-XP" takes up

only 500Mb total space on your system's hard drive.



By using only 50Mb of RAM, this allows

your PC to run fast, I mean VERY fast!



All important hardware drivers and other essentials

have been kept in this release - no more problems

with those stupid Alcatel stingray modems. You have

joystick support, printer support, ISDN, and other

bare essentials. This Windows XP Edition CAN have

MS Office installed, it is also supported! You still

have your calculator, Wordpad and of course, MS Paint.



GONE is that nasty Internet Explorer! It does not

exist in this Edition. You will have to install

Firefox or Opera or any other browser to access

the internet. ALSO GONE is Windows Media Player.

You will have to grab some kind of player from

somewhere if you want to play stuff. GONE also

are all Windows noises like startup and shutdown

noises, but audio does work. However, there is

no support for scanners in this Edition.



This XP Pro SP2 Unattended is tiny @ just 125Mb!

Click to expand...
 
not down to the media player I don't think. have tried media player, VLC and another one (whose name escapes me). None really run video very well.

No idea on overclocking. I could get another mobo but it really doesn't warrant it. I think the OS might sort it so cheers guys.
smile-1.png
 

That sounds very nice. It does use media player to run the JB software but it will work with something else so not really an issue.
 
I guess it depends what Video you are trying to play. Xvid/Divx/Mkv???
 
My juke box (which hasn't been used for a while now) is a P166MMX portable with 80MB RAM running NT4, Foobar2000 and music over an 802.11b PCMCIA card. I think it all routinely ran in about 40MB. In my old house I had it powered for over a year without a reboot with no problems at all. The internet worked fine, but only on an old browser. Don't mention graphics, though.



D-T
 
If it's anything like the itx I have, then the built in graphics are not that good - get a pci nvidia 6200 or similar in there, that should assist in decoding the video and reduce rhe strain on the cpu.



(assuming no pcie or agp slots here)
 
OK, let me throw in a request for info here. My home PC is about 6 or 7 years old, spec (WinXP Pro, ABIT AV8, AMD64 3000+ 1.8GHz, 2GB DDR RAM, 1TB SATA HDD, Matrox G400 AGP VGA dual monitor).



This works fine for me mostly, the 2GB RAM and newish HDD make it quite speedy. The only problem I have is that a HD video won't play very smoothly, which is not too much of a problem as I don't really watch video on the PC anyway, but I'd also like to try out Visual Pinball, which also seems to need some more graphics power. It'll work with the simpler tables, but in hires it's a no-no.



So, assuming it is my VGA card that is the weakest link, what can I substitute my 10-year old Matrox card for that can run 2 monitors with a 15pin D-Sub and will also run VP and HD video? Most important criteria is that it is FANLESS, I can't stand fan noise.



I guess I'm looking for something cheap and 2nd hand really, because if I'm going to spend proper money, I might as well buy a new PC, I'm just trying to extend the life of this one for a little bit longer with the minimum of faff. There are so many graphics chipsets and cards out there, I have no idea what I'm looking for.



Note, I don't have PCI-Express for the VGA, it'll have to be AGP (or PCI?).



Also, if you have something you don't want that might do the job, offers welcome!



Or maybe it's my uP that is the weak link...?



D-T
 
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