Re: More than most of us need...
In all fairness for XBMC / HTPC a very low end nVidia Card w/VDPAU is all you need to get most tasks done. In fact nVidia VDPAU is so good at h.264 decoding that you don't even need that overkill of a CPU even. Besides as any fule no Linux is far superior to the tasks of DVB C, T(2) & S(2) then Windows Mediocre Center will ever hope to be.
I've been running (more or less), for the past Seven Years now.
Gigabyte GA-P43 ES3G
2D @2.13Ghz
2GB -DDR2
1TB Hitachi HDD
nVidia 520
2x Technotrend S-2 3200 (DVB-S2) PCI
1x Technotrend C-1500 (DVB-C) PCI
1x KNC One TV Station (DVB-C) PCI w/Loop-through to the C-1500.
Problem is living in Germany, and the recent shrinkage in coverage of Astra 2, Eurobird (28.2E / 28.5E), has forced me... Or is forcing me to give up on Satellite, and now Cable. And, possibly that power hungry beast. For a small Apple TV-esq Android Box that can run XBMC (a.k.a. Kodi), well enough. Hopefully that won't be as wasteful as say that HTPC had been. But the DVR functions of Linux VDR (or to give those guys a plug EasyVDR.), has been nothing but a pleasure these last Seven Years. Its just after seeing what XBMC is capable of. I'm can truly see why IPTV is the future.
Besides it was kinda nice... If very late at night. Due to the time difference, to be able to watch both the Season starts of both NCIS, (CBS), and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC), this morning. As well as Jeopardy before it. In near real time.
I thought I was happy with only a 6Mb line. But, this has finally got me to shift up to a 50Mb DSL Line. To be installed next month!