Minimum hardware required for re-purposed PCs

  • Hi all,

    I'm new to LibreELEC & Kodi.... and Linux come to that! I have a garage full of old PC hardware and I am looking to re-purpose 2 or 3 machines as HTPCs to feed 4k content over HDMI to some latest generation TVs. Where I cannot re-purpose a machine for 4k content I will settle for a 1080p spec.

    I am going to use second-hand components where I can but I realise that I will probably have to purchase latest gen graphics cards to support 4k.

    My question is..... what minimum PC spec should I be looking to construct to support 4k content and 2k content? I am also an Nvidia kind of guy so which card would you go for as a minimum to support a 2K or 4K machine?

    Many thanks

  • LibreELEC/Linux only has support for 8bit videos when it comes to Nvidia. With 8bit, it can do upto 8K videos though.

    4K are normally h.265/HEVC videos, so a GTX950/960 is an option.

    The GT1030 is the cheapest card for a HTPC box, with (sadly) a Windows OS setup if you need 10bit video support.

    Mind you, LibreELEC is likely to drop Nvidia support in future because of all the Linux video driver shenanigans around Nvidia.

  • Intel CPU + integrated GPU :/

    AMD should be an alternative in future, maybe - hopefully.

    I thought that Intel integrated GPUs support only 30 fps @4K und not 60 fps (mine is like that), partially because of the hdmi specs.

    I bought a brillant new Philips OLED with 4K 10bit support and looking for a solution to use its possibilities. I like Kodi too much not to switch to Android TV it comes with completely... Any up-to-date GFX suggestions for that from anyone? (low profile passively cooled ;))