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Yea if it's not too late the 880G chipset will do full DXVA2 bit-stream acceleration (one of my clients' motherboard has this). Essentially that means it will handle any HD video you throw at it (including 1080i h264/VC1)
HTPC config, is there enough ooommph? (1 Viewer)
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robbo100, not too late, I haven't placed the order yet, I want to do it right, plus I'm playing with MP on my laptop to get the feel so I'm not in a rush.
So robbo100 and miroslav22, would I essentially be trading off a slower processor and faster GPU for a faster processor and slower GPU with your suggestion? Looking on newegg I dont see any motherboard/cpu combos with that so that would mean that I will need to buy all separate, and in that case I dont see any savings (or was that not the point?)
I guess while gaming was brought up, I am truly not looking for a gaming pc, but are you guys saying that my setup as I had it would handle gaming? I thought the E350 was not quite up to par to be made into a gaming pc, am I wrong?
So robbo100 and miroslav22, would I essentially be trading off a slower processor and faster GPU for a faster processor and slower GPU with your suggestion? Looking on newegg I dont see any motherboard/cpu combos with that so that would mean that I will need to buy all separate, and in that case I dont see any savings (or was that not the point?)
I guess while gaming was brought up, I am truly not looking for a gaming pc, but are you guys saying that my setup as I had it would handle gaming? I thought the E350 was not quite up to par to be made into a gaming pc, am I wrong?
AW: HTPC config, is there enough ooommph?
An Athlon CPU is MUCH faster than the e350 for the same price.
You don't have to take the weaker HD5450 (which is btw also enough for HDTV and bluray), you could also take the HD6570.
In my opinion it doesn't make any sense to use a fusion board with a dedicated graphic card.
An Athlon CPU is MUCH faster than the e350 for the same price.
You don't have to take the weaker HD5450 (which is btw also enough for HDTV and bluray), you could also take the HD6570.
In my opinion it doesn't make any sense to use a fusion board with a dedicated graphic card.
It's up to you really. If you think you might want to play games in the future then i'd recommend investing in both a decent GPU and CPU.
If you will only ever want HD video/TV playback, i'd recommend getting a motherboard with the 880G chipset and a cheap processor
My client PC uses:
ASUS M4A88T-I Deluxe - motherboard - mini ITX - Socket AM3 - AMD 880G - Socket AM3
and
AMD Athlon II x2 Dual-Core (250) 3.0GHz Processor 1000KB (L2 cache) Socket AM3 - Retail (Boxed)
That's essentially all it has and it plays all blu ray content and 1080i tv channels perfectly! You'd need windows 7 as well.
Jon
If you will only ever want HD video/TV playback, i'd recommend getting a motherboard with the 880G chipset and a cheap processor
My client PC uses:
ASUS M4A88T-I Deluxe - motherboard - mini ITX - Socket AM3 - AMD 880G - Socket AM3
and
AMD Athlon II x2 Dual-Core (250) 3.0GHz Processor 1000KB (L2 cache) Socket AM3 - Retail (Boxed)
That's essentially all it has and it plays all blu ray content and 1080i tv channels perfectly! You'd need windows 7 as well.
Jon
And to add to the confusion, the E450 will be coming out in a not to far future. It upgrades the Gfx spec as well as the CPU frequency (a little) from the E350.
And if that is not enough, you may want to check the AMD A6 or A8 "APU". They provide good ooomph for an htpc.
And if that is not enough, you may want to check the AMD A6 or A8 "APU". They provide good ooomph for an htpc.
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- #17
Oh boy ... I'm all over the place .. I want the performance just in case, but then I want low power consumption (since I am buying a cheap case I don't want to have to put a ton of fans in there and make it loud), and then I want it to be cheap .. terrible combination.
Ok so how about this setup:
MB: ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX260OCGMBOX
GPU: HIS H657H1G Radeon HD 6570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
MEM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory
TV: AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet - PCTV Tuner (A188 - White Box) MTVHDDUWB PCI-Express x1 Interface - OEM
CASE: hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC Steel 7K09BBA30FNRX Micro ATX Media Center 300W Power Supply / HTPC Case
HDD: OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX30GXXX 2.5" 30GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
OD: SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo SATA Model SH-B123L LightScribe Support - OEM
Will this give me an all-around system? I am not expecting a power machine, but from what you guys are saying I should have all bases covered regarding MP use, and maybe even a slight dabble into gaming with this rig?
Ok so how about this setup:
MB: ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX260OCGMBOX
GPU: HIS H657H1G Radeon HD 6570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
MEM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory
TV: AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet - PCTV Tuner (A188 - White Box) MTVHDDUWB PCI-Express x1 Interface - OEM
CASE: hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC Steel 7K09BBA30FNRX Micro ATX Media Center 300W Power Supply / HTPC Case
HDD: OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX30GXXX 2.5" 30GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
OD: SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo SATA Model SH-B123L LightScribe Support - OEM
Will this give me an all-around system? I am not expecting a power machine, but from what you guys are saying I should have all bases covered regarding MP use, and maybe even a slight dabble into gaming with this rig?
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AW: HTPC config, is there enough ooommph?
30GB SSD could be a bit small if you want to install Win7 and MePo (+Fanart, Thumbs etc..) on it.
I would recommend a 50GB or 60GB SSD.
Rest looks okay to me. I hope you verified that all components find their place in the case.
30GB SSD could be a bit small if you want to install Win7 and MePo (+Fanart, Thumbs etc..) on it.
I would recommend a 50GB or 60GB SSD.
Rest looks okay to me. I hope you verified that all components find their place in the case.
Looks OK to me....
If you wanted to save money, drop the SSD - normally you would put an HTPC to sleep when not in use and startup time (from S3 sleep) is almost instant. I only reboot my system occasionally (maybe once a month or so, when I let Windows update run and it needs a restart), and I use some of the RAM as a ramdisk (for TV timeshift files), so hard disk speed isn't really an issue.
Tony
If you wanted to save money, drop the SSD - normally you would put an HTPC to sleep when not in use and startup time (from S3 sleep) is almost instant. I only reboot my system occasionally (maybe once a month or so, when I let Windows update run and it needs a restart), and I use some of the RAM as a ramdisk (for TV timeshift files), so hard disk speed isn't really an issue.
Tony