Ongoing New HTPC - Graphics Card help/opinions (1 Viewer)

[Sh4nn0w]

Hi Guys,

Looking for some advice, finally bit the bullet and ordered a 40" LCD HDTV.

Been running MP fine on my desktop for about 2-3 years. Decided to put together a dedicated HTPC from some bits I have around. I'm using TVE3, so TV Card's already covered.

I have:

2GB 6400 DDR2
Intel E7300
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L Motherboard (leftover from first Server build)
200G SATA HDD

Basically I'm going to use an old crappy case for now (spent too much money with Telly already!); so I wanted some help with graphics option....

Option 1/ Get something like GA-E7AUM-DS2H (seems expensive)
Option 2/ Get something like ATI HD4550/HD4670
Option 3/ Get Nvidia 9400GT or similar

Expect to watch SDTV, 1080p/720p MKV's, maybe blu-ray later

Any opinions/problems to look for?

 

[Marvman]

Hi Shannow,

take the cheapest option for TV/HDTV all 3 ones can handle this.
If you'll don't use a DVXA codec, then look at your CPU.

so long...

Martin

 

[K1lo]

I would say, in general, you should prioritise the buying of a graphics card for a media center based on the following points:

1) Does it need to be low profile to fit into your case.
2) Does it have the right connectors (DVI / HDMI etc)
3) Is it passively cooled? (VERY IMPORTANT!)
4) Will be powerful enough? (To run games / visualisations / mediaportal)
5) Will it be too powerful? (Take too much power from your PSU)

Apart from that, go for as modern a range as you can (i.e. ATI 4 or 3 series or Nvidia 9) entry level cards from any of these ranges will not break the bank but will provide a nice level of performance.

 

[Sh4nn0w]

for the feedback.

Probably go for a passive HD4350/HD4550/9400GT option since I can pick one up for £40ish vs £100+ for motherboard.

Don't need to game with it, just want HDMI really. My E6750 in my main rig seems to handle everything ok and E7300 is same speed (just minus virtualisation and smaller cache I think). HW acceleration still seems to have too many drawbacks.

 

[dm15644]

The nVidia 9300 IGP is said to be working excellent with 1080p, and it is very energy efficient. Similar performance with AMD 780/790GX, there is limitations with audio over HDMI though. If audio over HDMI is important, I would recommend to go for one of the new 9300 boards. If not, go with AMD 780, as it's cheaper. Check Anandtech, they had some good articles around this recently.

I'm happy with my AMD 690G IGP - I don't go over 720p - and I would try to avoid additional graphics card in favour of one of the latest chipsets.

/jayrock

 

[Sh4nn0w]

Thanks, took your advice and went for IGP motherboard in the end. Figure as you say less stuff the better in HTPC. Went the 9400 route in the end since I already have a spare intel processor.

Telly's turned up + all the bits, just need to find time to build and install

 

[K1lo]

Thanks, took your advice and went for IGP motherboard in the end. Figure as you say less stuff the better in HTPC. Went the 9400 route in the end since I already have a spare intel processor.

Telly's turned up + all the bits, just need to find time to build and install

Cool! You will get more heat generated from the motherboard now, so I would recommend using Speedfan to monitor your temps for a few days and adjust your cooling as required. Anything above 50deg is to be avoided ideally but it is not a hard and fast rule. Anything above 34 for HDDs should also worry you.

 

[Sh4nn0w]

HDD should be ok, its a Samsung SpinPoint, run's pretty cool compared to my newer/higher capacity drives. (around 20C). We shall see though. Speedfan's a good idea though. (and checking temps are reporting correctly...)

My main thing to watch will probably be the northbridge passive cooler. I shall monitor that, as I'm considering replacing it if its not effective enough.

Power supply is a 80mm rear blowing one, so it shouldn't be adding much heat to the case interior. Guess I might start a new thread once i've started building.

Like your blog by the way

 

[dm15644]

Cool! You will get more heat generated from the motherboard now, so I would recommend using Speedfan to monitor your temps for a few days and adjust your cooling as required. Anything above 50deg is to be avoided ideally but it is not a hard and fast rule. Anything above 34 for HDDs should also worry you.

Not sure about this, there was a study last year or so conducted by Google where they concluded that a hard drive's temperature is not as important for MTBF as it is usually thought.

They also found out that SMART doesn't work.

Read here: Massive Google hard drive survey turns up very interesting things - Engadget

Regards,

jayrock

 

[Sh4nn0w]

Interesting, not seen that.

To be honest I've only ever been concerned when one hard drive was significantly higher than all the others on idle in my server (was 15C+ more than others of same type).

At the end of the day if it dies, it dies. There won't be anything critical on it and HDD is 5+ years old anyway, still running fine at the moment.

Thanks for feedback anyway