Upgrade System : Motherboard for AM2(+) ? (1 Viewer)

[MLH01]

Both of those boards I found also only had 2 PCI slots (most mATX boards do). Also over here in the states the 4550 has practically been pushed out by the HD 4650... 4550 for example costs at least $40+shipping at newegg... the HD 4650 however is priced at just over $50 shipped. If you're patient you could even get a HD 4670 at that price range. For all around processing, the HD 4650/4670 man handle the 4550 out of the picture.

Im always jelous of PC hardware prices in the States

The 4550 is $65 here (Australia)
the 4650 is between $90 and $106 depending on brand

Yep, the prices of most tech stuff seems to be more expensive in Aus compared to US and some other countries

I'm still going for the 4550 though, as I don't think you can get a 4650 or 4670 that is single slot AND passively cooled - both criteria are important to me and probably many others who have a mATX board and prefer silence over horsepower. And the 4550 should have more than enough grunt for HD content. Anything more would be overkill for a dedicated HTPC. But, if it is also being used for gaming (recent titles), then I'd personally go for the ATI 48xx series .

 

[Der_Bub]

Could you link to these posts? I havent read anything to this effect and would be interested to have a look....

ATI 4550 a good solution?

ATI 4550 noch zu toppen? Und läuft auch? (german)

 

[MLH01]

Thanks for the link Der_Bub.

I am running MP on Vista x64 SP1 and am getting the flickering with EVR enabled as mentioned in the thread you linked to. This is a known issue that is listed in the MP Roadmap to be addressed in the next version of MP (1.1.0). The flickering seems to affect NVidia cards as well when using EVR in Vista. Note that I get the flickering with my current card - an ATI HD2400XT - so I doubt the HD4550 is the only culprit.

The dual display problem mentioned in the thread sounds more like a driver (Catalyst) problem. Since that thread (December 2008), 5 more Catalyst versions have been released, with the most recent being version 9.5. So I am not sure if that is still an issue.

Anyone out there using a HD4550 (or similar spec'ed ATI card) under Vista with EVR and CCC version 9.5? If so, are there any problems related to such a setup?

 

[drealit]

The only reason I prefer the 4650+ to the 4550 for is SD processing. HD processing is much easier to get locked down... SD processing (specifically interlaced materials) can be a nightmare. That's the primary reason I got rid of my 780G build and switched over to a cheap motherboard + hd 46xx discrete card. If you guys don't watch much SD content then you will be more than happy with the 4550 since it's more than capable of 1080p HD content. Although I'm not sure how the 4550 fares with 24p content (doesn't really matter currently since 24p playback is broken in MP right now)...

 

[Der_Bub]

The only reason I prefer the 4650+ to the 4550 for is SD processing.

I don't realy know what you mean. Could you please give some example / more details what that means for TV in Pal / non HD ! Nearly all of the TV Stations in Germany are still have non HD content

Thanks!

 

[drealit]

The HD4550 lacks in some kind of hardware related to mpeg2 video processing. I know it is directly related to the shaders/stream processors (I'm pretty sure at least)... but you can see here High-Definition PC Experience: Graphics Cards vs. High-Definition Video Playback (page 6) - X-bit labs that the HD 4550's SD processing is a bit short compared to the HD 46xx series. Due to the fact they all have UVD2 they all perform close to the same with HD processing so that is not a problem at all.

 

[MLH01]

The HD4550 lacks in some kind of hardware related to mpeg2 video processing. I know it is directly related to the shaders/stream processors (I'm pretty sure at least)... but you can see here High-Definition PC Experience: Graphics Cards vs. High-Definition Video Playback (page 6) - X-bit labs that the HD 4550's SD processing is a bit short compared to the HD 46xx series. Due to the fact they all have UVD2 they all perform close to the same with HD processing so that is not a problem at all.

Out of interest, does the Sapphire 4670 that you have generate much noise from its cooling fan? I have been looking at getting the 4550 because it is passive and single slot, thinking that the fan-based cards would be quite noisy for a HTPC.

 

[Der_Bub]

well, finaly I got a good offer for a Gigabyte M56S-S3

I plan to combine it with

Sapphir

• Radeon HD4670 ULTIMATE (take the safe way and spend a little more money)
• MD Athlon X2 5050e, 2x 2.60GHz, boxed

for your help and input!

 

[Frantid]

Out of interest, does the Sapphire 4670 that you have generate much noise from its cooling fan? I have been looking at getting the 4550 because it is passive and single slot, thinking that the fan-based cards would be quite noisy for a HTPC.

I know you were asking someone else, but I have both the 4670 and the 4550. I started with the 4670, an amazing card -- fast very good quality. Unfortunately, for me it was too noisy and put out too much heat for my system. I even tried to slow the mem & gpu speed, but it did not reduce the heat. I had a msi 4670, it only had a 2 pin fan on it so I could not control fan speed. In truth though it got too hot to really consider lowering it. I really like the 4550. I can not tell the difference in video quality, using pdvd 8 codecs. Of course my htpc is in a cabinet where it gets very little air flow, so anyone else may have a different experience than mine. Also if I had the volume up, the fan noise did not really matter. It was only during quiet scenes and times when I had to have the volume low that it became too much.

 

[MLH01]

Out of interest, does the Sapphire 4670 that you have generate much noise from its cooling fan? I have been looking at getting the 4550 because it is passive and single slot, thinking that the fan-based cards would be quite noisy for a HTPC.

I know you were asking someone else, but I have both the 4670 and the 4550. I started with the 4670, an amazing card -- fast very good quality. Unfortunately, for me it was too noisy and put out too much heat for my system. I even tried to slow the mem & gpu speed, but it did not reduce the heat. I had a msi 4670, it only had a 2 pin fan on it so I could not control fan speed. In truth though it got too hot to really consider lowering it. I really like the 4550. I can not tell the difference in video quality, using pdvd 8 codecs. Of course my htpc is in a cabinet where it gets very little air flow, so anyone else may have a different experience than mine. Also if I had the volume up, the fan noise did not really matter. It was only during quiet scenes and times when I had to have the volume low that it became too much.

Thanks for the information Frantid. I have decided to go with a 4550, since I plan to go completely HD at the end of the year and the 4550 can take care of HD content easily according to the link that drealit gave earlier. The only thing holding me back from HD is my old CRT TV At the moment my HD2400XT is giving reasonable SD quality with only 20-30% CPU load, so it will do me fine until I upgrade the TV...

I'm currently looking forward to Vista SP2, which is due to be released for download in the next day or two. It will hopefully resolve the sleep/hibernation and lost wireless network adapter issues I am having...