What was I thinking? P4 2.8E vs AMD64 3000+ (1 Viewer)

[thinksnow]

This is my current HTPC:
P4 2.8E on a MSI 865PE Neo2,
1.5GB GeIL DDR400,
3x 80GB WD SATA,
Dvico Fusion5Lite & Hauppauge PVR-250
GF4 FX5200 VGA-out to VGA-in on the 50" Sony 50A10


I'm in the process of building out a SFF HTPC with a Cele 2.53, 512MB, PVR-250 & whatever drive I happen to throw in the Antec Aria, and at the same time also am looking at upgrading my regular, non-tv-associated, computer and it occurred to me that I've got the makings of a pretty decent HTPC sitting under my desk:
AMD64 3000+ (Newcastle) on a MSI K8N Neo Platinum
1GB GeIL DDR400,
20GB WD PATA + 80GB WD SATA,
GF6800 128MB

So it occurs to me that the MSI mobos are pretty similar, though the AMD-based on supports 7.1 channel out, versus the 5.1 on the Intel board. Add to this the 4 SATA vs 2SATA and the AMD board comes out well ahead for connectivity features alone, nevermind the performance. Since I'm not hardly gaming anymore, the GF6800 is going to waste under my desk and could easily be used for HDTV-out instead of whatever it is the FX5200 has.

So, I guess my question is this:
Does anyone have direct experience comparing Media Portal on a P4 2.8E against an AMD 3000+, or comparable specs, and would it be worth swapping the hardware out of my "daily driver" into the HTPC?

IMO's welcome, too.

 

[kaliatech]

Fwiw... I'm running an AMD3000+ (Venice) on an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum board. Nvidia 6600 card. Hauppage 150. Performance and stability have been great, although I haven't done any HDTV yet. Based on performance load though, I doubt HDTV will be a problem. (Maybe be even multiple HDTV stream capable...but I think single hard-drive would be a bottleneck.)

Noise
-------
From what I've read, the AMD Venice cores run quite a bit cooler than the Newcastles. Don't know if that's an issue for you or not. I started off fairly safe with fans as follows:
- Power Supply (SilentX)
- Two 60mm case exhaust fans
- 1 80mm case input fan
- Zalman CPU cooler (speed turned all the way down)
- 1 80mm Fan blowing directly over the Zalmnn nortbridge heatsink I put in. (K8N has seriously load tiny fan to cool the northbridge. Zalman makes a heat sink....but based on how hot it got just from touching it (ouch!), I think its necessary to have a fan blowing over the heatsink.)

I also had resistors (speed controls) on all the case fans to lower speed and noise. Even so, the setup was a bit too loud for my taste. I've since disconnected all the case fans. Still seems stable and is much quieter. Almost bearable during silent movies... its now the harddrive noise that really irks me.

MSI 7.1 Onboard Sound
------------------------
Fwiw, I've not been able to get the MSI onboard sound to output via SPDIF out to my audio receiver. It should. I haven't had much time to mess with it yet. I'm pretty sure it's an MSI or audio controller driver problem. In the meantime, I hooked up a cheap SoundBlaster MP3+ USB sound controller for outputting SPDIF. Works fine...but I don't know if it supports 5.1 etc. I would like to eventually get the onboard SPDIF out working.

Regarding your question specifically though IMO.... depends on what you do with the HTPC and how much you use it. Factors include noise levels, HDTV recording, HDTV output?, etc. Me personally, I would build the media PC to do just enough. Anything extra on the media pc probably goes to waste...versus on your daily driver, it gets used. (Performance that is...not so much features, connection options, etc.)

 

[thinksnow]

kaliatech, thank you for the reply. My temps aren't that bad, even running BOINC/Seti in the background 100% of the time. I credit the two 120mm fans in my case (plus one more in the PSU) for that.

Interesting to hear about the S/PDIF, that could be a pain!

Thinking about it more today, I think I'll go ahead and build it out as a HTPC. Heck, if I ever get the urge to game again, I could game on the big-screen!

Thanks for the input.

So...I guess I'll either make the 2.8 my daily driver, or move that into the bedroom as the HTPC there and make the Cele my daily rig. Heh, decisions, decisions!