Best CPU under $100 for AM3 board for transcoding

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NEODARK

Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
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Hey guys,

I have a Subsonic server, which is running on the following hardware:

Athlon II X2 255 @ 3.1 (Stock) AM3 938
Biostar TA880GB+
4 GB Ram

Unfortunately, it appears that the poor dual core on this PC is not enough to transcode HD content on the fly for streaming. Both cores get pegged and the streamed video constantly stutters. (CPU not transcoding fast enough).

To make it short, what CPU can I buy under $100 that will give me the most processing power for transcoding? Subsonic uses ffmpeg, which is multi-thread aware. Is there a quad or hex that would do the trick and fit this mobo?

Thanks for the suggestions, I haven't kept up with AMD, so I have no idea where to start.
 
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well my daughters machine with the Athlon II X4 640 runs pretty great.

you could get a Phenom II X4 925 oem for less than 100

200mhz lower clock but has 6mb L3
 
Thanks for the suggestion.. I saw a Phenom X6 for around $130. That said, I updated ffmpeg to the latest stable release (64bit) and it looks like that gave me a nice boost, enough to allow 720p transcoding with no hiccups.

so, I guess problem solved. But, I will definitely need a quad for 1080p content.
 
Hi, i do x264 encoding and i guess more or less the same applies for any encoder. More cores at higher frequency win, L3 cache has minimal impact. This means, that an for example an Athlon II x4 645 (3.1 GHz) will beat a non overclocked Phenom II x4 940 (3.0 Ghz), despite the labelling (due to the lack of the L3 cache on the Athlon II). It's a rare case where 645 > 940. And of course X6 will beat any x4.

If you go to HD 1080p sources, you will find that x2 is too weak, you will need high frequency X4 at least. But depends on quality settings too.

Athlons and Phenoms will be out of production very soon, so, it may be a good idea to grab one while you still can. After a while, only Bulldozers will be on sale and you will have to resort to 2nd hand CPU from Ebay if you decide to upgrade.
 
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I'd say Athlon 640 or 645, whichever you can get cheapest. The 645 is 100mhz faster but doesn't seem to as common. About $100 on sale. Both are 95W.
 
look around for used processors you might be able to find an x6 for 100 or less. since a lot of people are moving over to sandy bridge/SB-E from the x6 it's probably the perfect time to look for one. but make sure that board actually supports x6's first..

but if you can't find an x6 for under 100 bucks, next best option is the x4 640 or if you can find a used 955 for under 100 bucks it would be a better option since they do overclock higher then the athlon II's due to the unlocked multiplier. most athlon II's top out around 3.6Ghz where as most 955's will do 3.8Ghz with some hitting as high as 4Ghz.
 
HisSvt76 said:
That is a GREAT price that chip is the same as the athlon II X4 isnt really a phenom II has no L3 kind of a odd ball but that price is sick may be running by there myself for that price!
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I agree. You Americans are so lucky! Here the minimum price for this CPU is 95 euros. How you get these crazy prices is beyond me...
 
+1 for the 840 or 635 rebadge. 7.4/7.5 on windows experience depending on overclock. Definitely good for the money they are selling them at now.
 
efektZ said:
+1 for the 840 or 635 rebadge. 7.4/7.5 on windows experience depending on overclock. Definitely good for the money they are selling them at now.
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really.. did i just see some one on a hardware enthusiast site use windows bullshit benchmark rating to say a processor is good or not?


/me shakes his head and walks away in disgust.
 
No need for benchmarks I have an 840 myself and it does a good job (bang per buck) for video work.
The lack of level 3 cache won't have any major impact for video work. That's about the best buy for a quad core AMD other than that a 6 core one. But I suspect most people would be quite happy with this processor.

Either than or a slightly slower Athlon II anything around the 3GHz mark is quite good really
Built a fair few of these quad core budget AMD jobs and folks are dead happy with them mostly for photo/video work on a decent affordable budget.

I've kept my 840 for 2 reasons one it was better than I expected performance wise (for what I do) and 2 it was a very good price. Ok no. 3 is Bulldozer was not that good so I can't be bothered to change CPU ;-)
 
Faethon said:
I agree. You Americans are so lucky! Here the minimum price for this CPU is 95 euros. How you get these crazy prices is beyond me...
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we don't have stupid 15+% VAT taxes like europe does which helps out a lot. theres a lot of other reasons as well, like the fact that all companies have a mandatory 1 or 2 year warranty in europe where as the US we don't so that add's to the cost. other reason is on average we don't get payed as much as you guys in europe do(even though you guys pay way more taxes) so they have to price to what the market can/will pay.
 
I live in Europe VAT varies between nations and nobody likes it I can tell you.
However shop around I paid €80 for an 840 PhII that's not a bad price really.

In the EU you have to dig about to get better prices.
Believe me the FX prices are pretty bad too!
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
we don't have stupid 15+% VAT taxes like europe does which helps out a lot. theres a lot of other reasons as well, like the fact that all companies have a mandatory 1 or 2 year warranty in europe where as the US we don't so that add's to the cost. other reason is on average we don't get payed as much as you guys in europe do(even though you guys pay way more taxes) so they have to price to what the market can/will pay.
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Ah, that explains much. Yes, we have 21% VAT here and unless i am mistaken, a couple of years ago the EU made it mandatory in all countries to have 2 years warranty minimum, no more 1 year.

VAT is horrible and the most unfair tax because the richer and poorer pay the same amount, but politicians love it, because it's easy to collect it and they can apply it to any product you buy and you can't evade it. So they keep raising it (we got 1% hike in Italy a few months ago, probably we will get more). :mad:
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
really.. did i just see some one on a hardware enthusiast site use windows bullshit benchmark rating to say a processor is good or not?


/me shakes his head and walks away in disgust.
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Cool story. I did actual benchmarks for my 840 @ 3.5 and my i5 @ 4.8 and because I am too lazy to post screens or actual numbers that will suffice in serving its purpose. I apologize for my snobbish lack of screens for proof. Either way more than one person has recommended it for $100 on an AMD platform. If he were going 1155 I would have said the i3. Thank you for opening my eyes to my lack of knowledge about anything.
 
efektZ said:
Cool story. I did actual benchmarks for my 840 @ 3.5 and my i5 @ 4.8 and because I am too lazy to post screens or actual numbers that will suffice in serving its purpose. I apologize for my snobbish lack of screens for proof. Either way more than one person has recommended it for $100 on an AMD platform. If he were going 1155 I would have said the i3. Thank you for opening my eyes to my lack of knowledge about anything.
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You're welcome.

:D
 
Faethon said:
VAT is horrible and the most unfair tax because the richer and poorer pay the same amount,
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I don't see how much fairer it could get. If there must be taxes then taxing disposable income being spent on luxury and leisure items seems to me to be the way to go.
 
FYMbyIce said:
I don't see how much fairer it could get. If there must be taxes then taxing disposable income being spent on luxury and leisure items seems to me to be the way to go.
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Is bread, milk, water and electricity a luxury or leisure item? Because they get VAT too.

I know a fairer way. Wouldn't it be fairer to tax the income rather than the consumption? The obstacle in doing this though is lack of political will. It's much more cosy to let tax evasion run loose.

In my mind, if tax burdens should be proportional to one's economic means, then, if you want to have VAT as a tax, then it would be much more proportional to have higher VAT for richer than for a poorer man. But that's just me.

P.S.: In direct taxes, why is it that the richer pay more, while in the indirect taxes the poorer pay the same at the rich? How are these both "right", when one goes against the principle of the other? The principle in direct taxation is that each must pay proportionally to his tax giving ability. The principle in indirect taxation is "everyone pays the same tax percentage over the good's price".
 
If you can catch the 960T for 109 after promo code(it goes on sale about once a week at newegg) and your motherboard will support it, it's a great CPU and will usually unlock to 6 cores..
 
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