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HTPC CPU recommendation

D

djgizmo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
1,429
I'm in the process of building an HTPC, and have decided to stick with the LGS775 socket / DDR2.

Like most people, I'm looking to make the most out my experience. I've chosen the....

ASUS P5Q-EM (Micro ATX mobo) - has HDMI video+audio out.

With playing back DVD movies / other movie rips in Media Center (Still Probably stick with Vista 32), would I be able to get away with a E1200 (Celly Duel Core) or does anyone believe I'll NEED more 'umph' to get the job done.
 
Athlon 4850e + 780G/790 for HTPCs. Or NV's newly released 9300 or 9400? Depending on your case you may be able to fit a full ATX factor. Figure out the case, what exactly "HTPC" means to you (watching 1080p? blooray? need to game on it?) since some people have interpreted HTPC as just SFF before.
 
Ahh, for me, my HTPC will be for ONLY watching / listening to media, including Blueray @ 1080p.

The Intel G45 can fully decode Blueray.

Like I said, I'm asking for a CPU recommendation
 
e2180 or e5200... Hate to break it to you but the G45 is fail at full HD

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3430&p=5
On one end of the spectrum we have Intel's G45 which absolutely does not support proper 24p playback. The G45 still does not have official support for it in the drivers and although 24 fps playback is possible in the hardware, we seriously doubt the software group will implement it (that's a dare).
Click to expand...
and the conclusion
That leaves the Intel G45. If you are an Intel fan, this is your only real IGP choice... for the next few days at least. The G45 is acceptable for an HTPC platform as it offers excellent video quality and 8-channel LPCM output. However, we have no idea if implementation of 1080P/24 fps support will occur. Speaking of driver quality and features, this is one area where Intel is behind AMD and NVIDIA. In addition, platform cost is a problem when looking at the mid to lower range processor market compared to AMD. This is something we will look at shortly as it pertains to the IGP market.
Click to expand...
 
lowteckh, any mobo recommendations? I see that biostar / foxcon seems to be the cheapest on new for the 780gs, couldn't find a 790 though
 
Well I don't have a bluray player or a working/plugged-in optical drive for that matter (who uses them anymore? :D) but my 1080p 6GB movies played fine, at least from what I remember. if you are going mATX then the Foxconn, Biostar and Gigabyte = choice, the Gigabyte having the most features and ports. 790 is called the 790GX, more for the Phenoms for its overclockability than HTPCs. And I wouldn't spend that extra money on AMD anyways; 780G is enough and if it isn't......... add a 3450 and Hybrid Crossfire.
 
Thanks everyone. I think I've picked my mobo then - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128090

Should get me started... can't find my public wishlist yet, but

Basically the build looks like this...

APEVIA X-QPACK-NW-BK/420 Black MicroATX Case 420W Power Supply - $74.99 (I know the psu is on the weak side)

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX - $79.99

AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 45W OEM $49.99
MASSCOOL 5F263B1M3 80mm Ball CPU Cooler - $9.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - $44.99

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS 1TB - $119.99
(only using the 1TB for storage, have another 80GB for apps / os)

LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD ROM SATA Model DH-4O1S-08 - $99

Total cost for all: $480 + $30 shipping all from newegg.

I know I could probably save another $30 if I shopped around, but the convenience of one place makes it too good to pass up. Thanks to everyone who helped. By switching to an AMD setup, I saved about $80 :)
 
djgizmo said:
APEVIA X-QPACK-NW-BK/420 Black MicroATX Case 420W Power Supply - $74.99 (I know the psu is on the weak side)
Click to expand...

That PSU isn't on the weak side, it's on the SHIT side. Do not use the included PSU, no matter how low power your HTPC is. Using the PSU included with any Apevia case is pretty much sentencing your HTPC to death. Apeva makes some of the world's shittiest and unsafe PSUs out there.

And if you need proof that Apevia makes shit:
Apevia ATX-AS500W-BL
Apevia Warlock Power 900W
XQPack's Included 420W PSU
Aspire Beast 680W Power Supply

So go with a different case (like the Silverstone SG-01 or SG-02 or the Antec NSK2480) or buy a separate PSU like this if you want to keep that Apevia case:
Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU - $50

Also, if you want quieter cooling, go with this HSF:
Scythe SCMNJ-1000 Ninja Mini HSF - $30

But if you don't mind noise, just get the retail version of the X2 4850E that comes with a HSF. The stock HSF is on par with that Masscool HSF but at lest you don't have to pay the extra shipping charge as you would with the Masscool:.
AMD Athlon X2 4850E CPU - $60

Other than that, looks good to me.
 
Hey Danny,

Thank you for going the extra mile and presenting me options.

I think I will spring for the Scythe now that I think about it. I want to have this HTPC as quiet as possible.

As for the case, I'm torn. I really like the apevia style of the case. I'll probably stick with the case and definitely swap out the psu.

Danny, what are your thoughts on the Ultra Micro Fly case / psu. (http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultra-Micro-Fly...tZPCC_PC_Cases_Towers?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116)
 
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The case itself is good. But the PSU is poor. Not as bad as the Apevia as it won't necessarily kill your PC over time but it's still of enough low quality that I can't recommend it to anyone as a primary use PSU. Maybe as a backup PSU probably..

Since you're gonna swap out the power supply anyway, you might want to take a look at these B-Gear cases which share a similar design to the Ultra and Apevia cases:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=
 
If you like the "desktop" or HTPC look, the Antec NSK2480 is a good choice.
 
your build looks good, i can say that the 780g chipset rocks for htpc. i own 2 and have build 4 htpcs with the 780g chipset and it works great.....


post pics when it is done
 
4850E + 780G has been working well for me as well! I had a little MPEG2 decoding issue but it turned out to be my TV tuner.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies...

Personally, I like the style of the Apevia / Ultra Micro Fly (Single 120mm fan for an exhaust in the rear + not as wide as the desktop style)

I'll 'probably' go with the Apevia + Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU due to trying to keep it under $500 (or at least very close)

I'll be sure to take pics :)

Hopefully Black Friday will yield some deals on newegg that will benefit me.
 
After reading this thread I was ready to go ahead with the 780g/4850e recommendation that seems to work for most people but then I found this article on Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3430&p=5 where it mentioned problems with 1080p Blu-Ray content because of lack of support for 24fps playback. Here's the quotes from the article:

"The AMD 780G/790GX results were very choppy at times; even when they seemed smooth we experienced audio sync problems.

The only platform that can properly handle 24 fps output is NVIDIA's GeForce 8200/8300. It just works. "

Can any of you that have this HTPC setup confirm or deny that this is an issue? The article is dated from October 14th so it's not that old, but I can't find any other mention of this specific issue with the 780g chipset anywhere else on the Internet. Perhaps a driver update fixed this problem? This is basically the one thing stopping me from proceeding with my purchase. I was either going to go with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856110096 (barebones model that uses 780g chipset) or this http://shop3.frys.com/product/5726492 (pre-packaged acer using nvidia 8200 chipset). Small form factor is a major consideration for me hence my choice between these two units.

Again, can any of you that have this HTPC setup confirm or deny the 780g chipset has an issue with stuttering 1080p/24fps playback when the camera pans? Thank you.
 
My 780G has not had any problems playing back full 1080P blu-ray movies, I stream .ISO files from my desktop to my HTPC and never had any problems. Only issue I have is when I pass a movie and walk away sometimes it takes the movie a few seconds to find itself on the desktop again and catch back up, usually no more than two seconds.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. Do you know for sure that it is 24fps content that you are watching that is having no issues? The Anandtech article seems to indicate that the problem only occurs with 24fps content and only during screen panning. I just find it odd that of all the 780g articles I've been reading, the Anandtech article is the only one to mention this problem. Perhaps it was the specific motherboard they used to test. Can anyone else confirm/deny that this issue exists? Thank you!
 
When I get home tonight I will play a movie, not 100% sure how to check to make sure I am running at 24fps. I run PowerDVD 8 Ultra on Vista, or will I need to check the TV settings, or is there something under windows to verify this?

I am not sure how to check it.
 
To be honest I'm not exactly sure either. From what I've read it sounds like 95% of Blu-Ray content is 24fps but again I don't know how to tell for sure while you're watching it. But when you're watching, pay particular attention to scenes where the camera is moving around or zooming in to see if you see any stuttering or choppiness. Thanks for doing the test!
 
Now that I think of it, this question is buried in a thread about a cpu recommendation. I am going to start a new thread posing this question to see if I can get any additional contributors.
 
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