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Fenris_Ulf
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
- Messages
- 1,944
I just wanted to let everyone here know my experience with rebuilding my HTPC. I had been running a BE-2300 on an Albatron KI-690 ITX motherboard with a 5450 PCI card. It ran very well overall, but had a few recurring issues. The ethernet controller would just drop for no apparent reason usually a few minutes into a movie, but sometimes just randomly. Also, the HDMI audio would drop several times a day requiring me to cycle between HDMI source on my TV. Both detracted from the experience enough to make me want a change.
I was primarily looking at the AMD Zacate platform, but I was concerned about Netflix/Silverlight and CPU usage. I decided instead to look at Intel solutions. I first looked at the i3-2100, but coupled with a h68 mobo it probably would have been about $220. Intel just released new Celerons and Pentiums which are 2100s but with a few features stripped off. Those features aren't used by most HTPCs, so I figured I'd go with the cheapest dual core Celeron G530. Copuled with an ASUS P8H61-I, 4 GB of Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 (cheapest with rebate), ASUS 5450 512MB PCI-e video card ($15 AR), and a Patriot Pyro 60GB SSD (again, cheap with rebate). The total was about $260 AR from Newegg, so quite reasonable. A Zacate combo would have been about the same price, but with only a fraction of the processing power.
Putting it together was quite straightforward, but I was concerned about the stock Intel heatsink. It's the smallest I've seen in 10 years! It's the standard Intel snowflake/orb design, but the heatsink is only about 3/4" tall and there's no copper slug in the center like on some other HSFs. I have plenty of heatsinks lying around, but this is my first 1155 board and I don't have mounting hardware for it (the hole spacing is different than AMD or S775). I'm a bit of a cooling nut, so I was concerned, but decided to try it and upgrade later if there was a problem. This fear proved to be completely unfounded.
Win7 installed easily off a USB stick (pro-tip here, DON'T use the USB3 headers, Win7 install can't see them and will crap out). A few hours were spend downloading Windows updates and utilities, configuring the look and feel, and installing in it's "case". The case is actually a drawer in a modified Ikea Besta TV stand. I started monitoring CPU temps and usage with CoreTemp. The latest version of CoreTemp has a new feature - power usage! It turns out the Celeron G530 only uses about 17 watts with both cores maxed out and about 5 watts at idle! Temps never got above 53 degrees C, about what my BE-2300 was at with a small heatpipe heatsink. The stock Intel heatsink was inaudible and works well to pass air over the power MOSFETs and southbridge.
I tested with a Blu-Ray rip and everything played fine, and surprisingly CPU usage was under 5% the whole time. Netflix HD is smooth, boot up and shutdown are fast, and everything runs quick. This Celeron is no slouch, it's probably as fast/faster than any Core2 Duo (except the Extremes) but only uses a couple of watts, perfect for HTPCs. Since the Sandy Bridge processors still have the "24" bug, I decided to use an add-on card for video. The built in graphics would probably be sufficient for HTPC use, but I wanted maximum flexibility. The ASUS 5450 is passively cooled and runs at about 140F (60 degrees C), which is fine for a GPU. The cost was only $15 AR which is less than the cost of upgrading to a H68 mobo and i3-3100 for the HD graphics (and would still have the 24 bug).
So far there have been no network dropouts and no dropped audio, so I'm happy everything is working correctly. I just figured I'd pass on my success story and let everyone know the G530 is a seriously great candidate for HTPC use.
I was primarily looking at the AMD Zacate platform, but I was concerned about Netflix/Silverlight and CPU usage. I decided instead to look at Intel solutions. I first looked at the i3-2100, but coupled with a h68 mobo it probably would have been about $220. Intel just released new Celerons and Pentiums which are 2100s but with a few features stripped off. Those features aren't used by most HTPCs, so I figured I'd go with the cheapest dual core Celeron G530. Copuled with an ASUS P8H61-I, 4 GB of Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 (cheapest with rebate), ASUS 5450 512MB PCI-e video card ($15 AR), and a Patriot Pyro 60GB SSD (again, cheap with rebate). The total was about $260 AR from Newegg, so quite reasonable. A Zacate combo would have been about the same price, but with only a fraction of the processing power.
Putting it together was quite straightforward, but I was concerned about the stock Intel heatsink. It's the smallest I've seen in 10 years! It's the standard Intel snowflake/orb design, but the heatsink is only about 3/4" tall and there's no copper slug in the center like on some other HSFs. I have plenty of heatsinks lying around, but this is my first 1155 board and I don't have mounting hardware for it (the hole spacing is different than AMD or S775). I'm a bit of a cooling nut, so I was concerned, but decided to try it and upgrade later if there was a problem. This fear proved to be completely unfounded.
Win7 installed easily off a USB stick (pro-tip here, DON'T use the USB3 headers, Win7 install can't see them and will crap out). A few hours were spend downloading Windows updates and utilities, configuring the look and feel, and installing in it's "case". The case is actually a drawer in a modified Ikea Besta TV stand. I started monitoring CPU temps and usage with CoreTemp. The latest version of CoreTemp has a new feature - power usage! It turns out the Celeron G530 only uses about 17 watts with both cores maxed out and about 5 watts at idle! Temps never got above 53 degrees C, about what my BE-2300 was at with a small heatpipe heatsink. The stock Intel heatsink was inaudible and works well to pass air over the power MOSFETs and southbridge.
I tested with a Blu-Ray rip and everything played fine, and surprisingly CPU usage was under 5% the whole time. Netflix HD is smooth, boot up and shutdown are fast, and everything runs quick. This Celeron is no slouch, it's probably as fast/faster than any Core2 Duo (except the Extremes) but only uses a couple of watts, perfect for HTPCs. Since the Sandy Bridge processors still have the "24" bug, I decided to use an add-on card for video. The built in graphics would probably be sufficient for HTPC use, but I wanted maximum flexibility. The ASUS 5450 is passively cooled and runs at about 140F (60 degrees C), which is fine for a GPU. The cost was only $15 AR which is less than the cost of upgrading to a H68 mobo and i3-3100 for the HD graphics (and would still have the 24 bug).
So far there have been no network dropouts and no dropped audio, so I'm happy everything is working correctly. I just figured I'd pass on my success story and let everyone know the G530 is a seriously great candidate for HTPC use.