HTPC to Upgrade or Repair

J

js1974

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 17, 2012
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122
So I started experiencing some issues with the USB Ports on my motherboard that when something is plugged in the system won't power on and I
ve narrowed it down to 2 ports. Now I know sooner or later it will have to be repaired or upgraded there is no way around that.

Here is my current dilemma, My HTPC is an ASRock P55 Pro running a i7 860 and 16GB RAM. It's near impossible to find a 1156 Motherboard used or otherwise and everyone I have found is going to set me back $100 for used up to $200 for new.

I haven't used AMD Chips in a long time not since the P4B days or earlier and I'm out of the loop but for an HTPC I have to assume I can get a bundle Mobo & CPU around the same price as just a replacement or repaired motherboard.

So from you AMD experts out there what would you suggest? I use my HTPC as a full blown media server, Video Rendering and it's also my Streaming server for gaming so it's pretty much an all in one box and was my old gaming system.
 
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unless your going with an 8 core amd chip, you would be better off with intel if you are rendering. Less heat, less power, and faster, the 8 core chip can beat intels quads sometimes on rendering depending what software you are using.

Honestly I think ebay for a used board is your best bet, I'm seeing a lot of boards there for $50 to $100. Depending on what ram you have you could also sell the quad and get a new i5/i7 and mobo for around $250.
 
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In all reality you have a pretty snappy chip, so unless you are willing to drop some cash, probably >200 you are probably best with what you have. Have you considered getting a usb expansion card? Maybe you could get a usb 3.0 to pciexpress and just bypass your onboard malfunctioning ports. If you have a Microcenter around you can get the 7850k and mobo bundle and get close to performance. Check out (this) So basically a wash on single and multi threaded performance.
 
I was looking at a Micro Center they always have the best deals around.

A10 6800K Black Edition 3.9GHz & FM2A88X Extreme6+ FM2+/FM2 A88X ATX for $144 I figured it was pretty close to the i7 860 in performance and I haven't found a brand new retail 1156 board for that same price anywhere.
 
Well you might be able to get around 100$ for your old combo on ebay, so I would say go for it :)
 
i7 w 16Gb for a mere HTPC?? Please tell me you are using it for more than media streaming, lol.
 
wjogert said:
i7 w 16Gb for a mere HTPC?? Please tell me you are using it for more than media streaming, lol.
Click to expand...

Hey! Some of us like them i7s. I have a 4770k and 8gb for my htpc, but that's because I got the processor for $110, so it was the same price as an i3.
 
It's an all in one solution for me, HTPC, Ripping & Compressing, Rendering and Streaming Server for both Gaming and A/V. The list really goes on and on and I can pretty much do anything with it but the biggest reason it's an i7 860 is it's a 4 year old gaming system that was upgraded to an i7 3930k.

Same reason the motherboard is so hard to replace now is it's an outdated architecture.
 
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