HTPC upgrade??

A

antok86

[H]F Junkie
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Feb 26, 2006
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i have an HTPC that im seeing if it would be worth to upgrade the CPU.
its an older system. here are the specs.

CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E5200

mobo:Foxconn G45M-S LGA 775 Intel G45 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
psu: corsair 650w
the system is running 4gb of ram and is running onboard video.

would i see any benefit from upgrading to a quad core cpu?
this system is mainly used for WIN7 media center w/ ceton cable card.

thannks.
 
I've been contemplating the same thing. I have either an E5200 or E5300 on a Zotac mini-ITX board. I've been considering an upgrade to support hdmi 1.4 and 3D video, and also because my silly mobo doesn't support wake from sleep by my USB peripherals.

I'm somewhat confused about which components are required for supporting HDMI 1.4/3D, is it solely a CPU issue, or is the motherboard important as well? For example, I have a Panasonic VT25 and would like to be able to play 3D blu-rays from my HTPC, would the following mobo+cpu be okay? Zotac mini-ITX H61 chipset and Intel G530, or do I need to get a minimum of an i3 since on intel's website it says the G530 does not support Intel® InTru™ 3D Technology but the i3 does. It seems like the InTru 3D stuff is more for creating stereoscopic images for passive 3D (like using the red/cyan glasses).
 
antok86 said:
nothing major...i think its more of a software issue. when i first start media center its kinda slow.
Click to expand...

I bet an SSD would help more than a processor upgrade when it comes to load time on a single program.
 
yea i think i will try to find a used crucial m4 64gb ssd to run as my OS drive
 
i have an extra 240gtx that i might play with in the htpc. im just trying to get to be more responsive / smoother
 
antok86 said:
i have an extra 240gtx that i might play with in the htpc. im just trying to get to be more responsive / smoother
Click to expand...

It probably won't help that much but worth a try anyway. The SSD is gonna be the biggest performance boost.
 
I'd pop a small SSD ~30-60GB in it, and then a low end GPU like a 7550 or something just to make sure you're getting some better performance with HD video
 
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