New HTPC

M

Modder man

[H]ard|Gawd
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May 13, 2009
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going to be building an htpc here in the next few weeks

i am currently looking at the AMD Athlon II x3 400e, would this work well in an htpc environment
i also have two motherobard to pick from
890gxm-G65
and a 785-p45
will i need a gpu either way or is intergrated going to cut it for me

i will be running blu-ray rips and/or using a blu-ray drive for 1080p content
 
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how is that at all helpful, this is not an sff system, and intended susage is implied as it is an htpc. right now all im wondering is does the sandybridge architecture bring anything amazing to the table for htpcs
 
for power use the i3 or i5 is going to be better power/performance rate

both will do fine
 
Modder man said:
how is that at all helpful, this is not an sff system, and intended susage is implied as it is an htpc. right now all im wondering is does the sandybridge architecture bring anything amazing to the table for htpcs
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It's helpful because you gave a complete dearth of information to base any possible recommendations on.

I could have just as easily linked the questionnaire in General Hardware if that makes you feel better.


You can't just say is X processor the best for [insert wide category of possible uses here]... even HTPC is a pretty wide range. The more info you provide in terms of specific capability requirements (think codecs, resolutions, streaming, power usage, etc) the better recs you'll get.

You know, the expression GIGO, right?
 
Adidas4275 said:
for power use the i3 or i5 is going to be better power/performance rate

both will do fine
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Exactly. Post some possibly hardware systems and we'll give you some finessed suggestions. :)

Even a Zacate based system is more then enough for an HTPC.
 
zacate works but i was hearing at this point they are having issues streaming HD and/or with blu-ray playback
 
I believe Blu-Ray playback from disc is related to hardware and software compatibility.
 
Modder man said:
going to be building an htpc here in the next few weeks


first question at hand, would i be better off with a cheap sandybridge or a phenom II x4
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Since most people are more interested in busting your balls then actually helping I will offer some insight.

Phenom II x4's paired with an 880/890 chipset motherboards are more than capable at playing HD content without the need for a video card. I do not believe you will get bitstreaming output via HDMI (you may only get dts, etc.)

i3-2100 paired with a compatible motherboard(H67/H61?) will also support any video format you can throw at it and will support bitstreaming. You will also being doing it with less power. Something to note, 24p playback is an issue with sandybridge still so do some research and see this is even a factor.

I opted the sandybridge route and am in the process of putting my htpc together. Hopefully this gets you going in the right direction.
 
is there a reason you want so much performance in your HTPC? A 45w athlon x2 on an 8300 chipset can take care of pretty much anything an htpc needs to do and be very low impact on the power bills.
 
perhaps i dont need that much, i just know from past processors i have tried they didnt work out so well. i think that was mainly due to an architecture that didnt support some of the stuff needed
 
Modder man said:
perhaps i dont need that much, i just know from past processors i have tried they didnt work out so well. i think that was mainly due to an architecture that didnt support some of the stuff needed
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Exactly so I will repeat exactly what I had already said:
Exactly. Post some possibly hardware systems and we'll give you some finessed suggestions.

Even a Zacate based system is more then enough for an HTPC.
Click to expand...
Modder man said:
zacate works but i was hearing at this point they are having issues streaming HD and/or with blu-ray playback
Click to expand...
All I see is some guy who keeps thinking a new Flash update will fix his issue with Netflix even though Netflix doesn't use Flash. Netflix uses Silverlight which Microsoft had recently issued an update that caused many issues, some of which I had but now have resolved (they were log in related).

Blu ray playback has issues all it's own, it's not entirely mature enough which is why I'm still using a PS3 for BR playback. If you want 100% flawless playback you need to rip your BRs into MKVs.
 
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Modder man said:
i am currently looking at the AMD Athlon II x3 400e, would this work well in an htpc environment

i will be running blu-ray rips and/or using a blu-ray drive for 1080p content
Click to expand...

As long as you pair that CPU with the HD 5450, HD 5550 or HD 5570 card for blu-ray playback, you should be fine with that CPU for a HTPC if you're just watching blu-ray content.

Now are you trying to get a full HTPC build list recommendation now or do you still have some general questions to ask?
 
nah there i was mainly just looking at the cpu, i have tried a few different things with parts laying around in the past and it didnt usually work out so well. the cpu was the one place i really wasnt sure how much would be needed
 
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