Stuck on processor for htpc and server.

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Egomaniacal1

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Ok so my closest Micro Center(Brentwood location) is 3 hours away and i want to get a cpu for both a server and htpc build.

For my server i have already decided on the X8SI6-F-O Xeon/LGA 1156 board, and the only 1156 chips i am choosing from at that store are:

Core i3 550 3.2GHz Socket 1156 Boxed Processor - $99.99

Core i5 760 Processor Boxed - $169.99

Leaning towards the i5 for the extra power but the i3 has the integrated graphics so i would save on a vid card right? Will either or both support the ECC ram the X8SI6-F-O needs?



As for the HTPC i have decided on a AMD Phenom build. I will pick a board online or maybe when i get there and i want it to be full atx for the additional slot/expansion options. The two cpus i have narrowed down:

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Processor Boxed - $87.99

AMD Phenom II X4 840 Boxed Processor - $99.99

Same deal with these two, leaning x4 for the extra power especially since these two are so close in price. I just need other thoughts and advice on them.
 
Re Server:
i3 will support ECC ram, i5 and i7 won't. You can also look at the Xeon x3430 (4core/4thread - basically an i5 quad) for 209.00 at newegg or the x3440 for 239.00 (4core/8thread - basically an i7). Both the Xeon's will support ECC

Your motherboard has onboard video (Matrox G200eW) and also IPMI (basically video output over the network) so you really don't need to worry about the video card.

i3 should be more than enough power and is a good budget buy. If you are planning on running a bunch of VM's, etc. you might consider the Xeon's. I would stick with ECC ram (unbuffered) if you can, you can pick up 4GB sticks for ~60 bucks.

Just as a counterpoint, you can pick up a Dell T110 with 2GB ECC Ram, 250Gb HD, Xeon X3430 processor, power supply, case, CD Drive, etc. for 329.00. Only downside is you only have slots for 5 internal hard drives. If you ditch the CD drive and install a 3 in 2 in the 3.5 bays you can fit 7 internally. 4 bay external SAS enclosures start at around 130.


Re: HTPC - you considered a Sany Bridge 1155 setup instead now that the new chipsets are back out?
 
For the first setup, get the i3 for reasons mentioned above. Plus it runs very cool.

For the second setup, the HTPC, get the quad. Useful if you ever do encodes in the background.
 
ChrisBenn said:
Re Server:
i3 will support ECC ram, i5 and i7 won't. You can also look at the Xeon x3430 (4core/4thread - basically an i5 quad) for 209.00 at newegg or the x3440 for 239.00 (4core/8thread - basically an i7). Both the Xeon's will support ECC

Your motherboard has onboard video (Matrox G200eW) and also IPMI (basically video output over the network) so you really don't need to worry about the video card.

i3 should be more than enough power and is a good budget buy. If you are planning on running a bunch of VM's, etc. you might consider the Xeon's. I would stick with ECC ram (unbuffered) if you can, you can pick up 4GB sticks for ~60 bucks.

Just as a counterpoint, you can pick up a Dell T110 with 2GB ECC Ram, 250Gb HD, Xeon X3430 processor, power supply, case, CD Drive, etc. for 329.00. Only downside is you only have slots for 5 internal hard drives. If you ditch the CD drive and install a 3 in 2 in the 3.5 bays you can fit 7 internally. 4 bay external SAS enclosures start at around 130.


Re: HTPC - you considered a Sany Bridge 1155 setup instead now that the new chipsets are back out?
Click to expand...


for a n00bie that was some damn good advice.. ;)

great suggestions
 
Excellent advice indeed, thanks men!

Well won't be running any VMs but will be seeding torrents and streaming various media files up to full 1080p rips, thru any combination of 3 laptops, 2 Xbox 360s, a PS3 and a PCH C-200. Might get into some PC gaming off the server too if thats fairly easy to do. Now leaning i3 since i'd have to get one of the Xeons online. Also because i'd be getting the i3 so cheap if i run into problems with it not having the power i could always step up to the Xeon later on. Also thanks for the Dell suggestion. I have a Lian Li cube case i got off ebay not to long ago before i realized i probably should have gone with a Norco case so i'm invested in a home build at this point.

As for the HTPC i think i will go x4 to be better safe than sorry on the supply of power front. Also think i have found a decent board at that Micro Center, a Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5 for $189.99. Now if i can get some recommendations on good ram and power supplies(had been looking at Corsair or maybe something fanless from Seasonic to keep noise down)? Also what vid card for the htpc? I see the 5450 looks to be all the rave but if i wanted a 1.4a hdmi card for 3d which card is best?
 
Egomaniacal1 said:
Excellent advice indeed, thanks men!

Well won't be running any VMs but will be seeding torrents and streaming various media files up to full 1080p rips, thru any combination of 3 laptops, 2 Xbox 360s, a PS3 and a PCH C-200. Might get into some PC gaming off the server too if thats fairly easy to do. Now leaning i3 since i'd have to get one of the Xeons online. Also because i'd be getting the i3 so cheap if i run into problems with it not having the power i could always step up to the Xeon later on. Also thanks for the Dell suggestion. I have a Lian Li cube case i got off ebay not to long ago before i realized i probably should have gone with a Norco case so i'm invested in a home build at this point.

As for the HTPC i think i will go x4 to be better safe than sorry on the supply of power front. Also think i have found a decent board at that Micro Center, a Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5 for $189.99. Now if i can get some recommendations on good ram and power supplies(had been looking at Corsair or maybe something fanless from Seasonic to keep noise down)? Also what vid card for the htpc? I see the 5450 looks to be all the rave but if i wanted a 1.4a hdmi card for 3d which card is best?
Click to expand...


Server: If your going to be doing any trans-coding of video to stream it I would definitely recommend the quad. I did it on a dual & the power savings just aren't worth the wait when you start trans-coding 720p & above. It also seems kinda weird that


HTPC: That Gigabyte is a ripoff.. Paying 150+ for an AMD board is never worth it. Even at microcenter it wont be worth it. Just when you buy tthe Phenom x4 (keep in mind as well that Phenom is really an Athlon with a different name since it has no l3 cache) get it bundled with the M4A87TD/USB3. The bundle is 150 bucks & that is a great board given that its got both SATA 6Gbps as well as usb 3.0 & its considerable cheaper.
 
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bastage said:
That Gigabyte is a ripoff.. Paying 150+ for an AMD board is never worth it. Even at microcenter it wont be worth it. Just when you buy tthe Phenom x4 (keep in mind as well that Phenom is really an Athlon with a different name since it has no l3 cache) get it bundled with the M4A87TD/USB3. The bundle is 150 bucks & that is a great board given that its got both SATA 6Gbps as well as usb 3.0 & its considerable cheaper.
Click to expand...

I concur with this 100%.

PSU wise, I recommend this for the HTPC:
$54 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU

Though if you want to be quiet as possible, then go with a fanless if the cost seems justifiable to you:
$130 - Seasonic SS-400FL Active PFC F3 Gold 400W Modular PSU

Or this PSU for better bang for the buck value and a very quiet fan for better piece of mind:
$130 - Seasonic X650 Gold 650W Modular PSU

Now for the server, I recommend the following PSUs:
$80 - Antec Truepower New TP-650 650W PSU
$100 - Antec Truepower New TP-750 750W PSU

RAM wise, that server motherboard is particular finicky when it comes to RAM selection. It generally does not play nice with regular consumer RAM. This RAM set has been proven to work very well with that Supermicro mobo:
$51- Kingston 2 x 2GB ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 RAM

For the HTPC, you'll be fine with this RAM:
$40 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM

For the GPU for the HTPC, probably the HD 5570 1GB or the GT 220/240 might work here
 
bastage said:
Server: If your going to be doing any trans-coding of video to stream it I would definitely recommend the quad. I did it on a dual & the power savings just aren't worth the wait when you start trans-coding 720p & above. It also seems kinda weird that


HTPC: That Gigabyte is a ripoff.. Paying 150+ for an AMD board is never worth it. Even at microcenter it wont be worth it. Just when you buy tthe Phenom x4 (keep in mind as well that Phenom is really an Athlon with a different name since it has no l3 cache) get it bundled with the M4A87TD/USB3. The bundle is 150 bucks & that is a great board given that its got both SATA 6Gbps as well as usb 3.0 & its considerable cheaper.
Click to expand...


Amen. 180$ for a HTPC motherboard is way too much, even at Microcenter. I've become bit of a Microcenter fan recently, as I've found they are pretty competitive sometimes with online retailers, but even I am questioning the bang for your buck with that MB/CPU combo. The only reason I can see for getting the 180$ Gigabyte MB is needing multiple PCIE x16 slots for multiple video cards, which is kind of overkill for a HTPC unless you are gaming. I second bastage's recommendations, the Asus board is solid and the onboard video should be enough for basic HTPC functions, including 1080p Blu-ray playback. The CPU choice is meh. The X4 is kind of neutered with no L3 cache, but considering it's only 13$ more than the X2, I don't see why you wouldn't just go with it. Then again, the only reason to put an X4 in a HTPC IMO, is if you plan on doing some encoding in the background. I've done this myself (My HTPC has an X4 @ 3.6 in it) when I was moving around a lot for work and I didn't want to move multiple computers with me every time. Even so, I quickly got annoyed with the double duty the HTPC was pulling. I ended up grabbing a SFF IBM Core2 Duo to do my encoding. It takes almost twice as long (Makes sense, 2 cores vs. 4), but I don't have to mess with the HTPC as much interfering with TV watching. Again, considering the price and your situation, were really just nitpicking the CPU here. The MB choice is the only thing that I would definitely change.
 
Ok so since everyone agrees the motherboard should be changed how about this one:
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/U - $113.99
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0334891

How important is L3 cache vs number of cores/threads in an HTPC? I won't be reencoding with it, i do full blu and dvd rips cuz i like my menus and extras. Also like i said i will probably dabble in some PC gaming and definitely some MAME gaming if that makes any difference. I could step down to the Phenom X2 550/560BE($87.99/$99.99) or step up to the Phenom X4 955BE($129.99)? I am now leaning X4 because i really want things like the movie menus and MC guide to really be smooth and quick and i plan to get plenty of tuners for recording. More than likely two Cetons or some similiar tuner combinations that will get me to 8 digital tuners

Thanks Danny Bui for the additional recommendations, i was actually looking at the Season X660 so glad u came with the X650 to let me know i am on the right track. Anyone have any thoughts on a 1.4a card for 3D playback with bitstreaming capabilities? Stock heatsinks will work fine?
 
Egomaniacal1 said:
Ok so since everyone agrees the motherboard should be changed how about this one:
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/U - $113.99
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0334891
Click to expand...
A good motherboard choice.


Egomaniacal1 said:
How important is L3 cache vs number of cores/threads in an HTPC? I won't be reencoding with it, i do full blu and dvd rips cuz i like my menus and extras. Also like i said i will probably dabble in some PC gaming and definitely some MAME gaming if that makes any difference. I could step down to the Phenom X2 550/560BE($87.99/$99.99) or step up to the Phenom X4 955BE($129.99)? I am now leaning X4 because i really want things like the movie menus and MC guide to really be smooth and quick and i plan to get plenty of tuners for recording. More than likely two Cetons or some similiar tuner combinations that will get me to 8 digital tuners
Click to expand...
The L3 cache really comes in handy for gaming. And video re-encoding. That's about it AFAIK. I recommend sticking with the fake Phenom II X4 840.

Egomaniacal1 said:
Thanks Danny Bui for the additional recommendations, i was actually looking at the Season X660 so glad u came with the X650 to let me know i am on the right track. Anyone have any thoughts on a 1.4a card for 3D playback with bitstreaming capabilities? Stock heatsinks will work fine?
Click to expand...

As I said earlier, the HD 5570 1GB or the GT 220 or GT 240 cards will work fine for 3D movie playback according to Nvidia and Arcsoft:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-requirements.html
http://www.arcsoft.com/estore/software_title.asp?ProductCode=TMT5P#submenu

As for the stock HSF, in terms of noise level, that's largely dependent on your personal noise tolerance, case design and airflow. But in terms of cooling, the stock HSF is fine.
 
Can't the zocate boards push 3d? I know they bitstream and play 1080p fine. And there much better suited for htpc use.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
Danny Bui said:
The Zacate mobos cannot push 3D BluRay movie playback well from the little information I can find about Zacate and 3D movie playback.

EDOT, nvm about that. Looks like it may be fine:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...fusion-motherboard-review-media-playback.html
Click to expand...

That doesnt look bad at all.

It would limit the gaming, but given that the primary function is HTPC I would go with the ASUS E35M1-M PRO. Has the power for all the HTPC tasks at a fairly low cost, Silent operation & low power usage. Also with 2x pcie and 2x pci it still has plenty of expansion. & with the upcoming silicon dust HDPrime tuners you most likely would not "need" any of the slots since its a network based cablecard tuner.
 
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