Would this AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz be enough for HTPC? Playing bluerays, mkv files, office work etc... I'm asking cause don't know what power does this integrated gpu has compared to some old intel onboard gpu.... I think I have Asus P5QL mobo right now with GMA X4500 IGP. Would this new APU be better? Would like to build a small pc, mitx mobo and pico PSU...
AMD APUs have a better onboard graphics than any intel solution but they fall short on raw processing power. They'd probably be fine for a HTPC, but if you were planning on things like playing blu-ray movies from it, a dedicated GPU is going to be more efficient. Nothing fancy, if your board has at least one pci-express x16 slot you can add certain AMD 6000 series cards and enable like a hybrid crossfire solution with the onboard gpu.
Pretty sure the X4500 will be pretty outdated in the relms of what it will accelerate video playback wise so the APU will be great for playback of hd content etc That said any modern 1155 chips graphics will do exactly the same.
All I will be doing on this PC will be playing blue ray movies (mkv files), browsing internet, office use. That is all. For some reason my x4500 struggling to play you tube video on full screen When playing mkv files it is fine till i start pausing, forwarding etc - it kill sit Plus this PC has matx mobo so it is matx case. So that is why looking at some small solutions - would like to put it with mitx mobo and pico psu, some dvd and 2GB drive and make some nice wee case for it. A4 or A6 APU + mitx mobo should close at around £100 and I don't want to spend more than that. Would it better to go with Pentium G2120 for example?
Some higher bit rate / resolution vids from youtube with no acceleration will bog down core duo stuff in a flash, was messing about with a Q6600 the other evening and without video acceleration some 1080p stuff was 100% cpu usage. Stuck a lowly HD5450 in with it and played flawless with next to no cpu usage. I have used a Ivy bridge Celeron to play a fair bit of HD stuff and it seems fine, not tried blu ray stuff but a quick google seems to think it would be fine.
might be of interest Anandtech link of trinity APU for HTPC looking on scan the Richland APU is cheaper, but lower clocked (wonder if its overclockable??), but offers similar performance, and the iGPU is the same I've only played with the 5700K which had no issues with 1080p files, but lack of bluray disks means I cant test that.
I doubt you can buy hardware that can't play Blu-rays nowadays. My old AMD 4850e with onboard 780G graphics played them perfectly well. Never had an issue playing 1080p MKVs etc either. I imagine anything an HD5450 can do an APU can do too.
My A10-5700 is perfect for htpc duties. Plays anything I throw at it including retail blu ray discs. Also lets me play a few basic games like Dirt 3 and Fifa 13. The dual core versions will be fine as well. In my Dads htpc we have a amd Brazos e-350 which again will easily cope with 10GB+ blr ray mkvs although browsing xbmc can be a little sluggish if there are other programs running in thr background.
Any modern CPU will have more than enough GPU power for smooth 1080p decoding. I've just sold an older Pentium G630T (Sandy Bridge) which played Blu-Rays perfectly, the GPU cores in the processor are more than good enough. The G2120 you mentioned is a newer part (Ivy Bridge) so would definitely be a good option. Ultimately it comes down to price - the Pentium CPUs are in the £50 range so if £100 is the limit you'll have £50 for a mobo which isn't really viable on Intel, decent mATX mobos are £80+, ITX around the same if not a bit more. AMD is probably the better option, the onboard GPU is definitely better than Intel options (though both are perfectly capable of 1080p Blu Ray playback). A4 is a decent CPU for your needs, 65W TDP is pretty reasonable so cooling it shouldn't be too much of a problem
Thanks guys for your input. SOunds like A4-5300 will be fine for all I need. Will add a nice mitx mobo for around £60 and got a nice build
blu ray playback is fine on my 5400k.... I find it is worth setting up a powerprofile though... when moving between fast and slow shots there is a tendancy to drop frames when it steps up. I'm not sure if that is Arcsoft Total Media at fault or AMD though.
