A work mate has asked me to spec a HTPC for him and i'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to CPU's. He's looking for a quiet low power HTPC and I will easily be able to spec the rest of the machine myself but i'm not too sure what CPU and motherboard combo to go for. I have a ION based HTPC and tbh I think it really needs something with a bit more power so i have ruled that out as an option. The next obvious choice for me would be an I3 processor but I really have no idea what the equivalent AMD option would be so advice here would be greatly appreciated. The HTPC itself will be used for playing Blu-Ray/DVD rips and content streamed from his server. No TV tuner needed.
i3 or i5-2300...no need for dedicated gpu...i5-2300 will be amazing at power usage and has the better igp so worth the little extra over the i3 540 and the like. my opinion...
Cool thanks. Sorry i didn't make it clear that I was going to use onboard graphics. I believe sandybridge I3's are inbound soon so would it be best to wait for them?
They are already availble on some sites. Overclockers have them for around £100 to £120. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=6&subid=1671
AMD Brazos available shortly, more useful than Atom but still low power and will be cheap. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4134/the-brazos-review-amds-e350-supplants-ion-for-miniitx mobile Sandy bridge would be good if you have the dough when its available.
