I currently have an AMD htpc, its got a 4850e processor on a 780G motherboard, but im looking to build a smaller one (the current one overhangs the shelf) and give the old one to my parents, http://www.bit-tech.net/news/industry/2009/02/18/new-zotac-geforce-9300-itx-wifi-shipping-to/1 <-- this looks like it could make an awesome motherboard. The 4850e cant playback 1080p without GPU assistance (which is a pain to setup, and i never really got working, i dont want to playback through MPC-HC, i want to playback from mediacentre) or coreavc. I eventually went with coreavc and i like it a lot, the new version of coreavc supports GPU acceleration through CUDA! So where available CoreAVC could offload playback to the gpu keeping the cpu untaxed, and in other instances fallback to software. The only problem with going with intel is the cheapest core2duo is about £100 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Inte...-FSB-1066MHz-3MB-Cache-105x-Multiplier-Retail versus about £45 for the 4850e would something like http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Inte...t-775-Wolfdale-Core-2x25-GHz-2MB-Cache-Retail or http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Inte...300-45nm-Socket-775-2x26-GHz-2MB-Cache-Retail do though? its still more expensive at £58 and £63 respectively, but is certaily a lot closer. Anyone have any suggestions?
The E5200 will do fine, I have it and it plays my 1080p content without any issues, also these cpu's OC like mad.
Another question, im looking to put a laptop drive in the new build as it doent need to have a lot of storage inbuilt into the HTPC as i have a 5bay DAS connected to it through pci-e, is there much advantage to going for a 7200rpm drive over a 5200rpm one? would it be much louder? run hotter? Also i made a major cock-up when i set up my DAS, i had 2 x 1tb drives full, and i had 2 x 1tb spare, so i created a spanned drive from the 2 spare through windows and copied the data across. I had wanted to setup a raid 5, but i couldnt obviously (i should have bought another 1tb drive and created a raid 5 in the first place) so i just added the other 2 drives to the spanned array, i have now filled up about 2.5TB so theres no way to go back now, anyone got any suggestions? Also will it be possible to move this spanned array onto a new pc?
Thanks for your reply there wont be any overclocking as it will be used as a HTPC only, can it play 1080p natively or do you use CoreAVC?
I use CoreAVC thru MPC. It works very well. Ive watched 1080p .Mov files and those seem exactly the same. I would love to try BluRay but Im not gonna buy a separate drive for the Pc for it.
CoreAVC works through normal media player for me, which means i can watch 1080p through mediacentre, which is the major thing for me (i cant remember if i had to do any tweaking to get it working in normal media player). To be honest i think the 5200 will be perfect, looking at the bit-tech review it looks like it out performs the 4850e i currently use (which plays 1080p flawlessly with coreavc), with the only downside being a higher TDP (65W vs 45W) but being able to offload to the 9300 onboard GPU through coreavc would more than make up for this for me
If you can, go E7400 as opposed to E5200, it has a higher FSB and higher cache (as well as clock speed, but that's not as important)
Thats the whole point of this new build? I should be able to use the integrated GPU to play HD content (using coreavc) but through media player (although GPU support is new and there are a few issues with it atm)
to answer your hard drive question. I'd take the 5400rpm for a media centre setup, it should be plenty fast enough. 2.5" drives are all relatively quiet but the 5400 ones require a little less power. I don't have a HDTV so I can't comment on how well the CPUs will perform but I have an Intel E2160 which is lesser than both of the CPUs you mention and I've been mighty impressed by it. Although I have OC'd mine from 1.8 to 3.3ghz.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not really sure how that new system will help you. You've stated that, apart from the size, the reason you want a new Intel-based setup is because you couldn't figure how to offload video rendering to the 780G GPU (and yes, it's as much a "GPU" as anything from nVidia). A friend of mine has that a very similar setup (Athlon 4850e and a 780G mobo) and all that's needed for GPU-accelerated video is PowerDVD 7 or higher. Or DivX 7, for that matter. Plays back any 1080p content on his 60" Pioneer LX6090H plasma in the highest quality. I'd even go so far as to say that that Zotac board with the nVidia 9300M "mGPU" has less oomph than the 780G. Anyway, my general point is: don't think it's easier to offload video rendering on an Intel/nVidia platform than on an AMD platform. The CPU might be faster, though. For the hard disk drive I'd go with the WD Green Power of your choice.
CoreAVC works extremely well with quad cores - a 9130e (65W quad core) will do 1080p with it very nicely, despite its low clock. I dunno why you just dont just up the HTT a bit on that 4850e - it's very labile to extra MHz.
Im not saying the 780G isnt as much of a GPU, the only difference at all is that coreavc can do gpu acceleration through CUDA (ie, not with an AMD setup), also i am talking specifically about the MKV container, and yes i know with powerdvd its possible, but that means coming out of vista media centre to play things, thats exactly what i dont want to do. I dont know if the 9300 has less oomph, perhaps a bit-tech test is in order? So to re-iterate, the major reason is because CoreAVC can do gpu offloading now, its still a bit buggy apparently, but i expect that to change, and coreavc is still more than capable with software decoding until then.
i dont need to up the HTT on the 4850e, it works absolutely flawlessly, but i want to offload the processing to the GPU where possible (which i know i can do with powerdvd etc, but it takes away from the experience), for purely HTPC uses i think a quad core would be overkill, especially when to all intents and purposes the 4850e works fine. To be perfectly honest, if coreavc could do gpu offloading on the 780G all i would probably do is get a different case (i have an antec NSK2480 which overhangs the shelf, and is just way too big in general for what i need), switch the system drive to a 2.5" one and id be a very happy bunny. The size and price of the Hiper slimline would be good, just taller, so i dont need to use a tiny hsf (ie 430mm wide, 270mm deep, up to 136mm high, hiper is only 53mm high or something) so if anyone knows of a nice looking case for around £50 with those kind of specs, let me know
Did you try DivX 7? If not, you should really have a look at it. It handles H.264 and MKV containers, and, as previously stated, with hardware like your's it can output full HD (1920x1080) images. Oh, and H.264 and MKV support are installed as DirectShow filters, so they're not just for displaying DivX files. The CoreAVC site doesn't list any "mGPU", that is the 9300/9400(M) chipset, as compatible with CoreAVC, yet it *does* list the new GTX285 and GTX290 chips/cards, which are predated by the 9300/9400 chipsets (although not by much).
Thats the whole point of CUDA, if your device supports CUDA it should work (im guessing the ones listed on the site are those that have been tested and confirmed working) it also says to check here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA#Supported_GPUs to see if its compatible
i've had a look at divx7 but i cant find anywhere where it says it does GPU offloading? If it doesnt what benefit is there of using it over CoreAVC, which also allows me to output full HD (1920x1080)? Plus its £13.99 and ive already paid for CoreAVC
Do you need to encode anything? DivX 7 is free for playback, which is what most people use it for. Also, if it could decode full HD *without* GPU offloading, would that matter as long as it works?
