Inspired by a thread I recently found, I'm putting together a super-cheap HTPC using spare or dirt cheap parts. I have pretty much everything I need already - I just need a case (which I've already decided on but not yet bought) and a boot drive (which doesn't have to be stunning, as all the content will be delivered over gigabit ethernet). I've got an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (plus board) sat around gathering dust (though I do have to test it). Plus I also have a spare 775 board, into which I can drop a dirt cheap P4 HT, or go up to something like a C2D should I need the extra CPU speed. I need to have HDMI + HDMI audio, so I will be getting a (very) cheap graphics card either way. I can use VGA/DVI-I, but only as a short-term solution because I can't calibrate the TV when using the VGA input. Plus it saves on audio cables. The question is however, for smooth 1080p HD playback - BluRay or h.264 - should I use a faster processor or get a graphics card with a little more grunt? My main PC is also my HTPC at the moment, so I haven't really had much experience with lower-powered HTPCs before... Of course I may end up answering my own question, as I need to test the X2 4000+ and board at the weekend anyway. The key point is that I don't want to spend money when I don't need to!
I had a quick look at 5670's on fleaBay; the going rate seems to be anywhere between £30 and £60, and I couldn't find anything that was low profile... Probably should have mentioned that: the case I plan to get is low-profile, so anything full-height is automatically out of the question. Bear in mind: when I say "dirt cheap" I mean "dirt cheap compared to the price you'd pay for groceries", not necessarily "dirt cheap for computer parts" . It really only has to be the bare minimum needed to get by - I don't plan to do any gaming or anything graphically intensive with it.
Personally I am going for this little gem. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...z-gddr3-gpu-700mhz-d-sub-dvi-hdmi-low-profile I looked at the new 6 series but apparrently the 620 is just this rebadged and 10 pound more. But I'm sure this would be up to the job too for lss money. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...gddr3-gpu-650mhz-80-cores-d-sub-dl-dvi-i-hdmi
I can't speak to BD playback, but smooth 1080p on my X2 3800+ is entirely down to the £35 4350 (low-profile) I installed 2yrs ago. I would imagine anything from the 5 series will couple well with your AMD system to do whatever you want in a HTPC capacity. The only reason to go 775 is if you want extra grunt for decoding/encoding.
Excellent - will take a look at something like the 4350 as well then. As mentioned, cheap as possible is the key for me . Either way I'm going to have a play at the weekend anyway and see what I can get away with in software - that is, assuming the x2 4000+ works - not sure I've ever tested it properly!
If you're starting from scratch now, ignore the 4000 series. The latest cards offer HDMI 1.4 and therefore 3D BD, which my 4350 doesn't do. I would spend £30 on a 6450: Clicky
I have an AMD 4850e (dual core 2.5GHz) in my HTPC. Without GPU acceleration it can't play Blu-rays smoothly. I was using the onboard HDMI on my 780G motherboard and that handled Blu-rays without a problem. I recently bought an HD6450 to get HDMI 1.4. It can also do DTS-HD Master audio.
For smoothness I think it can depend on what you are outputting to, In my experience an Intel HD 3000 chip outputting to a TV through HDMI at 24 (actually 23.9....) fps is not as smooth as an analogue connection at 60FPS, all kinds of digital syncing issues occur, it's quite well reported over the web. I had similar results when using Nvidia's GPU acceleration on my monitor which is why I always use CPU decoding to watch films. No idea if AMD's is better. From what I can tell all 3 companies' solutions have the 23.9fps issue to some degree, disabling UAC can help for some reason but it's still not perfect
Yeah, I'm starting to notice that on my PC; when I set up XBMC to use 24p & hardware decoding, I have started to notice ever-so-slight judders now and then... For the most part it is much better than before - I used to get quite awful tearing and judder in Avatar, but with 24p turned on all that goes away - but there are the occasional frameskips here and there... Sometimes I wish I didn't know as much as I did about these sorts of problems - I'm always looking out for it now Ban 23.976 fps!
