I'm currently running a little Zotac Celeron/Ion box for my HTPC, but it gets a little overwhelmed when it's doing Sab post processing, so it will be getting relegated to the lounge for wife/xbmc duties. I'm building up another from bits, roughly it's : Currently Got MSI Motherboard Intel Core2Duo CPU 4GB DDR2 Ram 500GB Sata II hard drive Planned Purchases Black Gold Quad Tuner (Freesat/Freeview Gelid Syberian Cooler Scythe Slipstream 120mm Fans x2 Unsure Purchases Here's the bit I'm not sure about is the graphics powering the thing. Do I go ATI or Nvidia? The two I'm looking at are the Sapphire 6570 Fanless and the Zotac Fanless GT430 I'm planning on running XBMC, Sabnzbd, Sickbeard, uTorrent, Couch Potato and Headphones on this system, running 24x7 connected to an Onkyo SR-TX308 Amplifier. The TV will run 720p/1080i, and most of my media is 720p. Is it just going to be a case of get either card, it'll be more than up to the job?
I use a GeForce G210 in mine, tiny fan so very silent, handles everything thrown at it to date,, cost £20 at the time
I'd rather have more power than I need than to "Just" have enough. My Ion is supposed to be able to handle 1080p stuff but I get a few stutters and dropped frames. Doesn't seem to bug my fellow watchers but it drives me potty. I'm leaning towards the HD6570, as I'd like to do a little light gaming on it. I may even swap out my C2Q into it if need be.
