CPU/Mobo HTPC upgrade..

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salman8506

salman8506

Herald
Well my HTPC has started acting up..i already bought a Vx450w for it...now i need to know what all can i get to make a good less power hungry HTPC ?

things i wanna buy are CPU/MOBO/RAM/CABBY....please advise...if u guys need more info please ask.....Yeah mobo shud be M-atx...and ddr3 ram...Please give some parts guys...and yeah i prefer intel..but if something good enuf is available in amd i can look at it...
 
If Intel only:

CPU: Core i3-2105

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-H61M-USB3-B3 or ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM (REV 3.0)

RAM: Pick any GSkill or Corsair DDR3 ram, shouldn't matter.

PSU: Your newly bought VX-450 should be more than enough for power this thing up... and then some.

If you're not looking for latest & greatest in Intel, then even following config with LGA-1156 socket should suffice:

CPU: Intel Core i3-540 Clarkdale 3.06GHz

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-H55M-S2V or ASUS P7H55-M LX LGA 1156

Money saved on this combo, can be used to buy a Radeon 5750 for video decoding duties. But frankly unless you're watching lot of interlaced content or denoise is must-have for you or high-bitrate content, the IGP on i3-540 is enough for even 1080p decoding (I've tested upto 8-10mbps bitrate sources, it will choke on proper BD source... >15mbps bitrate).

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Alternatively, I would suggest taking a look at AMD platform. At around same power envelope, AMD offers better GPU. Which, IMO will be more helpful for video decoding tasks primarily for HTPC.

CPU: AMD A6-3650 Llano 2.6GHz (with AMD Radeon HD 6530D GPU)

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-A75M-UD2H FM1

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By the way, just curious. What is your current HTPC config and what problems are you facing with it?
 
well current config is E5200/G31/4gb/Some amd gpu(runs everything but) Can you quote some prices as well bud ? Problem actually im Usa and the pc in india...my family members i think did something...and now display is gone....i will be landing on saturday and buying everything the same day and upgrading everything...as i keep roaming around and my family uses that comp to video chat with me..so i don't wanna take chances with it going down again....Please quote some prices bud as im planning on spending 10-14k max on it :)
 
I'll need to check prices here in Mumbai, as I'm not sure about the current prices. Also, if you're going to buy from here then I'm not sure about the availability of AMB Llano platform as well. I saw your location, so I provided links for newegg on each product name.

Also, I've updated my original Intel CPU choice to Core i3-2105. It's slight upgrade/variant of Core i3-2100 with Intel Graphics HD3000 (compared to HD2000 in i3-2100). This as well, I'm not sure if available in India. The second Intel config will be easily available here and should be well withing 15k with ram included. I'll try and see if I can get prices for others, but I can't assure about turnaround on that. Nevertheless, I hope other members here can answer on that front as well.

In fact, you can get i3-2105 or Llano CPU from US. It will be more cost effective than buying here. I'm sure Llano motherboards should be available here soon. For i3-2105, getting H61 boards here is not an issue.
 
if power usage is an important criteria, you should maybe look at a E-350 based AMD CPU+Mobo combination, this should give you a stable and cheap config and it would also be able to handle all HTPC tasks easily
 
Hi...im not exactly linked to the market right now...but can u give me some model no or something ? and some benchies ?
 
nah man that platform will be more like a downgrade from my current setup...i will look into core i3 and compare it to my current setup....if it gives some performance boost i will buy i3 :)
 
^^ Why don't you go for the AMD Llano setup, it performs decently isn't very expensive when compared to an Intel Core i3 2100 setup. In-fact it'll give you more leverage for graphics power.

Here is a direct head-to-head between Llano (A8-3850) vs. Intel Sandy-Bridge (Core i3 2100) --> AnandTech - AMD A8-3850 : An HTPC Perspective
 
These days for HTPC duties, graphics chip matters more than CPU since all high quality AVC/VC-1 content can be decoded by the GPU.

NVIDIA has a slight advantage cos the best performing renderer/decoder/splitter - madVR/lavCUVID/lavSplitter work only on NVIDIA hardware and that is unlikely to change in the near term. If you don't have a budget constraint, get a Core i3 + Geforce GT440/GT540 and atleast 4GB of ram. The onboard sandybridge GPU has very poor output quality compared to both ATI and nvidia.
 
well buddy i need audio + video on hdmi and Nvidia doesn't offer that(or have they started)...they do but i don't want that xtra cabling....that's why i had bought an Amd card then due to it's onboard audio capabilities....And no i won't use a onboard for hd content viewing...i have dedicated or will get a dedicated card for that....the best thing im thinking of is i3/mobo/4gb ddr3 will that fit in 10k-12k ?
 
^ As I said earlier, if Intel is must for you, then i3-540/H55 motherboard with 4GB ram (2x2GB) should be well within 14-15k. Get Radeon HD6570 or Nvidia GT430 for graphic duties and you should be set.

And yes, recent gen nVidia cards do HDMI audio onboard. So you don't have to use two cables, separate for audio & video.
 
Yup new gen nvidia cards do bitstreaming over HDMI. The best HTPC CPU right now is core i3 2100T. Its a 35W CPU and eats very little power.
 
Sounds good...lemme do some research on this cpu and get a spec up..will buy this saturday....will a cx400 corsair be able to power everything ? vx45 is unavailable in mumbai at the moment :(
 
^ I'm running i3-530 + H55 board with 2GB ram and 2 x 2GB + 1 x TB drive on CX400 in my HTPC. Unless you're putting a demanding graphic card, it will suffice your needs.
 
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