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A cheap CPU for a HTPC?

Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2007
Posts
7,482
Location
UK
Hi all,

I'm looking to grab a budget CPU to use in a HTPC.
Will need to be skt 775, and will run along 2 or 4gb of DDR2 with a 512mb 8800GT

Want to be able to play 720p mkvs without a hitch, and maybe even some 1080 - would appreciate any advice!

Thanks
 
Thanks all so far - read some up about the E3200 which sounds like the Celeron has improved somewhat.

The E2180 - I'd like to try to avoid OCing, as it scares me, would this handle it at stock settings?

Big Wayne - I already have a 775 motherboard, and would ideally like to keep the same sizes as my main PC.
 
What platform, will you be running on ?
I'm using Linux/XBMC and that relies more on graphics card acceleration for high def content.
I'm using a celeron 430, and a Nvidia 9400 in mine plays 1080p flawlessly
 
I was planning Windows 7 with Boxee, as i'd never used XBMC - having looked though, it looks very nice! Is it as functional as Boxee?
 
TBH I've never tried boxee. not sure what extra if any it offers over xbmc

I just use xbmc for playing music,movies from my server with the odd time used for BBC iPlayer.
Movie wise it plays what I need it for divx avi, mkv, dvd's in iso format.

One thing to note though, if you're going the windows route and not linux you wont get any video acceleration in xbmc.
Linux/xbmc uses vdpau hardware video acceleration not available in windows.
 
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