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AMD or Intel - £100 and low power consumption

Smiler

Smiler

Smiler

Associate
Joined
20 Jun 2006
Posts
136
Location
Wiltshire
Hello folks, I am looking to build a media centre biased PC and am trying to nail down the most suitable CPU.

I have learnt so far that you seem to get more for your money with AMD but I need the CPU to fit a certain criteria. Being a media centre biased build I need the thing to keep quite with no annoying whiring fan noises. I know fans and cases are getting pretty quiet now but the case will hopefully be quite slim so the less heat the thing produces in the first place the better.

That is why I'm thinking an all singing and dancing quad core AMD might be a bit power hungry compared to the similar priced dual core i3.

Can anyone pass any recommendations?

As mentioned in another thread I have just started, the machine might end up taking over the role of the current games console aswell so reasonable gaming ability might not be a bad thing. It's not critical though as I have not yet seen any form of nintendo wii or xbox connect equipment made available for the PC market which is the kind of thing the missus would want.

Cheers,

Smiler.
 
If you want decent gaming in a HTPC, your looking Llano, unless you get a slightly bigger case to fit a card like a 6850/6870 or 560Ti.

Llano page
 
That first link is interesting, it shows the i5-2500k having a lower drain than the i3.

I might well need a graphics card yet as the original plan was to run two outputs, hdmi to the telly for media and dvi to the monitor for the desktop. However this is presently looking a bit dicey so I may end up with two builds.
 
Smiler said:
That first link is interesting, it shows the i5-2500k having a lower drain than the i3.

I might well need a graphics card yet as the original plan was to run two outputs, hdmi to the telly for media and dvi to the monitor for the desktop. However this is presently looking a bit dicey so I may end up with two builds.
Click to expand...

You can run two outputs from a Llano set up or from integrated graphics.

The i5 doesn't draw less at load!
 
ok, looks like I'd better find myself a case and get building. I think I might have to be a bit of a pain and post another 'spec me' thread in the general forum. I need to finalise the case choice first though as that will dictate what size mother board, cards and powersupplu I can use.

Thanks for the help.
 
Yeah, I had looked at that and it was a contender. Perhaps with an SSD and using the NAS drive for storage.
 
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