APU build for HTPC/gaming?

realBabelfish

realBabelfish

realBabelfish

Soldato
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,177
Hi guys,

current pc spec is in my sig. but its started to behave erratically and since its quite long in the tooth an upgrade may be required (if i cant stabilise it).

currently the PC is used with a TV card & xbmc for HTPC stuff. i also do a bit of gaming on it, but currently thats just fifa due to 3 year old eating my time. will aim to be on 24/7 and might move all my NAS stuff in there too as its becoming a little flakey.

how well do the APUs stack up against my current card (yes its old but was once a beast lol)? i have to be honest, i use a 560 most of the time due to the 580 not doing HD audio very well (just sends as LPCM and i want my amp to decode) and the 560 handles fifa fine. it gets used a lot more as a HTPC than to game on.

another thing i am looking at is making the PC as quiet as possible. so a fanless PSU is probably worth looking at along with a silent (or near as possible) HSF combination.

but i want to keep costs down as much as possible.

so, is apu the route to go (i hear the newer ones can handle gaming ok?) or better to get a standard cpu and use my discrete gpu? i know i could add another GPU if i use APU to make a crossfire system. do these APUs handle hd audio? i like my amp to decode rather than my pc.

last time i had an ATI gpu it was a pain in the arse with wildly fluctuating FPS so i sent it back and got a 580gtx. are they a bit more stable now?

thanks in advance....
 
ah ok. i thought they sounded too good to be true lol. ive seen claims they can play bf4 at medium etc.

so im better of getting a standard cpu then? how do ati and intel compare? ati seems much better bang for buck but its hard to get a straight up comparison. ive been intel for a decade or so now. but with funds a bit short ati might be the best route?

andreas, yet i have cases and OS etc. currently using win7 on that machine but might install win8/win10 preview on it.
 
no idea on budget really. i just want decent bang for buck and to be as silent as possible. im aware that silent HSF for CPU are bloody expensive so i might just try stock or my big venom im currently using.

intel dont seem to be that much more powerful than when i bought my workstation with i5 2500k. or are we at another situation where the Ghz doesnt really compare any more?
 
I have a Celeron G1820 on my HTPC. It's £30 and does the job very well. I use the stock cooler but I don't plug the fan, just an intake and exhaust at very low rpm, and I only turn those on when CPU temps are over 75. But that's not good enough for gaming.
 
Andreas.96 said:
A rough budget (maybe a max figure) would help someone spec you a best bang for buck for your price range :)
Click to expand...

ok, i guess around £400 for cpu, mobo and ram. guessing 8gb ram would do me fine. i have loads of other bits. will use current PSU for time being and replace at a later date.

not really that fussed on being able to OC it, i just want it stable. although with speedstep etc i guess it will throttle back when not needed anyway.

i guess 8 core cpus are still a bit worthless unless im doing 3d stuff? is win8 any better? i find win7 pretty useless at utilising multi core.
 
They dont oc.

But dont compare the Haswell architecture speed to your Yorkfield speed, the i5 does "more" per clock cycle.

If you want to overclock and in a small form factor,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97MX Gaming 5 - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Micro ATX Motherboard Bundle **£10 Saving** £296.94
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming ACK - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£12 Saving** £292.98
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £44.99
Total : £644.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).




So thats an itx or mATX sized bundle and 8GB of fast RAM.
 
cheers mate. i take it the difference between i5 and i7 isnt really seen much in gaming? more video encoding etc?

no love for the ATI stuff then? i take it these devil's canyons out perform the ati equivalent?

not too fussed on form factor really. i have a midi tower i will use. i guess SLI might be nice since i can pickup another 580 dirt cheap now.
 
All the bundles I have linked to are retail CPUs so come with the stock cooler.

OEM CPUs do not.
 
I'd think twice about a fanless PSU in a small ITX case (genuinely small, not something playing at it like the Prodigy) they rely on space and case airflow to keep them cool, cramming them into a small case with a decently overclocked CPU probably isn't the best idea.

TBH you don't need a fanless PSU, I am a silence OCD freak and I've never even heard my PSU fan once since owning it and it's nothing special.
 
Telecaster said:
I'd think twice about a fanless PSU in a small ITX case (genuinely small, not something playing at it like the Prodigy) they rely on space and case airflow to keep them cool, cramming them into a small case with a decently overclocked CPU probably isn't the best idea.

TBH you don't need a fanless PSU, I am a silence OCD freak and I've never even heard my PSU fan once since owning it and it's nothing special.
Click to expand...

im planning on using my midi tower so should be ok hopefully. my current psu seems to be struggling a little. also noticed last night the 3v rail was only doing 2.5 or so, so maybe that was the issue after all? managed to get it all working again last night and did 30 mins stress test on it and seemed ok. so i think i might just get a new PSU and see how it goes?
 
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