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Decent mid range CPU for media centre

Baddass

Baddass

Baddass

Man of Honour
Joined
12 Jan 2003
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Looking for a new CPU and motherboard for my media centre. I've got a micro ATX case so needs to be a micro ATX board please

It's only used for movies, upscaling, Blu ray and Internet, not gaming at all. Would like it to be fairly cool so I can have a quiet fan setup for the CPU as its on all the time

Any recommendations on good value CPU (and motherboard if you know) which would suit a media centre well? Was considering maybe one with an integrated graphics chip too to beef up my current Radeon HD3450 so it can handle more video processing
 
Baddass said:
Looking for a new CPU and motherboard for my media centre. I've got a micro ATX case so needs to be a micro ATX board please

It's only used for movies, upscaling, Blu ray and Internet, not gaming at all. Would like it to be fairly cool so I can have a quiet fan setup for the CPU as its on all the time

Any recommendations on good value CPU (and motherboard if you know) which would suit a media centre well? Was considering maybe one with an integrated graphics chip too to beef up my current Radeon HD3450 so it can handle more video processing
Click to expand...

Just upgraded both of my media centres to the AMD APU's, both great for playing blu ray without any problem. One is the AMD A10-6800K and the other is AMD A8-5600K (was a AMD A4-5300 a few days before) on a ASRock FM2A75M-DGS motherboard.
 
A Trinity System would be just right, they are the same as the more expensive Richland which have a few minor tweaks.

Its perfect for HTPC's, They have the best iGPU there is in Desktop chips, great for media and light gaming.

AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz £99.95

AMD A8-5600K Black Edition 3.60GHz £71.99

Both the CPU and iGPU's in those ^^^ are unlocked for overclocking if you want to have a bit a play with them.

Asus F2A55-M AMD A55 Chipset £67.99

Asus F2A55-M LE AMD A55 Chipset £49.99

Asus are probably the best Motherboards, I swear by them.

As with all stock coolers the ones on those chips are not silent, but as long as your not putting the CPU under a lot of stress to heat it up, then with a good fan profile you should be able to get them pretty quiet.

Or you might think about an after market cooler like this.

Alpenföhn Panorama CPU Cooler £19.99

Its not much bigger than the stock cooler, pretty small and at a maximum of 22db its very quiet, for twenty quid, you can't go wrong.

Edit- Trinity is 32nm and Richland is 28nm.

Difference between the two.

http://www.techspot.com/review/681-amd-a10-6800k-a4-4000/
 
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humbug intel has the fastest igp now, though the iris is far too expensive. richland is 32nm just like trinity not 28nm. richland should have 28nm with gcn, we should have seen 7750 ddr3 performance. lets see if amd can disappoint us with kaveri too
 
Davedree said:
humbug intel has the fastest igp now, though the iris is far too expensive. richland is 32nm just like trinity not 28nm. richland should have 28nm with gcn, we should have seen 7750 ddr3 performance. lets see if amd can disappoint us with kaveri too
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I said "They have the best iGPU there is in Desktop chips" you can't buy Iris from retail so its pointless for someone looking to build a HTPC, its also massive, The whole thing is about the size of a 7970.

Its hardly a practical solution, just shear size to overcome the completion.

Richland is just a DIE shrink. kaveri is a totally different chip.

I agree Richland is pointless, but not as pointless as citing Iris. I mean, why?
 
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How good are the AMD APU's for ripping BR's in compared to Intel - Ive got lots of images to put on my server, and just wondering if this end of thing is a big factor?
 
humbug said:
I said "They have the best iGPU there is in Desktop chips" you can't buy Iris from retail so its pointless for someone looking to build a HTPC, its also massive, The whole thing is about the size of a 7970.

Its hardly a practical solution, just shear size to overcome the completion.

Richland is just a DIE shrink. kaveri is a totally different chip.

I agree Richland is pointless, but not as pointless as citing Iris. I mean, why?
Click to expand...

RICHLAND IS NOT A DIE SHRINK! it is still 32nm, get it right before you correct someone.

Intel have the best igpu whether its retail or a paper launch its a more powerful solution than a renamed vliw4 8000 series, however in its bga package its pricey and irrelevant.

intel desktop bga processors =
i7 4770r
i5 4670r
i5 4570r
 
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FrankJH said:
How good are the AMD APU's for ripping BR's in compared to Intel - Ive got lots of images to put on my server, and just wondering if this end of thing is a big factor?
Click to expand...

If you use opencl software, then theres good gains with amd apu encoding. should compete between an i3 and i5
 
Davedree said:
RICHLAND IS NOT A DIE SHRINK! it is still 32nm, get it right before you correct someone.

Intel have the best igpu whether its retail or a paper launch its a more powerful solution than a renamed vliw4 8000 series, however in its bga package its pricey and irrelevant.
Click to expand...


So Baddass should buy Iris.... oh wait, he can't they are imbedded only and you can't buy them :rolleyes:
 
humbug said:
So Baddass should buy Iris.... oh wait, he can't they are imbedded only and you can't buy them :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Nah I didn't say to buy iris at all, what i did was correct you where you were wrong in claiming that amd have the best there is in desktop igps, and that you are wrong in stating richland is 28nm.

I agree with you though for a htpc richland/ trinity is a brilliant solution.

I am reflecting Amd's ahhh good enough it will do attitude which has caused Amd to lose to Intel on the last thing that Amd provided performance gains in.

Like I said had richland been on 28nm with gcn it would have kicked iris, and also meant that Kaveri would have to offer greater gpu gains than a 7750. But i have a bad feeling Kaveri isn't going to provide the big jump we're hoping for.
 
Davedree said:
Nah I didn't say to buy iris at all, what i did was correct you where you were wrong in claiming that amd have the best there is in desktop igps, and that you are wrong in stating richland is 28nm.

I agree with you though for a htpc richland/ trinity is a brilliant solution.

I am reflecting Amd's ahhh good enough it will do attitude which has caused Amd to lose to Intel on the last thing that Amd provided performance gains in.

Like I said had richland been on 28nm with gcn it would have kicked iris, and also meant that Kaveri would have to offer greater gpu gains than a 7750. But i have a bad feeling Kaveri isn't going to provide the big jump we're hoping for.
Click to expand...

lol....

There is something wrong with you Dave :p
 
Hi guys, Im hijacking this thread (kind of no need for 2 threads asking the same thing) I am after building a very similar rig but was going to use i3 3325, I am going to say that I am relatively new and have modest experiencec when building rigs.

After reading this thread I am now totally confused and feel that it would be great if someone could maybe explain in simpleton terms what would be best suited to a home media server.
plex to be precise as this is what i am building it for so power consumption verse performance and heat is what I think are the concerning factors.

From reasearch I am led to belive AMD consume less watts on idle than the latest i3 but under load the i3 is around twice as efficient?
so is the power consumption difference worth the minor difference in video processing power? or is the video processing power so much greater on the amd that its worth the extra power consumption and heat?

Sorry for the hijack baddass but felt both our questions could easily be answered with the one thread :)
 
bandyleg said:
Hi guys, Im hijacking this thread (kind of no need for 2 threads asking the same thing) I am after building a very similar rig but was going to use i3 3325, I am going to say that I am relatively new and have modest experiencec when building rigs.

After reading this thread I am now totally confused and feel that it would be great if someone could maybe explain in simpleton terms what would be best suited to a home media server.
plex to be precise as this is what i am building it for so power consumption verse performance and heat is what I think are the concerning factors.

From reasearch I am led to belive AMD consume less watts on idle than the latest i3 but under load the i3 is around twice as efficient?
so is the power consumption difference worth the minor difference in video processing power? or is the video processing power so much greater on the amd that its worth the extra power consumption and heat?

Sorry for the hijack baddass but felt both our questions could easily be answered with the one thread :)
Click to expand...

Well the iGPU on AMD's APU's is a lot more powerful than what's in the i3.

If its GPU performance your after, forget the i3 and go for the APU.
 
humbug said:
Well the iGPU on AMD's APU's is a lot more powerful than what's in the i3.

If its GPU performance your after, forget the i3 and go for the APU.
Click to expand...

nice simple reply thank you. I will be streaming from this device across a network so potentially processing two films at the same time in anything from a low quality to full HD.

Is this a lot more thats worth the extra power draw or am i likely to not notice any difference.

Im asking as a lot of the time when people build this kind of system its running 24/7 so power consumption is an issue.
 
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