HD Movies & Internet Rig - Help Needed. :)

MiOB · 20 Sep 2009 at 13:36

Hey dear friends

My brother needs a new rig, which will he will use to multitask 1080p movies (MPEG2, AVC, VC-1), MS Office work and many IE windows; No gaming / encoding at all.

He's got a budget for me, but it's in NIS, so do not take it into account, since all options fit in it.
It's just a questions whether to go full-budget or not.

My questions are:

1. Should I go full-budget with the Q8200 / X2 550 or will the E5300 be enough for software HD decoding? (In case of files not DXVA-properly-encoded.)
I also want it to be as future-proof as possible, and that is why I'm considering the quad cores.

2. In case I go for a discrete graphic card, should I choose Nvidia's PureVideo HD 3 or UVD 2.2?

3. In case I go for an Intel chipset, G31 or G41? I do not plan an extreme OC, but just a tiny bit of it, if at all.
Is one more stable than the other? Any compatibility issues?

====================

Spec. 1: Intel Pentium Dual-Core / Core 2 Quad and discrete graphic card.

CPU - Option 1 - Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 BOX
CPU - Option 2 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 Tray

Motherboard - Option 1 - Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L
Motherboard - Option 2 - Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G
Motherboard - Option 3 - Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L

Graphic Card - Option 1 - Connect3D Radeon HD4350 Silent 512MB DDR2 PCIe
Graphic Card - Option 2 - Gainward nVIDIA GeForce 8400GS 512MB DDR2 PCIe

Spec. 2: AMD Phenom II X2 550 without a discrete graphic card.

CPU - AMD Phenom II X2 550 Box

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H (HD4200 - UVD2)

Thanks and Cheers!

LittleChimp · 20 Sep 2009 at 15:28

I would go with the second spec it has really good onboard video and you have the option to unlock the 550.

cmndr_andi · 20 Sep 2009 at 15:33

For your applications, this mobo and this CPU +2GB of DDR2 would be fine and very cheap.

MiOB · 20 Sep 2009 at 17:33

@cmndr_andi:

What's the difference between the Asus one and the Gigabyte one?
Also, why Athlon and not Phenom, if the budget allows it?

@LittleChimp:

Isn't Q8200 much more powerful than the Phenom, even when X4 enabled?

cmndr_andi · 20 Sep 2009 at 17:56

MiOB said:
@cmndr_andi:

What's the difference between the Asus one and the Gigabyte one?
Also, why Athlon and not Phenom, if the budget allows it?

@LittleChimp:

Isn't Q8200 much more powerful than the Phenom, even when X4 enabled?

The two boards are very similar except the Asus one I picked is £10 cheaper. I chose the Athlon X2 245 because it is a great chip, superb price and will accomplish all the required tasks easily. He could spend an extra £27 on a P2 550, but I doubt he will notice any difference in the performance of the applications he specified.

LittleChimp · 20 Sep 2009 at 17:57

The Q8200 would cost more and is old tech really. The am3 would be more future proof.

PGdude · 20 Sep 2009 at 18:17

I agree. The AMD offerings are fair for this purpose. Only go Intel if it's extreme enthusiast (with the Core i7/5)

MiOB · 20 Sep 2009 at 18:35

Thanks mates.

I believe I will eventually go AMD.

I will wait until the Athlon II X4 620 arrives in here and see its local tag price, hoping it will be close to $99, since it's superb at this price.

What do you think?