HTPC CPU

[ZXSpectrum]

I am trying to decide what CPU/GPU is best to use for a HTPC i am currently upgrading. I currently have a couple of CPUs (Intel Core2Duo E8600 and a Intel Core2Quad Q9650) along with a Zotac M-ITX Board, memory etc but was thinking about flogging all the parts (Along with a couple of more motherboards i have, coolers etc) and replacing with either a i7-3570K(Or maybe even one of the lower powered ones coming out) with the best passive Geforce card or an AMD A10-5800K with a 6670 Hybrid Crossfire. I will be using with Jriver and running the Red October HQ renderer as its supposed to work fantastically on a projector running 720p.

Any HTPC people that know or have experience using either?

 

[ZXSpectrum]

Yeah Sorry that should have been I5.. I have loads of stuff i can run HTPC on its just that the Red October Renderer that uses MadVR is really powerhungry and needs a pretty good CPU/GPU for some of the higher end filtering/rendering.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

Think it will be Geforce as i am pretty sure that MadVR can use Cuda.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

My cost price seems to be the same and the spec on the Xeon is a little better in some places and not in others (100Mhz less on stock and turbo, 69w instead of 77w and more cache and hyperthreading) Obviously there is no overclocking but thats not really what it will be used for.

Hummmm.. Cheers..

 

[ZXSpectrum]

Read this ^^

As MadVR is optimised for multi core it benefits from more cores/threads, physical or HT, unlike games that generally are optimised to utilise up to 3/4 cores efficiently.