HTPC Build

[Aj12]

i am still at a loss on what to choose

i3 2100 or amd a8 3850

There seems to be some confusion on here over which one has better multimedia playback. The reviews I have seen have always favored Llano

AMD A6-3650 Llano APU Performance Review - HotHardware

A8-3850 vs. Core i3-2100 CPU Review | Hardware Secrets

Llano vs. Sandy Bridge: HTPC Performance - Bjorn3D.com

AnandTech - AMD A8-3850 : An HTPC Perspective

Why are you comparing i3 2xxx with E350?
if you want to compare i3 with something, then it should be E3850

@ Cilus & Piyush

you got me all wrong or rather its my fault but what i meant to say is that
i chose to go with the i3 over the E350 mainly due to an increase in my budget..
and not by comparing its performance with the i3.

 

[Cilus]

If you take my suggestion to build a HTPC, then I would suggest you to drop the idea of both Llano due to its price (it is not at all cheap) and i3 2100 because it is simply not required. I will suggest you to go with a normal Athlon Ii quad core within 4K, a standard and cheap AM3 board and a low end graphics card. They will offer you more control over your hardware. It will enable to you to control CPU speed, GPU speed more efficiently.

My suggestion will be:-
Athlon II X4 635 @ 4K
Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2 @ 2.5K
Corsair 4 GB 1333 MHz Value DDR3 @ 1.2K
Asus GT 520 1 GB GDDR3 @ 3K/Sapphire HD 5670 512 MB GDDR5 @ 4.2K

Total: 10.7K. This config is well balanced and GT 520 is more than enough to play all HD content with GPU acceleration. In case of Llano or Sandybridge, probably the CPU + motherboard will cross 10K.

 

[Piyush]

^^this looks promising

 

[Tenida]

@Cilus-Perfect rig for HTPC.IMO

 

[Cilus]

^^GT 440 is not cheaper than GT 520, it is costlier. The minimum price AFAIK is more than 4K.

 

[Aj12]

If you take my suggestion to build a HTPC, then I would suggest you to drop the idea of both Llano due to its price (it is not at all cheap) and i3 2100 because it is simply not required. I will suggest you to go with a normal Athlon Ii quad core within 4K, a standard and cheap AM3 board and a low end graphics card. They will offer you more control over your hardware. It will enable to you to control CPU speed, GPU speed more efficiently.

My suggestion will be:-
Athlon II X4 635 @ 4K
Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2 @ 2.5K
Corsair 4 GB 1333 MHz Value DDR3 @ 1.2K
Asus GT 520 1 GB GDDR3 @ 3K/Sapphire HD 5670 512 MB GDDR5 @ 4.2K

Total: 10.7K. This config is well balanced and GT 520 is more than enough to play all HD content with GPU acceleration. In case of Llano or Sandybridge, probably the CPU + motherboard will cross 10K.

i will go with this build as what you suggest makes perfect sense & is also well within my budget.

could you also specify a cabinet (Small form factor is a priority).
and do i need a separate psu or use the one that comes with the cabinet

don't need a DVD writer as i already have one unless the case requires a slim drive and for the HDD i plan on using the 1 TB WD green

Remote - any one of the two that sam9s specified in his earlier post

^^GT 440 is not cheaper than GT 520, it is costlier. The minimum price AFAIK is more than 4K.

so which one will it be ?

the 5670 or the GT 520 or the GT 440....

 

[SlashDK]

I'd suggest the HD5670 512MB. It performs better than both GT 520 and 440 and costs just 4k. The difference between GT520 and HD5670 is just 1k and there is a huge performance difference.

 

[Cilus]

In Video decoding and Post processing AMD cards perform better than all the nVidia cards...Check out the Tomshardware article. In that article it is clearly proven that AMD cards provides better noise reduction, Deinterlacing and up scaling performance than their nvidia counterparts. Also there is no such driver issues with AMD drivers with A/V playback. I'm using both Nvidia and AMD cards for long and can tell you there is no such issue. Also you can check the reviews in all the reputed sites. With the introduction of 11.X drivers, actually performance and stability have been improved a lot and it can challenge Nvidia drivers.

HD 5670 is better choice because it is far powerful than both GT 520 and GT 430. So it can provide decent gaming experience too.

 

[jagdish]

Then I guess it is going to be full fledged low budget gaming PC not HTPC

 

[Aj12]

Then I guess it is going to be full fledged low budget gaming PC not HTPC

i don't need a gaming pc as mentioned earlier, just a no frills HTPC

and guys could you also specify a cabinet
(Small form factor is a priority).
and do i need a separate psu or use the one that comes with the cabinet.

 

[Aj12]

nope, as I mentioned I myself landed up with trouble, with my HD5850 when I tried to play a particular 3D SBS file of "how to train your dragon" when I got the BSOD. I googled and it was clearly mentioned a bug with AMD cards pertaining to video acceleration. That is the main reason I opted for 440GT for my HTPC else I could easily have gone for HD6XXX series.
My friend also had problems playing few video files encoded with h.264 @High Level 5.

I have been a fan of ATI for their HD series cards (been using HD5850 for ages for all games and it rocks) and was dead sure to get one, but these few experiences caught my eye. Me and my friend both opted for GT440 and its a smooth sailing since then. As I said its rare but it is there.

I dont merely recommend on benchmarks and articles, I also see what experience practically people have which they share via forums ........ In this case I myself is an example.

Then i think i should opt for the 440 GT just to be on the safe side...

and do u think that the gt 440 would fit in an Antec ISK 300-150 CPU Mini-ITX
case or should i look for another case since the price of this case is on the higher side 5k plus as sam9s pointed out.

if it fits in the antec should i use a different psu or the one provided with the case.

 

[Piyush]

nope, as I mentioned I myself landed up with trouble, with my HD5850 when I tried to play a particular 3D SBS file of "how to train your dragon" when I got the BSOD. I googled and it was clearly mentioned a bug with AMD cards pertaining to video acceleration. That is the main reason I opted for 440GT for my HTPC else I could easily have gone for HD6XXX series.

yea..I saw a sample video of this BSOD on youtube too
but it(and other crashes) were fixed by the driver updates from AMD
the last 2 updates were quite fruitful as mentioned online widely

 

[Cilus]

Then I have couple of suggestion. Actually 5000 series have some problems regarding the driver as well as hardware issues. But from BART onwards those kind of problems are fixed. Any cards from Northern Island architecture like HD 6870, HD 6850, HD 6790, HD 6670, HD 6450, HD 65970 don't have these kind of problem. Get the GD 6570 istead, which is based on Norther Island architecture and with 11.4 and higher driver, it shouldn't have these kind of problems.

 

[Aj12]

cost of the 6570 compared to the 440GT..

better still could u provide a link..

and can you look into my case query..

 

[Cilus]

GT 440 and HD 6750 are low profile card and they can be fitted inside even the local cabinets. Perform wise HD 6570 performs better than GT 440 almost all the times in higher resolution. If both are on the same range, then go for any of them.
Personally I would pick up HD 5670 512 MB GDDR5 version as there is no pointer regarding issue of HD playback with HD 5670.

 

[Aj12]

Is this case available in India

Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum / 0.8mm SECC Grandia Series GD05B micro-ATX / Mini-DTX / Mini-ITX MB, 1x5.25", 2x3.5"+1x2.5"HDD or 1x3.5"+2x2.5"HDD, 3x120mm golf bladed fan, 11" expansion card capab

The config so far..

and for the gpu i decided to go with the 440 GT

Processor - Athlon II X4 635

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2

Gpu - Nvida 440 GT
(Asus,Msi,Zotac GDDR 3 ,GDDR5 ???)
Please specify a make and model from the above

Ram - Corsair 4 GB (2x2) CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 1333 MHz Value DDR3

Psu - ???

Case - Silverstone GD05B If available ,if not a similar one
Like the Silverstone LC10 or the LC10-E

 

[asingh]

You can check the Elite 100. But it has limited drive connectivity (type) when using boards.

 

[Cilus]

In smcinternational, the 1 GB GDDR3 version of MSI GT 440 is available @ 4.3K and the Zotac 1 GB GDDR5 version is available @ 4.8K. Here is the MSI Link.
On the price of the GDDR5 version, you can easily get Sapphire HD 6670 1GB GDDR3 version, almost twice powerful than GT 440. You can get MSI and Sapphire HD 6570 1 GB GDDR3 version @ 3.8K.

Here is Lynx-india HD 5670 512 MB GDDR5 Price @ 3.7K.

Here is Sapphire HD 6570 1 GB GDDR3, priced @ 3.9K.

Here is Sapphire HD 6670 1 GB GDDR3 version priced @ 4.57K

All the above AMD cards are more powerful than GT 440 GDDR3 version. The reason is GT 440 is just a GT 430 with higher clock speed, nothing else.

 

[jagdish]

plus one for cilus

 

[Aj12]

guys now help me find a case and a psu...