HD HTPC/MediaPC - AMD or Intel?

[Thor]

Hi all,

Right I gotta build a new HTPC for me mother as she's now got a HD Plasma, the current rig (Intel 3.4GHz Northwood) will play 720p x264's fine but has serious trouble (lip sync n such) playing back 1080p material so I need to build a new rig that will handle 1080p x264's and is capable of blu-ray playback.

But should I go for an AMD setup or Intel setup?
I've used Intel for a couple of years now and have always been happy with their performance, especially on the C2Duo's and C2Quad's but last time every time I've used an AMD setup I've always been disappointed with their performance vs the Intel counterparts, but then again the rig will only be used as a MediaPC and no gaming so maybe AMD would be suitable?

NEWay, these are the setup's that i've chosen, your opinions would be greatly appreciated on what system would be best?

First, the AMD Rig:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e AM2 Dual Core 2.5GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, Retail CPU @ £49.57
Abit A-S78H, AMD 780G, S AM2+, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, Micro ATX Motherboard with OnBoard Graphics @ £46.45
LG GGC-H20L SATA Blu-ray & HD-DVD Reader @ £67.36
2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 OCZ Reaper Modules (got some spare)
3 - 4 SATA HDDs (Spare from the original HTPC Rig)
Silverstone LC16M Case (Spare from the original HTPC Rig)
Enermax 620Watt Liberty Modular PSU (Spare from the original HTPC Rig)
£163.38

Now, the Intel Rig:
Intel Core 2 Duo, E7200, Wolfdale Core, S775, 2.53 GHz, 1066MHz, Retail CPU @ £76.13
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 iP35 Motherboard @ £61.39
256MB Sapphire HD3470 PCI-E 2.0 1400MHz GDDR3, 800MHz GPU 40 Cores, HDTV/2xDVI-I HDCP Ready Passive Graphics Card @ £34.30
>Same Memory, HDDs, PSU, Case & Blu-ray Reader as AMD rig.
£239.68

So yeah, £76.30 difference if I go for the Intel setup over the AMD one, I don't mind paying that much extra if the system will handle the 1080P and blu-ray media better but if the AMD will do the job just the same for less then should I go for the AMD?
>I'm after a quiet 1080P HTPC setup.

Now as for the CPU Cooler, dunno really as I use WC on my rig but I've narrowed it down to these few based on Height for Max allowable height inside the case:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro V2 (AMD) / 7 Pro (Intel) @ £12.87 / £15.26
Scythe Mini Ninja Heatpipe CPU Cooler S478/LAG775, AMD S754/939/940/AM2 @ £27.60
Scythe Andy Samurai Master CPU Cooler @ £30.54
>OR suggest another CPU Cooler that has a Max Height of 13CM?

She hasn't got a HDMI amp so as for the Graphics card outputting 5.1 sound over HDMI, it's not required atm as the HDMI will only be used for Video to the Plasma and the Optical/5.1 Analog out on the Mobo for sound to an Old Sony amp.

TIA

[Skinleech]

Why not just get an ATI card to place in the machine? I run a 2600XT on my Athlon 3000 and it plays 1080p content, be it x264, Blu-ray or HD-DVD source.

For £40 or so it's a much cheaper alternative.

[this_is_gav]

Why not just get an ATI card to place in the machine? I run a 2600XT on my Athlon 3000 and it plays 1080p content, be it x264, Blu-ray or HD-DVD source.

For £40 or so it's a much cheaper alternative.

Cheaper than what? He's got an HD3470 specced in the Intel setup (less than the HD2600 ), and it's irrelevant in the AMD machine which has an similar dedicated graphics on the board.

Just go with the AMD machine. It's cheaper and has more than twice the power you'll ever need. Personally I'd get the cheapest of the energy efficient CPUs you can.

Regarding coolers, how important is silence to you and how big is the case? Will the heatsinks fit in it (the Mini Ninja should, but the Arctic Cooling ones might be a struggle)? Discount the Andy Samurai. I'm certain it won't fit and it's fairly poor quality when you see it in the flesh - I'm staggered it costs as much as the Mini Ninja.

[alsenior]

like gav said go for the amd setup. the onboard graphics on that board can handle 1080p content more than easily enough

[staffsMike]

First, the AMD Rig:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e AM2 Dual Core 2.5GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, Retail CPU @ £49.57
Abit A-S78H, AMD 780G, S AM2+, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, Micro ATX Motherboard with OnBoard Graphics @ £46.45
LG GGC-H20L SATA Blu-ray & HD-DVD Reader @ £67.36
2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 OCZ Reaper Modules (got some spare)
3 - 4 SATA HDDs (Spare from the original HTPC Rig)
Silverstone LC16M Case (Spare from the original HTPC Rig)
Enermax 620Watt Liberty Modular PSU (Spare from the original HTPC Rig)
£163.38

Thats perfect

[s_kinton]

Skinleech has the cheapest suggestion; just put an ATI card in the current HTPC and it'll play all the HD files you want to. You could do it for about £30

If you want to upgrade for the sake of upgrading then go with the AMD system you spec'd.

[Thor]

Why not just get an ATI card to place in the machine? I run a 2600XT on my Athlon 3000 and it plays 1080p content, be it x264, Blu-ray or HD-DVD source.

For £40 or so it's a much cheaper alternative.

The current mobo is AGP and the only ATI AGP boards available are the 3850 series starting at £75.54 and will no doubt have a noisy cooler. It would be good if the mobo had PCI-E but it doesn't.
It's currently got a Sapphire 512Mb ATI X1600 PRO AGP8X with Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Dual Heatpipe Cooler in there.

Cheaper than what? He's got an HD3470 specced in the Intel setup (less than the HD2600 ), and it's irrelevant in the AMD machine which has an similar dedicated graphics on the board.

Just go with the AMD machine. It's cheaper and has more than twice the power you'll ever need. Personally I'd get the cheapest of the energy efficient CPUs you can.

Regarding coolers, how important is silence to you and how big is the case? Will the heatsinks fit in it (the Mini Ninja should, but the Arctic Cooling ones might be a struggle)? Discount the Andy Samurai. I'm certain it won't fit and it's fairly poor quality when you see it in the flesh - I'm staggered it costs as much as the Mini Ninja.

As I stated the case is the Silverstone LC16M and has a Max Height of 13cm for a cpu cooler, so the all of the cpu coolers that i've listed will fit no probs, I just wanna know what cooler would be best suited to the job fof keeping things quiet while giving non-crash temps?

Skinleech has the cheapest suggestion; just put an ATI card in the current HTPC and it'll play all the HD files you want to. You could do it for about £30

If you want to upgrade for the sake of upgrading then go with the AMD system you spec'd.

Like I said, it's an AGP mobo, so that can't be done. I'm not upgrading just for the sake of it, it does need doing.

Thanks again for advice.

[s_kinton]

Like I said, it's an AGP mobo, so that can't be done. I'm not upgrading just for the sake of it, it does need doing.

Thanks again for advice.

Well then its definintely time to upgrade, AGP is useless for your scenario. Go for the AMD system you spec'd in the first post and you'll be fine.

[Thor]

Well then its definintely time to upgrade, AGP is useless for your scenario. Go for the AMD system you spec'd in the first post and you'll be fine.

Yeah, tell me about it, just need to choose the right cpu cooler now...

[staffsMike]

How about a nice Scythe mini ninja, although given the height clearance maybe a standard one will fit anyway, either will run that CPU passive with a half decent case airflow

Thermalright ultima 90 will be pretty good too.

[s_kinton]

Yeah, tell me about it, just need to choose the right cpu cooler now...

Scythe Mini Ninja without a doubt...if you can fit it in that case? You can run it passive on the 4850e and temps will be fine provided the case airflow is decent.

Damn you Mike with your ninja keyboard typing

[this_is_gav]

As I stated the case is the Silverstone LC16M and has a Max Height of 13cm for a cpu cooler, so the all of the cpu coolers that i've listed will fit no probs, I just wanna know what cooler would be best suited to the job fof keeping things quiet while giving non-crash temps?

Fair enough - easy enough finding the numbers without knowing how far it lifts the board off the bottom, or if it includes the feet or the likes.

I'd go for the Mini Ninja personally (//edit: as everyone else has said as I was making this post ). If it doesn't work well enough passively, you can always attach a fan of your choice - even something silly slow like a Sharkoon Golfball 1000 or Scythe SFLEX 800 will be enough. The PSU fan will certainly be the loudest fan then (unless the case fans aren't the best?). The Freezer Pro is really good, especially for the money, but it's not particularly quiet, especially when you consider the intended use - whether you'd hear it over the PSU fan is debatable. I've already said what I think about the Andy Samurai.

[Thor]

Fair enough - easy enough finding the numbers without knowing how far it lifts the board off the bottom, or if it includes the feet or the likes.

I'd go for the Mini Ninja personally (//edit: as everyone else has said as I was making this post ). If it doesn't work well enough passively, you can always attach a fan of your choice - even something silly slow like a Sharkoon Golfball 1000 or Scythe SFLEX 800 will be enough. The PSU fan will certainly be the loudest fan then (unless the case fans aren't the best?). The Freezer Pro is really good, especially for the money, but it's not particularly quiet, especially when you consider the intended use - whether you'd hear it over the PSU fan is debatable. I've already said what I think about the Andy Samurai.

Finding numbers, hmm, if you mean me actually taking the panel off the case and physically measuring how much distance there is from the current cpu retention bracket to the roof of the case then yeah I guess that would be finding numbers, it's actually 135mm to the roof but I thought it would be wise to give a lil leeway. Of course not all boards are the same but I think 13cm should be about right, so considering all of the coolers mentioned are under 13cm in height I don't see there being any problems, as it's currently got a Zalman 9500 cooler installed with about 0.5-1cm of leeway above the roof of the case and the Zalman measures in at 12.5cm in Height. Now without the motherboard and motherboard feet you have about 14.5 - 15cm of Height in there.

Hmm, sounds like I'm having a bit of a dig there, but I'm not, but people shouldn't presume these kind of things, u know?!

There is no way the standard Ninja will fit in considering it's over 15cm in height, nor will the Thermalright ultima 90, so looks like it will be the Mini Ninja then, thanks everyone!

[this_is_gav]

No no, I was just saying there was no point in me going looking for the numbers as they might not be at all relevant to how much space there actually was.

I was quite aware you'd be able to find them if you choose and make your own decisions.

[Thor]

Does anyone know if the Abit A-S78H motherboard supports HDCP over HDMI?
As the Scan site says it doesn't and I can't find any info about in on the Abit site, but both the Asus & Gigabyte versions of this board both support it.

TIA.

[Thor]

No no, I was just saying there was no point in me going looking for the numbers as they might not be at all relevant to how much space there actually was.

I was quite aware you'd be able to find them if you choose and make your own decisions.

Ok, my mistake.