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