Anyone running a A6 6400k as a htpc?

[colincliff]

I have an elderly HTPC which is due a full upgrade. I'm looking to spend as little as possible whilst making it cool and low powered. I've not been keeping up with CPU progress recently but was interested in the AMD A6 chips.

Anyone have any experience with anything similar to the below setup?

AMD A6 6400K FM2

Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2, AMD A55, FM2

8GB ddr3

I'm putting it all in this case which i have from the previous build so will need a low profile cooler

[teppic]

If it's just for an HTPC you don't really need something that powerful - it'd be more than adequate, though you could sell Sim City to save a bit. You could even get away with the cheapest model at £33.

I'd recommend you avoid the A55 chipset, the A75/A85X is better.

I got this cooler, which barely makes a sound:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...3plus-am3-am2p

Stick to 4gb RAM in a budget system.

[Bonebreaker777]

Agree.the new A4-4000 dual core with Radeon IGP should be more that adequate for a HTPC, especially after selling the SimCity code and undervolting.
Be aware of very cheap A55 mobos. A75 are tend to be more reliable. Choose a good manufacturer. And 4GB of RAM is enough while keeping the costs down.

[colincliff]

Thanks for the replies, I hadn't realised the A4-4000 was 65w so that makes it a good option. 4gb ram also seems adequate as its what I've been running for the last few years with no issues.

Is there much real world difference between the A75 and the A85x? they seem to be basically the same price. The MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 looks like it would do the job.

[teppic]

The A85X chipset offers a couple of extra features, but nothing you'd need on an HTPC system, so either would be fine.

If you do want to use the PC for a bit more than as an HTPC you should go for the A6 as you wanted, otherwise you can get the A4-4000 for a stupidly low price considering it comes with a game worth ~£15.

[colincliff]

The computer will sit under my tv so won't ever be used for anything except htpc duties. The only thing I have aver asked the current one to do which made it really struggle was when playing around with automatically removing commercials from recorded tv. I don't think that's worth the extra £30 of the A6.

Many thanks again

[scaryjim]

tbh, an A55 board will be fine for HTPC duties. I've got an A6-3670k on an A55 board and it's absolutely fine (it was a forum competition prize, my review is here: http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-reader...le-review.html). You're unlikely to need any of the extras that A75 brings.

HTPC duties require very little in the way of power - I had a Sempron doing the job until I won the APU bundle.

One thing I will say is that if you want a quiet HTPC you'll need a slightly better cooler. The 65W AMD processors/APUs come with the same cooler as the 45W versions, and while it's good at 45W it's barely sufficient at 65W. And there is a limit to what you can achieve with undervolting.

[teppic]

An A55 board would be ok, but the A75 ones aren't really any more expensive and give a few useful extras (e.g. if an SSD is used in the HTPC, it'll definitely benefit from native SATA3).

[scaryjim]

Sorry, but in real world HTPC usage you're not going to notice a blind bit of difference between an SSD on SATA2 and an SSD on SATA3. HTPC usage simply doesn't hammer the IO at all, so beyond the general nippy feel you get from an SSD in any computer you won't be benefitting significantly.

OTOH, I hadn't realised that a lot of A55 boards have crept over £40 while a few A75 boards have crept below £50. On that basis it's probably not worth getting an A55 board unless you can find one for < £40, e.g. http://www.ebuyer.com/432730-biostar...erboard-a55ml2

That said, ebuyer currently have a Biostar X85 board for only £45: http://www.ebuyer.com/432730-biostar...erboard-a55ml2 which could be worthy of consideration

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

That said, ebuyer currently have a Biostar X85 board for only £45: http://www.ebuyer.com/432730-biostar...erboard-a55ml2 which could be worthy of consideration

I assume you mean this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/432657-biostar...ard-hifi-a85s3



Edit!!

Here is a review:

http://translate.google.co.uk/transl...ocket-fm2.html

[scaryjim]

ooops, yeah, my bad - pasted the same link twice. Thanks CAT

[teppic]

Sorry, but in real world HTPC usage you're not going to notice a blind bit of difference between an SSD on SATA2 and an SSD on SATA3. HTPC usage simply doesn't hammer the IO at all, so beyond the general nippy feel you get from an SSD in any computer you won't be benefitting significantly.

OTOH, I hadn't realised that a lot of A55 boards have crept over £40 while a few A75 boards have crept below £50. On that basis it's probably not worth getting an A55 board unless you can find one for < £40, e.g. http://www.ebuyer.com/432730-biostar...erboard-a55ml2

That said, ebuyer currently have a Biostar X85 board for only £45: http://www.ebuyer.com/432730-biostar...erboard-a55ml2 which could be worthy of consideration

Yeah, I admit it's going to give limited benefit in an HTPC, but there will be some. My main point was that it's barely any extra cost, but has extra features that are generally worth something. I'd also have in mind the idea of potentially using it later for something else, which of course isn't necessarily relevant to anyone else.

[Erlenmeyer]

What cooler did you decide on?