Motherboard and CPU recommendations (Used or New)

[andrew1810]

First post here, hoping some of you knowledgable folk can help.

I'm looking to upgrade my Epia M1000 to something a bit more powerful, but I have no idea what to look out for. It is for use in a PVR/HTPC, so no gaming etc. Simply recording and playing back TV.

Here are my (rough) requirements:

Support for: DDR PC3200, 184-pin dimm, ddr266 sdram
On-board LAN
mATX to fit in Silverstone LC11
SPDIF/5ch sound
4 x USB 2.0
USB header
2 x IDE
Nvidia or Intel Based
Reasonably quiet

I don't need built in VGA, I'll transfer my Radeon 9250 PCI across.

I was hoping for around the 1.5Ghz mark, or whatever the equivalent Celeron would be.

Any suggestions for both motherboard and processor?

Also, where should I look, apart from ebay and how much should I be looking at spending?

Thanks

Andrew

[mike306dt]

If you want it to be quiet and run cool then I'd be swayed towards an intel based setup? Whats your budget?

Edit : Just been looking on OCUK and they have a fair few boards in Bgrade/Clearance section? A rough budget would be a great help though (sempron setup would be cheap?)

[andrew1810]

I'g guess maximum of £80-£100, ideally lower.

The case is good for cooling, so its mainly a quietish fan.

It only runs XP and SageTV, so I'm not looking ultra-fast, just an upgrade on the Epia.

I tried the software on my laptop (Pentium M 1.4Ghz) and it was much much quicker, so around that speed would be idea.

I'm just looking into the Asus A7N8X-VM nF2/VGA/uATX posted before, which processor would be best for these?

Thanks, this is a steep learning curve, the last time I upgraded a desktop it was from a 486 to an Athlon 433Mhz!

[mike306dt]

Hello mate, I guess any processor that goes into that board is going to be faster than your epia, something around 1800/2000 speed should be good though. Just bear in mind they make a bit of heat compared to the equivalent time intel cpu so you are going to need something reasonable fan wise to keep it coolish. Just looked at the price for a XP cpu on ocuk and its rather extreme Try ebay for a cpu maybe?

If you can pick up an athlon xp-M (mobile variant then you have multi manipulation out of the box and chances are something like crystal cpuid would work on it)

I'm not sure how much you know of crystal cpuid but it will automatically manipulate your cpu's multiplier and vcore depending on workload. EG you have your media centre pc sat on the desktop - It will run your cpu at 1.2v maybe and 800 mhz. Then say you encode some video and it will change this to full voltage and full speed.

While the above may be of no use to you, it would mean a cool, quiet and power efficient media centre pc

[mike306dt]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-Athlon-XP-...QQcmdZViewItem

I hope you are allowed to post ebay links on here, really sorry if not please remove this post. However, this cpu would be ideal if you want to go athlon xp assuming it works

[andrew1810]

Excellent, thanks for the help, I'll keep an eye on that processor.

The epia is just a little bit too sluggish loading video's etc. and I use it a lot now so thought maybe it was due an upgrade (although I'm reformatting to see if that helps at the moment)

How much hotter than my current processor would an AMD get? I'm running the stock fans on the Silverstone, so as long as the CPU fan isn't much louder than those it shouldn't matter too much.

[jamena]

some of the 939 cpus might do quite well, and gigabyte (possibly others too) do some very tasty htpc type boards. Have a look on the scan website and compare the various uATX 939 boards. I'm sure there's one with the nvidia 6150 chipset included for onboard hdtv out...

p.s. I'm building an htpc rig out of my gaming rig and am fighting with an XP-M cpu (I have found a nice little program or two that allow you to "do the laptop thing" and dynamically throttle the cpu depending on useage. It can ramp the multiplier up and down according to the required cpu power thus keeping it cooler when it's not under a load. Worth a look maybe if you go the Socket A route. If I was buying new however I'd go for socket 939, or possibly 479 (intel pentium M)

[mike306dt]

the £100 budget is a little crippling for a 939 based cpu and motherboard. The XP-M is a good route for your budget and as I said before and jamena has just said - Crystal Cpuid will do what he mentioned. I currently have it on my opty with two shortcuts on my desktop -

0.9v 4x multi for overnight use
1.4v 9x multi for daily gaming (both at 279fsb )

It can be set to automatically up and down your cpu speed with load as I said which would really help in your htpc. The epia cpu's are very underpowered compared to the equivalent AMD.

[jamena]

the £100 budget is a little crippling for a 939 based cpu and motherboard. The XP-M is a good route for your budget and as I said before and jamena has just said - Crystal Cpuid will do what he mentioned. I currently have it on my opty with two shortcuts on my desktop -

that's the program ...does it alter the voltage on the fly as well or is that a reboot job?

£100 is perhaps a little nuder, but you can pick up a 3000+ 939 chip for about £75 and a reasonable uATX board for about £45, which is £120 ... not terribly over budget? plus it's got an upgrade path...Socket A is largely 2nd hard markets now?

[andrew1810]

I'm not as bothered about future upgrades, this PC will only be a PVR as I have my laptop for everyday stuff and the only gaming I do is on consoles.

The mobile athlon seems ideal, so once I have a motherboard sorted, I'll try and get one of those.

Thanks

[mike306dt]

Hello mate, it alters the multi and the voltage on the fly - pretty sweet program really You're right about the 939 not being that much over budget! I'll bet ebay would turn up a 939 chip at reasonable price and possibly a motherboard?

[mike306dt]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-x-Refurbishe...QQcmdZViewItem


Going cheap, and you could budget a motherboard in that also? Failing that the XP-M would be a very capable media centre pc

[-ChEM-]

the 2500m and 2600m were 45w parts, the 2400m was 35w

a 3.2 prescott (intel) which was the rival at the time was 110w so youve got the best chip of the period for a htpc

[mike306dt]

Lol thats two old threads you've dug up now chem Have you had any luck sourcing what you need for your htpc yet mate? I think I'm going to go down the same route myself as I have a 2800 or 2700 celeron laying around here and 512mb ram, just need the other components and MCE

[andrew1810]

Still looking into things at the moment, I decided to re-format the PC to see if that helped which was a mistake, took 2 days to get it working properly again.

At the moment I'm considering a cheaper stop-gap, something like a celeron 2.0Ghz and a cheaper motherboard, but the current PC is working, so I'm not going to rush making a decision and see how cheap I can find the parts.

Andrew

[mike306dt]

Any ideas where I can get hold of a cheap P4 motherboard with say tv out at all mate? I hope this celeron 2x00 is fast enough for it