Planning to buy an HTPC, need advice...

CH@NO · May 18, 2010

Hi.

In the near future I'm planning to build an HTPC for an HDTV (that I'm planning to buy soon).

The HTPC will be only for that purposse, blu-ray/dvd and maybe some music.

I already make a list of the HW:

* Athlon X2 Brisbane 2.7GHz
* Gigabyte S2 class mobo (microATX) with an HD4200 IGP
* 1GB DDR3 RAM

The rest is not crucial so I'm still thinking about it, what do you think??

I want to build this HTPC using very little money so I think buying a single cored Sempron 140 instead of the Athlon X2 (ignoring the fact that maybe I can unlock that sempron to an Athlon II).

The HD4200 IGP will be sufficient to scale 1080P???, I'm planning to buy a 37" HDTV.

1GB of RAM will be enough??

THX for the replies.

kenkickr · May 18, 2010

I use the Sempron 140 in my HTPC on a Gigabyte 785G chipset board, 2GB DDR3, and a 1TB Seagate using Win 7 Home Premium. System runs as intended for a HTPC but I think the 1TB was too much cause I'm one of those people that deletes/uninstalls stuff once done with it.

Which OS are you gonna use? I ask due to the 1GB may not be enough and a 2GB kit should be very affordable.

CH@NO · May 18, 2010

kenkickr said:
I use the Sempron 140 in my HTPC on a Gigabyte 785G chipset board, 2GB DDR3, and a 1TB Seagate using Win 7 Home Premium. System runs as intended for a HTPC but I think the 1TB was too much cause I'm one of those people that deletes/uninstalls stuff once done with it.

Which OS are you gonna use? I ask due to the 1GB may not be enough and a 2GB kit should be very affordable.

Win 7 of course, and I think you're right, since I'll be taking system RAM for the IGP I'll need at least 2GB of RAM.

for playing WMP is fine or It's better to use PowerDVD??

kenkickr · May 18, 2010

I like WinDVD just because it supports ATI's AVIVO and you can tell the difference when watching a movie with WinDVD over WMP.

El_Mayo · May 18, 2010

CH@NO said:
Win 7 of course, and I think you're right, since I'll be taking system RAM for the IGP I'll need at least 2GB of RAM.

for playing WMP is fine or It's better to use PowerDVD??

WMP definately

install K-Lite codec pack and you're good to go ;]

AlienIsGOD · May 18, 2010

K - Lite FTW!!!

CH@NO · May 18, 2010

thx for the replies.

I think I'll gonna after the Sempron 140, seems OK for HTPC purposses, and maybe I can unlock it for an Athlon II, I'll go too for 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB, and I'll try WinDVD.

EDIT: and I forgot that an Athlon X2 brisbane is socket AM2/AM2+ and It'll not fit in the new mobo, so anyway the Sempron 140 is the best option.

suraswami · May 18, 2010

CH@NO said:
thx for the replies.

I think I'll gonna after the Sempron 140, seems OK for HTPC purposses, and maybe I can unlock it for an Athlon II, I'll go too for 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB, and I'll try WinDVD.

EDIT: and I forgot that an Athlon X2 brisbane is socket AM2/AM2+ and It'll not fit in the new mobo, so anyway the Sempron 140 is the best option.

I noticed on your OP about the X2 being AM2+/AM2 but then you corrected it.

Anyway instead of picking a Sempron 140 and trying your luck to unlock I would get a used AII 240 instead and will be few more $. Somebody was selling a 240e which is a 45w version and perfect for HTPC purposes. So grab that.

And oh my Sempron 3400 (AM2) with NVidia 9400GT works fine and plays BD movies @ 720P without any issues on my second HTPC. So I think upto 720P a single core should be fine.

my 2 cents.

:toast:

kenkickr · May 18, 2010

suraswami said:
I noticed on your OP about the X2 being AM2+/AM2 but then you corrected it.

Anyway instead of picking a Sempron 140 and trying your luck to unlock I would get a used AII 240 instead and will be few more $. Somebody was selling a 240e which is a 45w version and perfect for HTPC purposes. So grab that.

And oh my Sempron 3400 (AM2) with NVidia 9400GT works fine and plays BD movies @ 720P without any issues on my second HTPC. So I think upto 720P a single core should be fine.

my 2 cents.

Since the IGP on the 785G board supports HD codec wouldn't the IGP be doing most of the work when it comes to BD playback?

suraswami · May 19, 2010

kenkickr said:
Since the IGP on the 785G board supports HD codec wouldn't the IGP be doing most of the work when it comes to BD playback?

Its true. If the HTPC is intended to do only BD playback like mine then its ok. If there is HD recording or other things going on then a dual-core would be ideal. And oh 1080P puts more load on the IGP, a dual-core will share the load easily.

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Planning to buy an HTPC, need advice...

CH@NO

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kenkickr

CH@NO

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kenkickr

El_Mayo

AlienIsGOD

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CH@NO

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suraswami

kenkickr

suraswami

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