Official Sandy Bridge / LGA1155 for HTPCs Thread - Page 40

Wow I learn something new everyday. Thanks for the sharing.

It doesn't always work like that. Better to do a clean install. But sometimes it will work. When I tried to go from a g41 775 board to a h55 1156 board I just got a bunch of bsods.

For MB, I will sure start the clean OS. But I'm trying to find out is it the same case or not for the same series CPU. In my case, from my (current) i3 2100 to (thinking) i3 2105 or i5 2405S.

I already answered this for you.

IF you are going to attempt this. It is smart to un-install all drivers first before switching to another system. Also it is not recommended to switch from SATA MODE: IDE to AHCI mode and vice versa. For example.... Installing Win 7 with OCZ Vertex 2 in AHCI mode, if you change bios to IDE, you get a BSOD upon boot-up. Change it back to AHCI and it goes back to working fine. How do I know? Some Genius thought they were optimizing the BIOS and then it crashed. Switched it back to AHCI and viola. No crashes for 3 months.

I installed this system so I knew it was installed with SATA:AHCI mode turned on.

If you can you should always install a clean version of windows to save a lot of grief should something crazy pop-up

No worries there you will be fine as long as your bios supports it.

i5-2500T has been available since January 9 (mainly for OEMs?).

i7-2600K HTPC. I'm using the Intel Display Audio over HDMI. I have disabled all other audio drivers for the analog outputs. Whenever I turn off my display, leaving the PC on or in sleep mode, when I turn the display back on I have no audio. The Intel Display Audio is missing from the list of audio device drivers. When restart with the display on, the Intel Display Audio device driver magically reappears. What can I do to prevent this? Do I have to have some kind of analog device driver enabled?

I haven't seen such a problem in my system, but a workaround could be this.

Thanks renethx. If nothing else works I'll try that. First I am going to try re-sequencing my peripheral startup (AVR then display etc.) to see if that works. I also may try to see if there is a difference between being logged into an account or not when the display is killed, or if I should put the PC to sleep before I turn off the display, etc.

is there any significant performance differences between say a SNB 2100 and a I3-540?

Aside from wattage, anything else significantly change?

Trying to decide whether to upgrade one of the systems at home or not.

There is no significant performance difference. i3-2100 is just ~10% better, apart from Quick Sync/3D capability of GPU.

I think you would get a bigger boost by dropping something like a radeon 6450 into your existing i3 540 system.

Also previous i3's can be overclocked surpassing whatever gain Sandy would give you.

I have my HTPC Intel DH67GD with i7-2600k and Samsung LN-T3253H tv connected to HDMI 1. I do not lose my sound.

hdmiOn (or a utility that does the same thing) might address this issue.

Is there a "significant" difference in using a DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) over DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) with a Sandy Bridge motherboard for an HTPC?

Also, most H67 Motherboards that I see on Newegg list DDR 1333/1066 as supported memory - do these motherboards even support the DDR 1600 modules?

I'm trying to decide between the 1333 & 1600 modules. With some coupons I have - I have a significant cost difference between the two; the 1333 being much cheaper.

Thanks!

No, you will probably end up running the 1600's at 1333 anyways. Go with 1333 you will notice no difference for an htpc with faster ram.

Thanks - that seals the decision for me. I'll save on the few $'s and go with DDR3 1333.

Maybe someone can correct me but I don't think you can even set the ram on an H67 board to 1600 as its considered an oc and not an option on these boards. Either way don't worry about it. I would get 4gb's though. Its so cheap these days.

I went with the 2100 instead (along with the Intel DH67CF ITX board, Intel 40GB SSD, 1 x 4GB RAM, and 80 watt pico psu), and it's idling at 14.9-15.2 watts. Rises to 64-66 watts on full load using prime95.

The Intel board along with the SSD boots up really quickly, and it's even faster if you turn off some of the boot options in the bios. I'm getting about 5 to 6 seconds from complete shutdown to windows desktop. The "windows is starting" screen shows up right away when the system is turned on, and before the animation is complete, windows loads into the desktop. It's faster than my i7 system by about 5 seconds.

Compared to my i7, so far everyday performance outside of benchmarks has been very good and I can't tell much of a difference. However, one annoying issue that I accidentally discovered is that if the windows desktop wallpaper fades during video playback...the video stutters. I'm not sure if it's the 2100's weak gpu or a driver issue that can be fixed. Otherwise pretty happy with the system.

I was going to get 4GB, but I can get the 8GB for $9 more ... same brand/specs.

Imo you will never use the whole 4gb. But 9 bucks is 9 bucks. You are either overpaying big time for 4 gigs or getting a hell of a deal on 8.

Well - the 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws is $44.98 ... I can get the 8GB G.Skill Sniper for $55 ... both are DDR 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kits.

I know for general usage I'll never hit the full 4GB ... but what about like Unraring, moving 40GB ISO's, application startup (like TMT5 +Codecs)?

Use one and sell one.

You only gain about 5% boost in performance with dual channel vs single channel RAM (2x2GB vs 1x4GB for example).

Really??? I always thought (or was told) to use Dual Channel over Single Channel - Always!! So you're saying instead of 2X2GB or 4X4GB ... using 1 4GB stick or 1 8GB stick is just about the same?

I have changed my htpc from ati 5450 to i3 2100 + HD 2000 IGP. The biggest thing I dislike is that unlike my previous setup the new setup's hdmi output goes silent for about two seconds anytime I pause a show. In other words, if I pause a show, and resume, there will be no audio for two seconds. For tv shows, I guess it is acceptable however, for listening to music, this is awful.

Does anyone know of any fix?

Thanks.

What is your opinion on the 4GB vs 8GB? I guess 9 bucks is 9 bucks. I don't really fancy throwing it away if it's going to be absolutely useless to get the 8GB.

It will be pretty much useless in an htpc. I recommend always going dual channel. Unless maybe you got a crazy deal on a single stick.

Pretty good deal. May I ask where can you get that?

I agree we probably won't need 8GB RAM in HTPC unless we have other editing going on.