Recommendation for new low power Win8 setup with Uefi

I currently have an Athlon 605e setup with AND 785 chipset which gives me a 45w cpu and hardware h264 descaling. My biggest annoyance is that Win7 takes about 20secs to boot up into Media Center and I have experienced much quicker times with Win8 and the new fast boot when used in conjunction with UEFI. However, I am a bit out of touch with the current low power cpus so I was wondering if someone could recommend a setup. Ideally I would like all of the following:

1. Low power cpu as the htpc will be on for extended periods
2. UEFI compatible motherboard bios for fastest possible boot times
3. No need for gfx card to keep power down to a minimum.

I will be putting it inside a Silverstone CW03 case and connected via hdmi to a 1080p TV.
Thanks
Allan

I should have said, but I am already using an SSD drive and it made a huge difference in booting times for Win7. Now the computer spends most of the time in POST, hence the want for UEFI.
Thanks
Allan

Thanks for the recommendation. I just had a quick read up on this and it would seem that for the extra few bucks, the i3-3225 would be worth going for. I don't play many games on this machine but just in case it would be nice to have a little extra grunt.

Having said that, the 'equivalent' AMD chip would seem to be the A10-5800K. Looking at the specs, it consumes less power but doesn't have quite the CPU grunt as the i3, however the on-board gfx performance of the AMD seems to be a lot better than the i3.

So, what do people generally think about the AMD chip? I am leaning towards it mainly due to the lower power, but with a benefit of better gfx over cpu performance in mind too.

Thanks
Allan

I'm not sure if they are setting the UEFI boards correctly for fast boot. It's possible to get into Win8 from flicking the on switch in under 5 seconds! That is POST time plus windows 8 boot time. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdOAvlncCOw

The power ratings were quoted here: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/11/26/intel-core-i3-3220-review/7
It shows that the AMD is lower power on idle and higher power on load. For an HTPC the processor is much more towards the idle end so I think the AMD would be lower power on use as well as idle.

I agree though, I do not need quad core however if the power consumption is the same then I would go for the quad core over a dual core for the few times I could use it. Although it is not greatly important to me to have the quad core.

Its definitely possible. My desktop PC boots into Win8 in around 7 seconds!

It's a custom build using this mobo: Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE Z77 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard

And that is from power off into Windows 8 desktop

You are correct. I have, however, just read about the AMD A10 5700 which has a TDP of 65w. It would seem that this chip is much lower power than the Intel during Idle and lower under full load unless you are using the IGPs. This is my current preference so far as I think it would be :

- the lowest power of the bunch
- has best IGP perfomance if needed

Bearing in mind that I don't need the CPU performance that any of these chips deliver, if I did then the Intel would be the winner. Also, I will not have a separate gfx card in the setup to reduce power so the AMD provides the best balance for my needs, I think!

I understand that TDP is not the only indication of a low power build. I had a look at the links provided and I am not willing to go to those extents of soldering the motherboard. I would also like a larger motherboard as I have a couple of TV capture cards to attach, so mATX is the smallest I would be willing to go to.