Client getting long in the tooth, updating to Core2 Duo System

I guess the biggest question is why? If your current system is working fine, then why are you upgrading? If we don't know why your current system is not meeting your needs, it is hard to recommend any upgrades?

His problem, he sees new technology and have got to have the biggest most powerful system. He's got money to burn. Just having fun here!!

I'm in a similar situation with my 2.4 Ghz P4. It's fast enough for most everything except smooth 1080i H264 playback. So I'm looking at maybe building a C2D system next.

- Tom

with my P4E 2.8 slightly OC'd p4C800dlx system I was ALWAYS tweaking, trying to get enough out of it for running FFDShow and the newer codecs. I put together a E6600 Conroe system with a P5Bdlx and 2 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 and an Asus 7600GT with passive heatpipes.... added 3 SATA2 320 gb drives and buttoned it up.... WOW.... it just works.... now I finally have the time to organize the UnRaid box full of lossless music

Agonostis, you are in good company here!

My setup is eerily similar to yours- Celeron 2.0, Asus P4PE, 512MB, Delta 410, ATI 9600, PATA disks, USB-UIRT, Girder 4.0- and I'm also contemplating a well deserved upgrade (My 'excuse' is to be able to improve my ffdshow setup, and to watch the BBC HD broadcasts which are extremely CPU intensive).

With DX10 and Vista on the horizon, a rationale person would best wait six to nine months before the dust settles (Sure, the CD2P Intel processors are very tempting ).

In the meantime, I've stocked up on 'future proof' purchases (Barracuda 500GB quiet SATA disks, a low cost DVD writer, a PCI->Serial card for the projector and receiver, etc.), which I'm testing on my aging machine... but I'm not sure I'll be able to hold off much longer

Eiffel

can't rightly say..... I have a Seasonics 430w supply that was top star at SilentPC Review and has a very high efficency.... the PSU's thermally controlled fan barely turns and the output air is just warm...

OK, with that in mind, I think you are on the right track. I used to have the LC11, and found that it was very tight on space, especially for the video card. You have to be careful when buying cards with passive heatsinks, because the often have something attached to the back of the card. Otherwise, the Asus mobo is a good one. Should allow better overclocking than the Intel mobo I am running. Of course, OC produces more heat, which would make cooling it more difficult.

If you really want to run ffdshow, you might look to get the e6600. ffdshow likes cpu cycles, so give it as much as you can afford. Otherwise, the 6400 is more than enough. I run the 6300 and it works fine for hdtv .ts recordings. I run the stock intel HSF, which is surprisingly quiet. I'm not sure what quiet HSF will fit in the LC11 other than the Zalman 7000.

The problem with the 965 chipset is the lack of ATA connectors. I think the Asus board only has one, which means you will have to connect the DVD drive and hard drive to the same cable, unless you decide to buy a SATA notebook drive or SATA optical drive.

The X1300 probably won't be powerful enough for 1080i. Might look into at least x1600 level cards.

Oh yeah, start saving for a better display. You are not going to see any improvement with ffdshow or HDTV if you are displaying them on an edtv display.

BTW, putting MODERN pata burners/readers on the same cable with HD's is no longer problamatic....

Some people have reported difficulties with getting the JMicron IDE controller to install an OS to a PATA drive, although the SATA drives are apparently not a problem. Just FYI. I'm looking at this motherboard for my Core 2 Duo build as well.

Do you really think the picoPSU will work? That wattage seems really low for everything you're throwing at it. Core 2 Duo is low-power, but it's still rated at 65W. Throw in that graphics card and some drives and you're starting to get close. Let me know how that goes, if you do use it.

I was planning on going with the embedded graphics, since I'm not a gamer and it's low power; I understand that for Home Theater the embeddeds are decent. Plus there's apparently an HDMI/HDCP header you can pick up in several weeks from Pegasus.

I don't have any intention of starting a flame war, but I am in the same boat - looking to update my old machine to something that can handle HD and the newest high compression file formats. I tend to only "jump in" when it's time to buy, and a lot has changed in the last 3-4 years. :-)

I am trying to answer the AMD or Intel question.

It seems clear that the Core2 Duo has a significant performance advantage over the current AMD platform, but is that performance really needed for most HTPC activities? Am I better off going with an AMD dual core, saving some money and spending more on the video card or disk?

From what I've read, the AMDs run cooler (but I could be wrong, please correct me if so) which makes me lean towards the AMD.

Thoughts? No fanboys please!

On the Intel side, what motherboard do people recommend? It would be great to get something that has at least gig ethernet, good sound capabilities, and at least 2 PCI slots to house HD and SD tuners.

Thanks!
Kevin

The price/performance from Core2 will give you a lot more.

For HTPC purposes the Core2 system is perfect.

the web and it's support forums are flooded with all sorts of performance problems with sound cards, video cards, conroller cards, etc, etc.... the common thread I percieve is non-intel chipsets.... it's NOT an issue of the processor, but slightly incompatible chipsets....

The LC11 isn't the quietest case and the power supply isn't very powerful. The LC16 is a better choice and can be quiet.

You could always mod your silverstone PSU with a quieter fan(s), or reroute the fans to connect to your motherboard fan headers to undervolt them, instead.

I would also consider the energy efficient X2-3800+ chip. I believe AMD just dropped the price to the same as the regular X2-3800+, $150 or so. This runs a good deal cooler then the Core 2 Duo and would be a great match for a small HTPC case. Oh, and just to let you know I run a Core 2 Duo in my main machine so it's not that I'm against Intel or anything.

I've found myself in a similar situation, current HTPC was OK for DVD playback using TheaterTek 1.5 and hardware-assisted HD playback using an HiDTV card (short-lived Janus-based tuner). Unfortunately the HiDTV has a problem with the local CBS affiliate's signal and the constant dropouts make it unwatchable. So I bought a VBOX-150 and and SageTV, which works great for 720p HD content but my HTPC just isn't powerful enough to play back 1080i content (which means I _still_ can't watch CBS).

So I've decided on a Core 2 Duo system, parts are ordered and everything should be here by tomorrow. I went with the Foxconn 965 board since it was reasonably priced and I needed a serial port for my IRMan. I chose the E6600 processor, more for the larger cache than the 10% clockspeed increase over the E6400.

For now I'm just going to use a cheap Radeon X1600 PCIe card I have left over from my last workstation build, I'll upgrade to an HDCP-enabled card once all the pieces for BR/HD DVD have fallen into place. Likewise I'll continue using my Delta 410 soundcard for now, and later I'll upgrade to something that can send the new high-res formats over HDMI; but there's no point in doing that until I upgrade my pre/pro.

I'm going to go with a client-server configuration, keeping the dual VBOX-150 tuners and RAID-0 array in a network server. I figure the less hardware in the HTPC, the easier it will be to keep it cool and quiet. SageTV's client/server support is pretty slick.

I chose the Silverstone LC-17 case as I actually preferred its looks to the LC-20, and the internal design on both looks to be the same. I might have considered mATX if the Antec NKS2400 came in an all-black model, but I just don't care for the silver face plate. Power supply will be the Seasonic S12-330 (wanted to get the 430 since I've heard it's even quieter, but it was backordered).

Misc other parts to round out the build include 2GB ram, a WD SE16 HD, Plextor SATA DVD burner, Zalman heatsinks/fans for the CPU and GPU, and my existing RF keyboard (rarely used, as everyday control is via Pronto/Girder combo).

Hopefully this rig will give me the OTA HD playback I want now, and with the right video/audio card upgrade in the near future enough capability for BR/HD DVD playback including H.264 and IVTC.

Agnostis,

Whatever happen with your build. I am considering the LC11 as well and would be curious with your results. getting 3rd party fans i already planned on doing. I was also going to get a 3rd party HSF, the zalman perhaps, to reduce the noise. However, the big issue for me it the power supply.

What did you ultimately do and is it quiet?