At that price you are looking at an Athlonx2. But you need to make sure your board can support it.
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AMD CPU Recommendation
Have an Athlon 64 x2 5200+ with ddr2 ram. What would be a good upgrade in $50-70 range? Would like to keep heat and power consumption down.
1 - 20 of 23 Posts
If you have an AM2+ board, for about $80 you can find the Phenom II x2 555 Black Edition (pretty sure I saw it on sale for that a couple weeks ago, the new 560 BE is about $100).
If you want to go budget, you can find the 7850 Black Edition for around $40-50, but it's 95 watts so it's not going to be good to keep the heat down.
If you want to go budget, you can find the 7850 Black Edition for around $40-50, but it's 95 watts so it's not going to be good to keep the heat down.
Athlon II x2 for sure. Why would you want a phenom in a htpc...unless you do encoding on it....?
Not much need for a black edition in an htpc. L3 cache isn't going to do anything for you. Athlon x2 is low power low heat.
Apparently the new Athlon II x2 210e (45w and has twice the L2 cache as other Athlon II's) can be unlocked to a 4 core processor (with a compatible motherboard), which would make it the same as the Phenom II x4 910e without the L3 cache. Looks like it might be the current choice for low power budget AMD HTPC processor, and for under $45.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103908
Match that CPU with this motherboard (someone verify if it can unlock CPUs?) and you might have a great start to a budget AMD based HTPC with quad cores for $100 to start.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...DELUXE&cat=MBB
Just pick some quality DDR2 memory...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103908
Match that CPU with this motherboard (someone verify if it can unlock CPUs?) and you might have a great start to a budget AMD based HTPC with quad cores for $100 to start.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...DELUXE&cat=MBB
Just pick some quality DDR2 memory...
For a bit more, you can get an X4 Black 940 AM2+ (assuming it's supported by your board):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.412216
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.412216
Again I don't know why you'd want 4 cores on an HTPC. More power more heat more noise. Two cores are plenty.
I am upgrading to a Gigabyte 785 board that allows am3. The athlon x2 I now have has 1mb L2 and is a black edition. Is athlon II x2 with 1 mb or even 2mb L2 going to be any benefit performance wise?
I may be encoding or HD video editing occasionally. Also want to avoid any a/v hiccups on blu-Ray playback once I add a bd drive.
I may be encoding or HD video editing occasionally. Also want to avoid any a/v hiccups on blu-Ray playback once I add a bd drive.
That's a 125w CPU, you know?
Quote:
Originally Posted by knome2 /forum/post/19451654
For a bit more, you can get an X4 Black 940 AM2+ (assuming it's supported by your board):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.412216
That's a 125w CPU, you know?
Anyone use the EPU-4 engine? I use it with my AMD BE Quad core in an HTPC.
The cpu wattage usage reads between 7 and 10 watts when using MediaBrowser and MPC-HC. It's less when just surfing the web. That's not a lot of power nor heat. When I need to encode I have the balls to do it. So why sale yourself short if you don't have to?
The cpu wattage usage reads between 7 and 10 watts when using MediaBrowser and MPC-HC. It's less when just surfing the web. That's not a lot of power nor heat. When I need to encode I have the balls to do it. So why sale yourself short if you don't have to?
Athlon II X4 640, $99, is the best choice, then Athlon II X3 445, $76. Extra cores make a big difference in these tasks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hardwired /forum/post/19451740
I may be encoding or HD video editing occasionally.
Athlon II X4 640, $99, is the best choice, then Athlon II X3 445, $76. Extra cores make a big difference in these tasks.
I think that cpu can handle HTPC stuff. Do you have a graphics card with hdmi out? If not a radeon 5xxx would probably do more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hardwired /forum/post/19449220
Have an Athlon 64 x2 5200+ with ddr2 ram. What would be a good upgrade in $50-70 range? Would like to keep heat and power consumption down.
I think that cpu can handle HTPC stuff. Do you have a graphics card with hdmi out? If not a radeon 5xxx would probably do more.
Agreed, I think my athlon II x2 3.0ghz is probably overkill. The info from a while ago was that an old core 2 duo 2.0ghz could handle anything HTPC related. I plan on downgrading my cpu power to the new zacate when it comes out.
![]()
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironlight /forum/post/19451708
Again I don't know why you'd want 4 cores on an HTPC. More power more heat more noise. Two cores are plenty.
Agreed, I think my athlon II x2 3.0ghz is probably overkill. The info from a while ago was that an old core 2 duo 2.0ghz could handle anything HTPC related. I plan on downgrading my cpu power to the new zacate when it comes out.
Just out of curiosity since you are replacing everything, why dont you just go core i3. If I were building today thats what I would probably go with and I'm an AMD guy. You can do encoding on anything, it just takes a little while longer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hardwired /forum/post/19451740
I am upgrading to a Gigabyte 785 board that allows am3. The athlon x2 I now have has 1mb L2 and is a black edition. Is athlon II x2 with 1 mb or even 2mb L2 going to be any benefit performance wise?
I may be encoding or HD video editing occasionally. Also want to avoid any a/v hiccups on blu-Ray playback once I add a bd drive.
Just out of curiosity since you are replacing everything, why dont you just go core i3. If I were building today thats what I would probably go with and I'm an AMD guy. You can do encoding on anything, it just takes a little while longer.
Basically this is wrong. I measured the total power consumption of a system consisting of
- Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz and Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz
- 2 x 2GB RAM
- AMD 785G chipset mb with onboard video
- 1 x HDD
- 80PLUS PSU
The power consumption reported by Kill-A-Watt:
As for video playback, there is little difference. For video re-encoding (if you are interested), X4 is much better as it is twice faster (hence consumes much lower total power to finish an encoding task).
- Phenom II X2 555 3.2GHz vs Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz:
There are lots of myths out there. This is one of them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironlight /forum/post/19451708
Again I don't know why you'd want 4 cores on an HTPC. More power more heat more noise.
Basically this is wrong. I measured the total power consumption of a system consisting of
- Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz and Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz
- 2 x 2GB RAM
- AMD 785G chipset mb with onboard video
- 1 x HDD
- 80PLUS PSU
The power consumption reported by Kill-A-Watt:
| Athlon II X2 240 | Athlon II X4 635 | |
| Idle | 50W | 55W |
| BD playback (PowerDVD) | 61W | 63W |
| SD playback (ffdshow+AviSynth) | 84W | 86W |
| x264 Benchmark 2nd pass | 90W | 107W |
As for video playback, there is little difference. For video re-encoding (if you are interested), X4 is much better as it is twice faster (hence consumes much lower total power to finish an encoding task).
- Phenom II X2 555 3.2GHz vs Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz:
| Phenom II X2 555 | Phenom II X4 955 | |
| Idle | 63W | 62W |
| BD playback (PowerDVD) | 69W | 70W |
| SD playback (ffdshow+AviSynth) | 105W | 109W |
| x264 Benchmark 2nd pass | 115W | 146W |
There are lots of myths out there. This is one of them.
Not so sure about that. That must be with a very small video library? The larger the library, the more power/processing makes a positive difference.
Though my core 2 dou 1.86 GHz does a decent job(slow,sometimes hangs up). I've seen a Mac Mini with the same processor 2.0 GHz freeze up several times trying to refresh my library and need rebooting. My Q6600 does it better. The unleashed BE 550 does an even better job loading and refreshing a 1000+ video library in Media Browser. Of course a decent video card doesn't hurt either.
![]()
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro /forum/post/19452028
The info from a while ago was that an old core 2 duo 2.0ghz could handle anything HTPC related. I plan on downgrading my cpu power to the new zacate when it comes out.![]()
Not so sure about that. That must be with a very small video library? The larger the library, the more power/processing makes a positive difference.
Though my core 2 dou 1.86 GHz does a decent job(slow,sometimes hangs up). I've seen a Mac Mini with the same processor 2.0 GHz freeze up several times trying to refresh my library and need rebooting. My Q6600 does it better. The unleashed BE 550 does an even better job loading and refreshing a 1000+ video library in Media Browser. Of course a decent video card doesn't hurt either.
Wow interesting stuff here. I guess i should have kept my q6600 over my e3300 then? Nah I'm happy with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx /forum/post/19452075
Basically this is wrong. I measured the total power consumption of a system consisting of
- Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz and Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz
- 2 x 2GB RAM
- AMD 785G chipset mb with onboard video
- 1 x HDD
- 80PLUS PSU
The power consumption reported by Kill-A-Watt:
Athlon II X2 240 Athlon II X4 635 Idle 50W 55W BD playback (PowerDVD) 61W 63W SD playback (ffdshow+AviSynth) 84W 86W x264 Benchmark 2nd pass 90W 107W
As for video playback, there is little difference. For video re-encoding (if you are interested), X4 is much better as it is twice faster (hence consumes much lower total power to finish an encoding task).
- Phenom II X2 555 3.2GHz vs Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz:
Phenom II X2 555 Phenom II X4 955 Idle 63W 62W BD playback (PowerDVD) 69W 70W SD playback (ffdshow+AviSynth) 105W 109W x264 Benchmark 2nd pass 115W 146W
There are lots of myths out there. This is one of them.
Wow interesting stuff here. I guess i should have kept my q6600 over my e3300 then? Nah I'm happy with it.
That's a different case. The Q6600 is one of first quads released and is on a 65nm process. No question, the E3300 has lower power consumption compared to that. However, from what I've seen, there's not much difference on idle power consumption going from Wolfdale to Yorkfield and Clarkdale to Lynnfield. Not sure about Bloomfield, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteboy714 /forum/post/19453159
Wow interesting stuff here. I guess i should have kept my q6600 over my e3300 then? Nah I'm happy with it.
That's a different case. The Q6600 is one of first quads released and is on a 65nm process. No question, the E3300 has lower power consumption compared to that. However, from what I've seen, there's not much difference on idle power consumption going from Wolfdale to Yorkfield and Clarkdale to Lynnfield. Not sure about Bloomfield, though.
Renethx,
What am I losing going with Athlon II over Phenom II?
Losing 6MB of on chip cache (L3) seems like a significant amount of memory/code that can run at chip speed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx /forum/post/19452075
Basically this is wrong. I measured the total power consumption of a system consisting of
- Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz and Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz
- 2 x 2GB RAM
- AMD 785G chipset mb with onboard video
- 1 x HDD
- 80PLUS PSU
The power consumption reported by Kill-A-Watt:
Athlon II X2 240 Athlon II X4 635 Idle 50W 55W BD playback (PowerDVD) 61W 63W SD playback (ffdshow+AviSynth) 84W 86W x264 Benchmark 2nd pass 90W 107W
As for video playback, there is little difference. For video re-encoding (if you are interested), X4 is much better as it is twice faster (hence consumes much lower total power to finish an encoding task).
- Phenom II X2 555 3.2GHz vs Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz:
Phenom II X2 555 Phenom II X4 955 Idle 63W 62W BD playback (PowerDVD) 69W 70W SD playback (ffdshow+AviSynth) 105W 109W x264 Benchmark 2nd pass 115W 146W
There are lots of myths out there. This is one of them.
Renethx,
What am I losing going with Athlon II over Phenom II?
Losing 6MB of on chip cache (L3) seems like a significant amount of memory/code that can run at chip speed.
1 - 20 of 23 Posts
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