HTPC 45nm upgrade

phil0079 · Post by **phil0079** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:39 am

Hi all,

This is my first post, thou Iâ€™ve been reading a lot of SPCR over the past couple months! Almost to the point where itâ€™s open at work and at home!

.... Iâ€™m stumped!

I am upgrading my old HTPC to fit new standards - the 45nm CPU! The HTPC is currently a P4 2.4 HT, 2GB DDR, ATI 9800 all-in-wonder, with over 1TB of drives (Seagate 500GB, WD 300GB, WD 300GB + WD 100GB system drive )

Why am i upgrading?? Currently I can not run HD 1080P on my htpc, though after queaking with H.264 codec's I can get it going at 720p. i notice lag at times - dialog before picture.

For my new system, any recommendations would be appreciated !

Sound is an issue. Htpc sits in the living room, so silent is what we want. the old 9800 is as quiet as a Mustang in idle.

Any suggestions for videocard or mainboard would be appreciated? and what do you think of my current selection??

(from Old system)
Case - Antec OVERTURE II (Fits Micro & Standard ATX )
PSU - Antec Special 450W SmartPower 2.0 (SLP450WR came with overture)
HDDs- 1.2TB (Seagate 500GB, WD 300GB, WD 300GB + 100GB system drive)

(upgrade to)
CPU - Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66GHz, 6MB L2, 1333fsb, 45nm
Main board - Asus P5K-C , Intel P35 , ASUS Fanless Design, DDR3 1333 support, ability to adjust CPU frequency and vCore voltage to minimize system noise and power consumption, HD audio and other features are a plus.

Video card - Asus EN8600GTS SILENT/HTDP/256M nVidia GeForce 8600GTS Chipset (675Mhz) 256MB (2Ghz) DDR3 Dual DVI PCI-Express Graphics Card
RAM â€“ 2GB DDR3 1066/PC3-8500 Kingston Value RAM

cheers!

silentpilot · Post by **silentpilot** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:05 am

That's a big motherboard, why not go micro ATX? Do you think you'll need all the slots of a full size board? Since it's an HTPC you may want to be able to go to a smaller case in the future.

Do you really need the add-on video card? I'd go for an integrated one, should play video at 1080p just fine, I think video decoding is more CPU intensive than GPU. Your system will use less power, and run quieter as a result.

phil0079 · Post by **phil0079** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:17 am

silentpilot wrote:That's a big motherboard, why not go micro ATX? Do you think you'll need all the slots of a full size board? Since it's an HTPC you may want to be able to go to a smaller case in the future.

Do you really need the add-on video card? I'd go for an integrated one, should play video at 1080p just fine, I think video decoding is more CPU intensive than GPU. Your system will use less power, and run quieter as a result.

thanks for your reply!

i would go micro atx but i need 6 sata ports and since Asus is the only boards i look at i have to go with standard atx.

also, i want 1333Mhz fsb to go with my 45nm Cpu - Core 2 Duo E8200

cheers

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:52 am

You might consider one of the WD 1TB green power drives

to replace your multitude of drives. Buy a few external enclosures and use those to back everything up.

Get a smaller/cheaper motherboard [itx/matx]. As the previous poster said, I think any of the onboard video [Geforce 6XXX/7XXX] or Intel chipsets could play 1080p content, especially with such a fast processor.

If you're set with what you have now, I think any of the fanless 8600GT's would be plenty to play 1080i/p content, and can be had for around 100$.

phil0079 · Post by **phil0079** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:10 am

WD 1TB green power drives to replace your multitude of drives.

thats a great idea! i didnt know they had green power drives out!

since the processor and the mobo is green - the drive may aswell be too! without the multitude of drives in the Htpc the decibel (dB) is definitely going down! i can surely use those drives as externals or elsewhere.

thanks for the tip

cheers

Fenix · Post by **Fenix** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:30 am

What about the Asus P5E-VM HDMI for a mATX board? It has got 6 SATA ports.

You can read a test of it here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article785-page1.html

phil0079 · Post by **phil0079** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:32 am

the

Asus P5E-VM HDMI

It was either that (Asus P5E-VM) or the Asus P5K-VM. looking at the P5k-VM it doesn't really have much to offer. Though the P5E-VM is an excellent board!

the more i look at Asus mobo's - the more i want to stay Standard ATX - i know, im sucker for features. i like the fact that the board i picked supports Dual-channel DDR2 1066/800/667 MHz or DDR3 1333/1066/800

the 1TB green drive is very tempting - i will have to put this in it sooner or later.

now im wondering what HSF ships with the new 45nm Cpu? what cooling i should use that will fit into my Overture and not sound like i put a small aircraft inside.

Scythe Ninja or OCZ? THERMALTAKE or ZALMAN?

phil0079 · Post by **phil0079** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:06 am

thanks for all your help.

QuaiBoy · Post by **QuaiBoy** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:49 pm

Good advice already, but I can't believe you can't get sufficient performance out of your current rig. I'm using an A64 3500+, 2GB DDR400, and a Geforce 6200 and it's silky-smooth at 720p or 1080p on all media. You might want to try this before you invest:

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/codec ... odec+guide

There are other great guides on that forum as well, even if you don't use MP. Good luck.

-Evan

QuaiBoy · Post by **QuaiBoy** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:51 pm

Also, I got a 9700 running solid for over 2yrs now on a passive HS for my brother. Easy to do as long as you have decent system airflow. I bet the 9800 would be similar.

-Evan

phil0079 · Post by **phil0079** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:02 pm

Thanks Quai! I will test with those settings and let you know.

On the other topic, I ORDERED THE BOARD! ASUS P5E-VM HDMI!!

i'm happy with my choice, after reading all the reviews from the best of the mobo's and the rest... i have decieded for overall efficiency, output, features and quality, And Dollar - the Asus P5e-VM is the wise choice.

I got with it for 32$ OCZ PC-6400 800Mhz DDR2 Ram Platinum XTC Revision 2, 2GB

Rev. 2 has been re-engineered to turn out heart-pounding 4-4-4 timings with flawless performance and stability and offer lower latencies

we'll see after the test results

Now all im waiting for is the release of the 45nm 'wolfdale' E8200 processors. then i can build away. i will post pics and test results VS my older rig after i have done the recommended queaks with my codecs.

cheers and thanks

lm · Post by lm » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:19 am

You don't really need a new system! All you need is a new video card that has HD video decoding acceleration. Then cpu usage drops to ridiculously low numbers.

I couldn't figure out if your system has PCI-E or AGP slots, but even if it's AGP, you should be able to get a APG-based model very soon, that has hd video decoding.

phil0079 · Post by **phil0079** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:16 am

too late.. i already ordered

i started down this path, im gonna continue down this path and upgrade.

this all started when I read about the 45nm processors.. if it wasnt for their release i prob would've waited to upgrade.

cheers