I'm planning on replacing my current P4/S478/AGP HTPC with a PCI-E setup and the main thing is that it needs to be able to be powered by my Dell 200W brick and EF28 DC-DC board. I'm aiming to spend as little as possible as well.
As well as TV/Video playback, I'd like to be able to use it occasionally as a 2nd gaming PC for some LAN RTS fun. I'm quite impressed with the 780G's IGP, so I'm thinking of pairing the Asus M4A785D-M Pro (£60) with an Athlon X2 7450 (£35). Would this use less power than my current P4 box or would there be higher draws on any of the rails? I know my DVB-T card uses 7-10W on the 3.3v but unless AM2 boards draw more from this rail than S478 boards I shouldn't have any problems.
I'm guessing I'd probably have enough power for a 4670 instead of the IGP but unless there's major advantages in terms of video playback, it's probably overkill and would cost about £50 extra. I know that PCI-E cards take most of their power from the 12v line, but I should be OK as the EF28 can supply 15A/180W on the 12v and I can take 12v direct from the Dell 200W brick to the CPU power.
So, does that motherboard/CPU combo sound like a good choice or are there better options?
Low power (<200W) HTPC
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Thanks, that's helpful to know.
It's seems that my DVB-T card and the S478 motherboard must together draw too much from the 3.3v line as the Pico120 couldn't cope and I imagine your twin tuner uses much the same (7-10W) as mine, so it's most likely that my motherboard draws a lot more from the 3.3v than a 780G.
It's seems that my DVB-T card and the S478 motherboard must together draw too much from the 3.3v line as the Pico120 couldn't cope and I imagine your twin tuner uses much the same (7-10W) as mine, so it's most likely that my motherboard draws a lot more from the 3.3v than a 780G.
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swivelguy2
- Posts: 404
- Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 9:18 pm
- Location: Illinois, USA
If you want to do some casual gaming, I'd spring for the 4670. It won't matter for video playback, except that it does provide 7.1 LPCM whereas the 780G/785G IGP doesn't.
The HD 4670 will provide something like 8x the 3D capability of the IGP. An intermediate option would be the HD 4550, which is somewhat cheaper and lower-power than the 4670 (and also has 7.1 LPCM audio via HDMI).
3dMark06 scores:
HD 3200 (780G): ~1200
HD 4350: ~2800
HD 4550: ~3800
HD 4670: ~9200
The HD 4670 will provide something like 8x the 3D capability of the IGP. An intermediate option would be the HD 4550, which is somewhat cheaper and lower-power than the 4670 (and also has 7.1 LPCM audio via HDMI).
3dMark06 scores:
HD 3200 (780G): ~1200
HD 4350: ~2800
HD 4550: ~3800
HD 4670: ~9200
I've had assembled a system using Seasonic 200SFD, 200W PSU. The +12 line output was 15A.
AMD X2 4200+ 65W TDP
MSI 6150 chipset motherboard
1GBx2 DDR2-800
Powercolor 4670
2xHDDs
1xDVD Rewriter
3 fans
Your choice of components is even more energy efficient compared to the above one, so no need to worry about that. But I'd purchase X2 240/245 instead of X2 7450 anyway.
AMD X2 4200+ 65W TDP
MSI 6150 chipset motherboard
1GBx2 DDR2-800
Powercolor 4670
2xHDDs
1xDVD Rewriter
3 fans
Your choice of components is even more energy efficient compared to the above one, so no need to worry about that. But I'd purchase X2 240/245 instead of X2 7450 anyway.
@psiu Thanks. My system will be much the same (one HD, one opt, 2x2GB) with the only extra being the DVB-T card, so I'm sure it'll be fine.
@swivelguy2 Thanks for the comparison between IGP and the cards. Helps to see how they compare. 4550 looks good at 3x faster than 3200 but it's probably worth the extra cost (haven't checked prices yet but it's probably about £20) to go for the 4670 for an extra 2.5x. 7.1 via HDMI won't make any difference to me at the moment. I'll probably start off with just the IGP and add a card a bit later, just so I can pretend it's not costing me as much
@loilmo Thanks for the info about your system. I'll probably go with 2x2GB but I'll only be using one HD (although I might occasionally have need to plug in a USB bus-powered drive). I see that the X2 240 might be a better option as it runs at 2.8Ghz and is a 45nm/65W part, compared to the X2 7450 which runs at 2.4Ghz and is a 65nm/95W part. The only downside is that the 240 only has a 1MB L2 cache whereas the 7450 has 2x512KB L2 AND 2MB L3. Do you think this will not matter for my intended uses or is outweighed by the advantages of the 240?
@swivelguy2 Thanks for the comparison between IGP and the cards. Helps to see how they compare. 4550 looks good at 3x faster than 3200 but it's probably worth the extra cost (haven't checked prices yet but it's probably about £20) to go for the 4670 for an extra 2.5x. 7.1 via HDMI won't make any difference to me at the moment. I'll probably start off with just the IGP and add a card a bit later, just so I can pretend it's not costing me as much
@loilmo Thanks for the info about your system. I'll probably go with 2x2GB but I'll only be using one HD (although I might occasionally have need to plug in a USB bus-powered drive). I see that the X2 240 might be a better option as it runs at 2.8Ghz and is a 45nm/65W part, compared to the X2 7450 which runs at 2.4Ghz and is a 65nm/95W part. The only downside is that the 240 only has a 1MB L2 cache whereas the 7450 has 2x512KB L2 AND 2MB L3. Do you think this will not matter for my intended uses or is outweighed by the advantages of the 240?
