:disgust:
I need some advice from everyone. I have been happy with my Media Center PC for almost a year now.
This was the first build:
P4 530 Prescott 1MB L2 cache
Gigabyte GA-8IPE775-G
1GB Corsair Value Select PC3200
128MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro AGP
2x ATI eHome Wonders
Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum (just put that in it sounds much better than the Audigy)
I never had a single problem with it. It was fast, stable, and recorded TV like a charm. I recently decided to give it that yearly overhaul. So after much debate I decided to upgrade it to an Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Basically I figured it would make the Media Center run smoother than the "old" 530. Well, things haven't gone exactly as planned and I'm quite disappointed.
Here's the specs on the new Media Center
Athlon 64 X2 3800+
MSI K8N Neo Platinum 4
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200
256MB ATI Radeon X700 Pro PCIE (TV out is just awesome on the ATI cards)
2x ATI eHome Wonders
Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum
The problem basically is that the X2 doesn't run anywhere near as smooth as the 530 did. For example, it takes longer for windows to boot. When changing channels it's slower. The thing that pisses me off the most is that for some reason, when I'm down by like channel 5(analog channels) the rig is fine. When I get up to the digital range (i.e channel 372) that video gets extremely slow and choppy. The cpu usage on channel 5 is like 6%, channel 188 is around 20% and channel 372 is at like 50 - 60% for both cores. My question is why is this like this? Is it because the X2 is giving up 1GHz in clock speed to the 530? You're probably wondering what drivers and decoder I'm using. When I first made the 530 in October 04 I was using the first eHome wonder release drivers and the 1st NVDVD Decoder that came out around 10/04. Now I'm using the latest eHome wonder drivers as of 9/05 and the latest NVDVD Pure Decoder(damn nVidia gimped it from it's orginal release now u gotta pay $50 for it all...) For the Neo Platty 4 i'm using the 6.66 Forceware although the only ones I've had good stability with was the 6.39 on my other nF4 rigs. I'm pissed because I'm not exactly sure what to do. I love the X2 don't get me wrong, but it's for the Media Center and it's not as stable or as fast as the good ole' 530. I'm about ready to purchase a 630, 945P and DDR667 to replace it. As an AMD supporter, I really don't wanna have to do that. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I need some advice from everyone. I have been happy with my Media Center PC for almost a year now.
This was the first build:
P4 530 Prescott 1MB L2 cache
Gigabyte GA-8IPE775-G
1GB Corsair Value Select PC3200
128MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro AGP
2x ATI eHome Wonders
Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum (just put that in it sounds much better than the Audigy)
I never had a single problem with it. It was fast, stable, and recorded TV like a charm. I recently decided to give it that yearly overhaul. So after much debate I decided to upgrade it to an Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Basically I figured it would make the Media Center run smoother than the "old" 530. Well, things haven't gone exactly as planned and I'm quite disappointed.
Here's the specs on the new Media Center
Athlon 64 X2 3800+
MSI K8N Neo Platinum 4
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200
256MB ATI Radeon X700 Pro PCIE (TV out is just awesome on the ATI cards)
2x ATI eHome Wonders
Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum
The problem basically is that the X2 doesn't run anywhere near as smooth as the 530 did. For example, it takes longer for windows to boot. When changing channels it's slower. The thing that pisses me off the most is that for some reason, when I'm down by like channel 5(analog channels) the rig is fine. When I get up to the digital range (i.e channel 372) that video gets extremely slow and choppy. The cpu usage on channel 5 is like 6%, channel 188 is around 20% and channel 372 is at like 50 - 60% for both cores. My question is why is this like this? Is it because the X2 is giving up 1GHz in clock speed to the 530? You're probably wondering what drivers and decoder I'm using. When I first made the 530 in October 04 I was using the first eHome wonder release drivers and the 1st NVDVD Decoder that came out around 10/04. Now I'm using the latest eHome wonder drivers as of 9/05 and the latest NVDVD Pure Decoder(damn nVidia gimped it from it's orginal release now u gotta pay $50 for it all...) For the Neo Platty 4 i'm using the 6.66 Forceware although the only ones I've had good stability with was the 6.39 on my other nF4 rigs. I'm pissed because I'm not exactly sure what to do. I love the X2 don't get me wrong, but it's for the Media Center and it's not as stable or as fast as the good ole' 530. I'm about ready to purchase a 630, 945P and DDR667 to replace it. As an AMD supporter, I really don't wanna have to do that. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Facebook
Twitter