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Budget CPU for budget HTPC build..

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Really? I imagine the celeron+ one of these cards beats the a4-3400, which is what I would have bought. The 5570 seems to be the best bang for the buck..
 
cebalrai said:
$50 will get you a 5570.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102874

If you can pay $70 you can get an HD 6570, which is almost the same thing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102934


Both are what you'd be getting with a Llano APU.
Click to expand...

Kind of. The discrete 5570 will offer a little better performance than typical llano setups, for several reasons, clock speed, memory sharing, and cpu performance. Also you don't have to invest in super fast DDR3 with a discrete setup.

A6 3600 and 3650 : 320 Radeon Cores, 443Mhz GPU, up to 1866mhz DDR3 (shared with CPU)
A8 3800 and 3850 : 400 Radeon Cores, 600Mhz GPU, up to 1866mhz DDR3 (shared with CPU)
That $50 5570 : 400 Radeon Cores, 650Mhz GPU, 1600Mhz DDR3 (dedicated)

The 5570 has the 5670 GPU, but with lower voltage and clock settings. They can be overclocked at least 100mhz on ram and gpu on stock volts even with the crappy stock heatsink/fan setups they have, though I don't recommend it on the fanless cards.
 
Arkaign said:
Kind of. The discrete 5570 will offer a little better performance than typical llano setups, for several reasons, clock speed, memory sharing, and cpu performance. Also you don't have to invest in super fast DDR3 with a discrete setup.
Click to expand...


With RAM being so cheap I see no reason not to spring for DDR3 1866 no matter what.
 
cebalrai said:
With RAM being so cheap I see no reason not to spring for DDR3 1866 no matter what.
Click to expand...

Eh?

(egg prices as of today)

Cheapest 8GB DDR3 set of 1333 is $37.99
Cheapest 8GB DDR3 set of 1866 is $74.99

Cheapest 4GB DDR3 set of 1333 is $23.49
Cheapest 4GB DDR3 set of 1866 is $46.99

:\

I definitely agree that with systems more on the enthusiast level, go ahead and spend the extra bucks, but for low-end and HTPC it kinda puts a damper on the Llano setups, which are far more sensititive to ram speeds than any other configuration due to the shared GPU bandwidth needed. They really suffer with the lower speed memory.
 
my sempron 130 is rock solid @ 3.4 ghz, using onboard 4250... and is single core.

i've never met a movie i cant play @ 1080p with over 20% cpu utilization.

Probably dirt cheap compared to a e-350 setup, and more powerful im guessing even though single core. mine wouldnt unlock though, i got a lemon that way, most do unlock. (mine wasnt stable at stock)

I am just using the stock cooler from a 1055t and it never runs higher than 35
 
Grab a geforce 8600 or 8800 GT dirt cheap! under 90 dollars for 8800 and 60 to 70 dollar 8600 GT

or equivlant. 9600 GT ... etc... so youll have a decend solid video card. Dont go too cheap on it, it has to have quality htcp so it has to be something in the 8xxx series for geforce and 4650 for ATI.. thx gl
 
tweakboy said:
Grab a geforce 8600 or 8800 GT dirt cheap! under 90 dollars for 8800 and 60 to 70 dollar 8600 GT

or equivlant. 9600 GT ... etc... so youll have a decend solid video card. Dont go too cheap on it, it has to have quality htcp so it has to be something in the 8xxx series for geforce and 4650 for ATI.. thx gl
Click to expand...

Op already getting 5570, which is a great HTPC card. Has the same GPU as 5670, but lower clock speed/heat.
 
Arkaign said:
Eh?

(egg prices as of today)

Cheapest 8GB DDR3 set of 1333 is $37.99
Cheapest 8GB DDR3 set of 1866 is $74.99

Cheapest 4GB DDR3 set of 1333 is $23.49
Cheapest 4GB DDR3 set of 1866 is $46.99

:\

I definitely agree that with systems more on the enthusiast level, go ahead and spend the extra bucks, but for low-end and HTPC it kinda puts a damper on the Llano setups, which are far more sensititive to ram speeds than any other configuration due to the shared GPU bandwidth needed. They really suffer with the lower speed memory.
Click to expand...


Pretty much every benchmark/review I've seen of Llano uses either DDR3 1333 or 1600. So you could say it "suffers" without 1866 but I'll call it a bonus. :awe:
 
adam_the_giant said:
my sempron 130 is rock solid @ 3.4 ghz, using onboard 4250... and is single core.

i've never met a movie i cant play @ 1080p with over 20% cpu utilization.

Probably dirt cheap compared to a e-350 setup, and more powerful im guessing even though single core. mine wouldnt unlock though, i got a lemon that way, most do unlock. (mine wasnt stable at stock)

I am just using the stock cooler from a 1055t and it never runs higher than 35
Click to expand...

Strange. I've successfully unlocked 3/3 Semprons, however one of them wouldn't boot without slightly more voltage. Have you tried that?
 
SirJangly said:
I'm curious guys.... Is there A way to get the integrated graphics from the celeron working with the 5570?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, that's what Z68 mainboards are for. I wouldn't worry though, the 5570 is very low power, and if you have your power mgmt settings fairly aggressive when the box isn't in use, there really won't be any significant difference in terms of power usage and heat vs. onboard passthrough graphics.

The 5570 is vastly superior to the Intel IGP anyway.
 
Hey guys, aside from the GPU, which hasn't come in yet, everything is running. I seem to be running around 50*C idle and 55/57*C at load. Is this normal in small cases? Everything is so cramped inside. I was thinking of modding the case to have a 120mm blowing the hot air hot. Is thiis necessary? Have any other tips? Thanks so much 🙂
 
adam_the_giant said:
my sempron 130 is rock solid @ 3.4 ghz, using onboard 4250... and is single core.

i've never met a movie i cant play @ 1080p with over 20% cpu utilization.

Probably dirt cheap compared to a e-350 setup, and more powerful im guessing even though single core. mine wouldnt unlock though, i got a lemon that way, most do unlock. (mine wasnt stable at stock)

I am just using the stock cooler from a 1055t and it never runs higher than 35
Click to expand...

I built a WHS 2 server for my fathers business based on a sempron 130, and was surprised at its speed (for a $30 processor too!). I wondered how well it would do as a media center, but never had a chance to run any tests on it before I shipped it out. I knew about the core unlocking, but for just file serving I didn't bother. Someday, if he wants to turn it into a workstation I might try to unlock.

System only used 50W idle, which isn't as low as some of these new systems, but cost pennies to build.
 
Semprons are seriously underrated for tasks like this. $26 bucks for all the CPU you'll ever need in a file server or HTPC? 😱
 
cebalrai said:
Semprons are seriously underrated for tasks like this. $26 bucks for all the CPU you'll ever need in a file server or HTPC? 😱
Click to expand...

I support this statement 110%. And having the AM3 socket gives you a great drop-in upgrade path should you decide to repurpose the box for midrange gaming or whatnot. Honestly a PhII + decent GPU is a good gaming experience in most titles so long as you don't expect miracles in the most extreme settings.

Zacate and Atom don't impress me much.
 
Arkaign said:
I support this statement 110%. And having the AM3 socket gives you a great drop-in upgrade path should you decide to repurpose the box for midrange gaming or whatnot. Honestly a PhII + decent GPU is a good gaming experience in most titles so long as you don't expect miracles in the most extreme settings.

Zacate and Atom don't impress me much.
Click to expand...


AM3? Try AM3+. Then you can shift gears from Semprom to Bulldozer if the need arises.
 
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