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E2160 Core2 Duo Barebones for 137.92 shipped

T

thelamer

Member
I figured I would order from these guys and give the hardware a rundown before posting this. I just built a couple XBMC HTPCs for me and friends.

http://www.portatech.com/25351...nes_with_Intel_CPU.htm

I personally upgraded to the Asus P5N-EM HDMI, but in retrospect I think I would have been better off just buying a PCI-E video card for a little more than 30 bucks. The Nvidia 7000 chipsets are nice, but the option for gaming might be worth it for some people.

I threw this ram in here ;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146526

You got a full HTPC minus hard drive for 150 bucks.

This thing overclocked handles 1080p x264s no probelm.

Overclocking with the stock cooler I got to 3.0 ghz stable completely effortlessly(first try) and it runs cool. FSB 1336 memory timings 5-5-5-5-15. The E2160 is the same as the E4300 but has 1mb less cache, so it is very easy to clock. (same settings on 4 identical machines and no deltas)

If you are using a 360 or other method to stream HD to your TV, this is a much better solution and is only 150 bucks if you have a Hard drive laying around. No more transcoding and the XBMC library option is just beautiful.

The HTPC setup is effortless, just install Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04, envy for the Nvidia drivers, and add the XBMC PPAs to your repository lists. Sudo-apt-get install xbmc and you are ready to go.

Obviously this is still a useful computer at 150 bucks outside the realm of HTPC, but I figured I would share a useful Idea for people.

Also, anyone who has built a few rigs in their day knows the heartache of receiving DOA hardware for a build. These machines are built and burned in before shipping out.
 
nice deal

never heard of this online shop though

anyone else?

$212 after you upgrade the power supply
 
if not overclocked will it still do 1080p? also how are they controlling xbmc, wireless keyboard or what, just curious..
 
1.8GHZ for 1080p is pushing it. When you get into high bitrates it will and did get choppy on my machine without an overclock. I know overclocking is not a sure thing, but I am 4 for 4 on these things at 3.0 ghz. To control XBMC I just use the laptop in my living room and synergy. I had to set two of them up for 360 wireless controllers with the usb adapter. YOu can always use a wireless keyboard mouse too.

Granted, I haven't put these power supply's to any rigorous testing, but the 12v and 5v rails give off good power. As long as you are not running a video card and more than 3 hard drives you should be safe with the 450w.
 
hmm interesting deal.

Only if you can o/c with that biostar motherboard.

does it have fsb control in bios? are you hitting 3ghz with that "included in price mobo"? or are you using asus.

With frys not too far away, they have $99 c2d based cpu combos here and there, so essentially this deal hangs on the o/c ability of the mobo. you can buy cheap o case and psu for $37.

ah here, at frys b&m there is a $109 combo for c2d e7300 + ecs mobo.

http://shopping.dallasnews.com...3&subid=24881768&type=
 
Don't know how you get $137.92 I get $174.54 with e2160 and ASUS p5n... Still a nice deal though.
 
I would think you could up the FSB on that motherboard, but if not the pin trick is very easy on the E2160 (did on my cpu as well).
 
Will 450w be enough, even if I use a PCI-E video card? How good would the card need to be for 1080P (assuming I OC to 3.0GHz?)
 
I just did some testing to answer some concerns here.

I threw an x1300 in the over clocked machine with the base power supply and it worked fine. I did not have time for extensive testing, but I loaded up open arena and played a few rounds.

Also, I tried the most CPU intensive encode I had which was Bee movie at 1080P on the different machines. Even at 1.8 Ghz the movie ran perfectly. So I guess an over clock is not necessary.
 
Everything has arrived (actually about a week ago, just haven't had the chance to put it together until now.)

Everything is well put-together and as promised... one thing that shocked me: there don't seem to be any SATA power connectors on the power supply. I had to grab the ancient IDE crap out of my old system to test it out.

I imagine that all I need to do is order a few of these things: http://www.amazon.com/Cables-G...&qid=1233634341&sr=8-2

Kind of a PITA, but if that ends up being the worst of it, I'll be a pretty happy camper...
 
Thats odd the motherboard box that came with mine had multiple sata power adapters along with any extra screws.

If you are ready to clock it you should get to 3.0ghz no prob.

Go to the performance booster zone in the bios. and set your FSB to 333Mhz and adjust the memory timings to 5 5 5 5 15. I don't remember the memory ratio, but keep it under the spec of your ram.

You shouldn't have to mess with any voltages (I didn't)

Orthos will get it up to about 65C with the stock cooler. If you go over this by a lot bump down to 300 FSB.

I have a q6600 main drop and my friend has a new i7 920 and honestly for everyday use outside of benchmarking these things feel exactly the same from boot time to everyday use. Gaming is just a matter of a graphics card upgrade.



 
Didn't you upgrade to the nicer motherboard though? Maybe that's the reason.

Anyway, when I go into BIOS, the current FSB speed is listed at 800 MHz. I imagine that if I dropped that down to 333 MHz, I'd have to increase the multiplier? I don't see a setting for that.
 
800mhz is the memory.

The chip is set to a 9x multiplier by default. Make sure you go into the power booster section of the bios it is on the right hand pane. If you have not overclocked a computer before I would recommend doing a little reading.

I did upgrade on 4 of the machines I bought, but I also bought 2 of the GF7050V-M7 for non HTPCs.
 
All the fsb settings that I see say 800 MHz. I'll probably just have to read up on overclocking a bit more, I haven't done it before, but definitely intend to on this one.
BTW, I don't see a power booster section. Maybe I need to update the BIOS? Here's my BIOS screen on the "Performance" page:

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9230/img1440nj0.jpg

It seems like if I just change the "CPU BSEL Select" setting from "Auto" to "FSB 1333", that should work. Am I thinking about this right?

Also, I actually got Ubuntu installed. Took a bit of a hack job with another system donating power for the hard drive while I wait for the SATA power adapters. (I actually went to Best Buy and Radio shack and neither store carried the adapter.)

This is what it lookes like:

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/3368/img1435vt0.jpg
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/6005/img1433ig3.jpg

Yikes.

Thanks for all the help, btw.
 
Originally posted by: James Bond
Will 450w be enough, even if I use a PCI-E video card? How good would the card need to be for 1080P (assuming I OC to 3.0GHz?)
Click to expand...

I have an E5200, 4Gb DDR2, 7200rpm HD and a DVDRW running on a 240w PS right now...
 
Originally posted by: JLee
Originally posted by: James Bond
Will 450w be enough, even if I use a PCI-E video card? How good would the card need to be for 1080P (assuming I OC to 3.0GHz?)
Click to expand...

I have an E5200, 4Gb DDR2, 7200rpm HD and a DVDRW running on a 240w PS right now...
Click to expand...
I have pretty much the same setup
e2160 @ 3.0, 4gb, one 7200 hd, one dvdrw and a ati 3450 pcie on a 240w psu
 
With the release of the nvidia vdpau drivers, you can grab a cheap $30 geforce and play 1080p content with <10% cpu utilization. There is some work being done to get it all working in XBMC, currently it's working in some form...and the developer of the solution thinks it's just a matter of time to get it fully working. Just thought I'd throw it out there...you can get a really cheap cpu, mobo, and video card and do the same thing you used to have to have a high powered CPU to do.
 
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