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HTPC Decision

G

goobee

Platinum Member
Should I upgrade my existing P965 mobo/Intel C2D e6600 with HD3450 GPU to a

MSI G41TM-E43 + my current Intel C2D e6600

or go anew

MSI 785GTM-E45 + AMD Athlon II x4 630

for best performance. I will be running beyond TV with 2 hardware capture cards. Basically a playback box, no streaming or editing.

I'm leaning towards going with the MSI G41-E43 to save money but am open to suggestions. Thanks.
 
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It pauses while the guide updates and while recording two programs and watching a previously recorded show.
 
Ok, I was thinking with the better G41 chipset, I could get a way with just a mobo upgrade. I guess not. Thanks
 
goobee said:
Should I upgrade my existing P965 mobo/Intel C2D e6600 with HD3450 GPU to a

MSI G41TM-E43 + my current Intel C2D e6600

or go anew

MSI 785GTM-E45 + AMD Athlon II x4 630

for best performance. I will be running beyond TV with 2 hardware capture cards. Basically a playback box, no streaming or editing.

I'm leaning towards going with the MSI G41-E43 to save money but am open to suggestions. Thanks.
Click to expand...
You want a HTPC not an office PC, so there is no question, take the AMD; the Intel chipset graphics is crap, forget that, unless you put a decent graphics card in it.
 
goobee said:
Should I upgrade my existing P965 mobo/Intel C2D e6600 with HD3450 GPU to a

MSI G41TM-E43 + my current Intel C2D e6600

or go anew

MSI 785GTM-E45 + AMD Athlon II x4 630

for best performance. I will be running beyond TV with 2 hardware capture cards. Basically a playback box, no streaming or editing.

I'm leaning towards going with the MSI G41-E43 to save money but am open to suggestions. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I see your other post about using Seagates. Would this mean you use one drive for the OS and one for the media?

FWIW- I am running an ASUS 740 board with the 2 HD's, HD3450 card with native HDMI, 4 gigs of DDR2 a PVR-250, analog tuner card, BR Drive, and a 45W X2-5050e processor with zero problems - but I only have one tuner and it's analog. I can watch and record just fine but I'm not sure were it would stand with dual tuners.

Just offering my thoughts.
 
No, I currently only use one drive with two partitions on it. Should I use two, with one only for the OS and the other for the media files?
 
goobee said:
No, I currently only use one drive with two partitions on it. Should I use two, with one only for the OS and the other for the media files?
Click to expand...

Definitely 2 drives if you plan on recording and playing back at the same time. Record to the OS drive and store/playback from the second drive. Are you using win 7?
 
I also think that it's not the mobo/CPU that's the bottleneck.

HDDs, RAM, etc are much likelier culprits.

Definitely go for a multi-disk setup.
Maybe even get a small SSD for the OS? e.g. the Kingston 40GB SSD?
 
Running Windows XP x64. I got all the parts, will swap in the new cpu/mobo and install a couple hds and give it a go. Before I was using DDR2 667, now I will be going DDR2 800. If I can find a good deal, I'll get some DDR2 1066.
 
goobee said:
No, I currently only use one drive with two partitions on it. Should I use two, with one only for the OS and the other for the media files?
Click to expand...

JACKPOT! 🙂 I think you have more than enough CPU. Hardware tuner cards and an HD3450 will do the grunt work as long as you give them room to work. A single HD, regardless of partitions, will bottleneck while handling the OS and media. My preference would be a Western Digital Black for nothing but media - but that's just MY preference. Any 7200RPM drive with a 32 meg cache would be a big improvement over a single drive.

For my modest setup I have a 120g WD Blue notebook drive for Vista and a 1TB WD Green for media only, but remember I only have one old tuner (PVR-250) so I can't really make an apples to apples comparison.
 
... also considering that I am running W7MC on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e 2.6GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor with 4GB (?) RAM and an ATI HD3650 ... and I have no issues recording 2-3 shows and watching a 3rd/4th.

You need separate HDDs. I use an old laptop SATA drive for the OS and a nice 1.5TB drive for media/storage.
 
goobee said:
Yep, I'll do the AMD. Hopefully I can undervolt the CPU to run cooler.
Click to expand...
I dont know what case your running Goob, but with a good cooler heat should not be much of an issue.
I run a AMD 9850 Quad core (125 watt) with a Scythe Mini Ninja. It runs almost silent, cant hear it over the psu (Corsair HX550) and keeps the chip nice n' cool.
I run the quad core with the nvidia 8300 chipset board and absolutely love it for an htpc. No video card needed 🙂
 
OK, all done. Installed the MSI 785GTM-E45 + AMD Athlon II x4 630 combo with 2 x DDR2 800 ram. Using 2 drives, one for the OS + Recording Folder and another drive to playback only form. I just did a test, simultaneously recording an OTA HD program, a standard program from the DirecTV box and watch a previously recorded show. Working smooth a silk. Very cool. Thanks everyone for their tips. I'm using the on-board HDMI connector and the picture is great.

The X4 630 may be overkill, what do you think? Maybe I can get away with just a X2 245?
 
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