HTPC Decision

[goobee]

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.

 

[Skandaluz]

What's wrong with your current setup at the moment just out of curiosity?

 

[goobee]

It pauses while the guide updates and while recording two programs and watching a previously recorded show.

 

[Skandaluz]

In that case, I would go the AMD route out of the two choices listed.

 

[goobee]

Ok, I was thinking with the better G41 chipset, I could get a way with just a mobo upgrade. I guess not. Thanks

 

[alyarb]

sure you aren't disk-limited?

 

[goobee]

Shouldn't be, I copy stuff off onto USB drives when the disk gets full.

 

[alyarb]

not capacity, speed. what kind of drives are you using?

 

[goobee]

Run of the mill Seagates, 7200 rpm, SATA

 

[kalrith]

Is your current cpu overclocked? If not, you could try that.

 

[Stefan Payne]

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.

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]

Yep, I'll do the AMD. Hopefully I can undervolt the CPU to run cooler.

 

[Texun]

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.

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.

 

[goobee]

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?

 

[spdfreak]

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?

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?

 

[coolVariable]

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?

 

[goobee]

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.

 

[jacktesterson]

AMD is definitely the way to go with your choices.

 

[Texun]

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?

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.

 

[coolVariable]

... 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.

 

[Scoobyd00]

Yep, I'll do the AMD. Hopefully I can undervolt the CPU to run cooler.

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

 

[goobee]

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?

 

[alyarb]

i would keep the quad.