Is it worth it to upgrade?

[MaxDepth]

All I want is a low cost, low powered HTPC.


I thought I had it with a 690G solution but found out I cannot play HD without an add-on card. I also learned that ATI/AMD has nowhere the same capabilities in Linux as does Windows.

So I look for a better onboard solution and it appears to be the next round from ATI/AMD. The 780G or the 790GX series seems to show through their own press and several reviews that either chipset can run H.264, MPEG 2, or other HD content without an add-on card. Both chips also implement DX10 and other goodies.

Now here's the thing, DX10 as you know is only for Vista. I don't want Vista. I am imperfectly happy with XP-64. I'd rather have SUSE or Ubuntu, but it ain't going to happen with these new chipsets nor my PCI-e digital TV card.

SO if I don't want to move off XP, I am basically stuck, right? Why bother with new chipsets if they need Vista? It seems if I want to be in Linux, I need to have antiquated equipment. If I want the new mobos, I can only use Vista. Damn.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

780G is a big upgrade from 690G and will play Crysis on the lowest possible settings with a 4850e. 790GX isn't much of an upgrade over the 780G unless you have a phenom and get a board with the SB750 southbridge. The only real diffy between the 780G and 790GX is a 200mhz GPU clock increase, the SB750 and sideport memory ( dedicated video memory ).

 

[Denithor]

Note that not all 790GX boards offer sideport so be careful in selecting the model.

And why not just throw in a 4670 for about $80? One of the better mid-range cards with very low power consumption.

 

[SunnyD]

Keep in mind that it's harder to find a uATX 790GX board than it is a 780G board too. If you're not worried about gaming, and you're not planning on putting a higher end Phenom on it, 780G will give you just about all the performance of a 790GX at about half the price. If you are planning on even light gaming, just get an add-in card like the aforementioned 4670.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Keep in mind that it's harder to find a uATX 790GX board than it is a 780G board too. If you're not worried about gaming, and you're not planning on putting a higher end Phenom on it, 780G will give you just about all the performance of a 790GX at about half the price. If you are planning on even light gaming, just get an add-in card like the aforementioned 4670.

+1

780G is completely adequate for HD content viewing. 790GX only provides an advantage to memory bandwidth which is really only needed for games. If you're gaming on this box at all you'll be better off with a discrete card.

EDIT: But again, if you already have the 690G board, you could always just drop in a low power GPU (4670) which would handle HD work and also light/medium gaming if desired.

 

[Jesusthewererabbit]

OP, if I read you right, you are thinking that you have to run Vista to use the 780G and 790GX motherboards. That isn't the case. Your XP system will be just fine with them, you just can't use DX10. This shouldn't be a problem in a HTPC, and DX10 doesn't really seem to add very much to any games I've tried using it on except a bunch of slowdown.

 

[MaxDepth]

Thanks for all the comments.

Basically, I want this board to be the main board for my home TV/Video/Audio output, essentially an HTPC.

Needs:
* Input video from two external sources: over the air antenna and satelite
* record shows from the above video inputs
* view web-based video like hulu.com, abc.com, etc.
* stereo output to my A/V receiver, preferably through TOSlink
* play DVDs

This can be performed pretty much with what I have in the 690G. However, what I would like to have additionally is:
* Play Blu-ray disks without skipping or tearing
* Upconvert DVD and other video to 1080i
* Full Dolby stereo


So can I do this without purchasing Vista? Can I use the 780G and WinXP-64 and get the last three things? I've tried to do these things with the 690G but I would need an add-in card. While it would be cheaper to just purchase a card, I'm trying to build a very low profile for a case and heat disappation.

As shocking as this sounds, I don't really have the need to play games with this setup.

 

[coolpurplefan]

I have the HD4670 and I find the driver is a tad immature. It's only been a few days since it was out and there's no official driver that supports it, only the one on the driver disk. So, I see some flickering sometimes that I think must be due to that. I don't see the same thing for example with an X1650XT (in the same machine).

As far as gaming is concered, I just tried a demo of Unreal Tournament 3, the retail version of UT2004 and retail version of BF2. And I can tell you the quality of the image of the HD4670 will make you see God. It's almost strange but it's almost as if you're right there. I almost feel like taking screenshots later on (and comparing to my X1650XT) to see if I'm really just imagining it or not.

And the performance with these "old" games is very good in my opinion. I even put the UT3 demo at 1600x1200 with no problem. I even saw framerates above 100fps in UT2004 Assault Convoy (with Athlon X2 5400+ 2.8GHz and 2GB of RAM). And it even plays UT99 with no errors. hd3200 couldn't

 

[MaxDepth]

^^^^^ Say Whut??? ^^^^^


I guess a post accidentally fell into this thread.