Low-Budget HTPC GPU

[Eluros]

Greetings,

I have a PC with an e8400, 1GB of RAM, and a fairly poor PSU. I have installed Windows 7 on it, and am looking to turn it into our home's HTPC. All it will need to do is play Blu-Rays and locally stored media on our 50" Panasonic Viera G25. It does not need to be able to game, show 3-D, or cook blueberry crepes. I need all video/audio to be transferred through HDMI; I do not want to deal with a DVI/HDMI cable, as my understanding is that I would need to handle audio separately, and the PC does not have a sound card (and I prefer to have as few cables as possible).

I have an NVidia bias, and would prefer to use one of their cards if everything else is equal. However, I would be willing to try an AMD/ATI card, if it would give substantially better bang-for-buck.

I am considering a GT 430, which I could get for like $69.99 with a rebate. I could get a GT 240 for like $59.99 (with rebate), but it sounds like I would be getting a much better card for only $10 more. I've heard good things about AMD's 5450s (I could get one from XFX with a double lifetime warranty for about $52), but I also read that there are some issues with audio over HDMI with them.

What are your thoughts? I really appreciate your feedback. I don't have a set budget, but my wife said it needs to be "inexpensive", and I want to honor that. Thanks!

 

[RaistlinZ]

I think the 430 was a dog, from reviews posted a few weeks back.

 

[Zap]

The option I would choose is not available in the poll. That option is "the cheapest." Since all of these cards will do what you want them to do, then "cheapest" should be it. Er, unless you want passively cooled, then you may be more limited in choice. It matters to some who leave their HTPC on all the time. Mine is on only when I need it, otherwise is in S3 sleep mode. When on, it makes noise, but I also have videos playing so I don't hear the computer.

Come to think of it, one of the Newegg Shellshockers today is a Radeon HD 4650 for $20 after rebate (11/16 10am-1pm PST only) with free shipping. It has DVI/HDMI/VGA plus comes with the low profile brackets for those slim HTPCs. It is a crippled version with DDR2 and only 64-bit memory interface, but since you won't be gaming... It is this card but remember it will be that price only on 11/16 10am-1pm PST.

 

[Eluros]

Zap, thanks for the response!

I'm amenable to appeals to the cheapest card-- my concern is video quality. I'm having a hard time determining how significantly quality will be affected by cheaper cards. For example, here's the Anandtech review of the 5450:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2931/4

It talks about deinterlacing and Smooth Video Playback. It seems to spit out a bunch of technical terms, and I'm unclear as to whether I would see substantially better video quality if I spent an extra $50 bucks. Can you (or anyone else) comment on that? If the sort of technical benchmarks these reviews discuss would be visible/tangible to most consumers with 1080p TVs?

Seriously, to anyone who responds, thanks for your help. The PC is a Mid-Tower, and cooling/noise are not issues.

~~~

EDIT: Well, I saw the deal on Newegg, and I jumped on it. It looks like it should fit my needs. I'm still interested to learn about my question earlier in this post, and could still send the card back, but for now it looks like I'm sticking with a 4650 for $20.

 

[fffblackmage]

The 4650 for $20 sounds like an excellent choice. I haven't had an nVidia card for HTPC before, but I doubt there's a significant difference in video quality between all those video cards.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I have a 5450 that I bought for $35 (I think) that has done a nice job.

 

[Zap]

Eluros, I also bought that $20 card earlier today. Gonna use it in my secondary HTPC for sure.

Regarding image quality, I know that the terms have been bandied about for years and I know that there are often screenshots of proof, but for the life of me I usually cannot tell a difference during the actual video or game. Sure, compare two static screenshots with each other and we start to see differences, but make it a moving image and usually you are concentrating more on the actual action and story. Unless there's some huge discrepancy, who's to know?

 

[ModestGamer]

even a cheap 10 dollar video card will be fine for video playback of blueray.

Zap, thanks for the response!

I'm amenable to appeals to the cheapest card-- my concern is video quality. I'm having a hard time determining how significantly quality will be affected by cheaper cards. For example, here's the Anandtech review of the 5450:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2931/4

It talks about deinterlacing and Smooth Video Playback. It seems to spit out a bunch of technical terms, and I'm unclear as to whether I would see substantially better video quality if I spent an extra $50 bucks. Can you (or anyone else) comment on that? If the sort of technical benchmarks these reviews discuss would be visible/tangible to most consumers with 1080p TVs?

Seriously, to anyone who responds, thanks for your help. The PC is a Mid-Tower, and cooling/noise are not issues.

~~~

EDIT: Well, I saw the deal on Newegg, and I jumped on it. It looks like it should fit my needs. I'm still interested to learn about my question earlier in this post, and could still send the card back, but for now it looks like I'm sticking with a 4650 for $20.

 

[tweakboy]

honestly get a 9800 GT for 80 dollars or say 60 to 80 dollars after rebate possibly or not.

Dont get a shady card, you want video to be nice and full and rich and smooth. Get a nice 9800 GT or a 8800 GT .. gl