Lowest possible wattage htpc capable of flawless 1080p playback...

[ethebubbeth]

I'm going to vote pico-psu as well. I remember seeing a site where a guy was making plastic atx back plates for Pico psu which really gets rid of the ugly factor. If I can find the link I'll update my post. I put the biggest Pico psu available into my nas recently (totally overkill, my e350 nas idles at 61W from the wall and hits 83W with all 8 drives going full tilt. It was at 43W idke from the wall when I just had 4 drives, so shows you how much of it is the drives).

 

[Dark Shroud]

First off, THANK YOU FOR THIS THREAD!! I don't know if you guys know this, but when you goolge "lowest wattage HTPC", this thread's the first hit!

I really appreciate all you experts giving us lowly users some advice, because it's just too easy to go overkill on wattage when it's not necessary.



Jimmah, your setup sounds fantastic, I looked up the M350 and it looks great. I would like to emulate your setup, so would you mind answering just a couple of questions?

(1) Did you buy fans? If so, how many? Obviously no-one wants fans, but I don't want it to burn out in a month. what are your temps like?

(2) I plan on running XBMCbuntu so I don't have to have another operating system to worry about. I plan on streaming HD video from my NAS (all wired). Do you recommend that OS or something different?

Thanks so much for your time, other peoples' thoughts are welcome too

Ok first off what do you want to use the HTPC for and what parts do you already have?

AMD's APU bare-bones PCs are good deals to be looked at.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856119070

 

[iloveATech]

Ok first off what do you want to use the HTPC for and what parts do you already have?

AMD's APU bare-bones PCs are good deals to be looked at.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856119070

Hi Dark Shroud,

Thank you so much for replying so quickly.

I am in a similar situation as the original poster, so I was hoping to piggy-back on his thread (hope that's ok).

I will stream Hulu, and mostly I would like to watch 1080p files over a wired network via a NAS. And that's it; no games, no optical drive, just movies/tv shows that I've already downloaded

I currently have no parts. I just returned a jailbroken Apple TV 1 because even with the Crystal HD mod, it was unable to playback 1080p files (super choppy). It drew only 48 watts at max, so it was a shame!

I have spent HOURS on newegg looking at all the Foxcon and Jetway devices, and the reviews vary incredibly. Overall they don't have great reviews, and many don't have audio over the HDMI!! Why is that?? I would want audio and video via HDMI lol

What I'm really looking for is some professional advice from you pros: if someone has been using XBMC and a specific Jetway or Foxcon model, and you say it works, I'll get it. Dark Shroud (or anyone else), do you have any experience with any of the models on Newegg?

What about specific motherboards?

EDIT
I don't need a tv tuner or wifi

 

[iloveATech]

some of the reviews on Newegg say the G530 is not capable of smooth 1080p playback, can anyone confirm? They say to go i3 instead, but that's more expensive

 

[Kristijonas]

some of the reviews on Newegg say the G530 is not capable of smooth 1080p playback, can anyone confirm?

In my opinion it's impossible for G530 not to take care of 1080p.
I'm also surprised that nobody in this thread mentioned G440. It's only 35W (compared to G530s 65W) and can be downvolted further.

Another option (since the thread starter wanted the lowest POSSIBLE wattage htpc), something from 2009!:
http://liliputing.com/2009/09/intel-launches-1080p-capable-atom-chips-for-set-top-boxes.html 9W able to run 1080p? Sounds like a winner. Anyway, I'd probably still go with G440 and undervolt it a bit.

Oh and yet another option is to buy a cheap low-power notebook. They are designed from the very core to have lowest possible wattage. Seems like a viable option to me.

 

[philipma1957]

this is easy I built a good setup. a 2500t cpu



http://www.provantage.com/intel-cm8062301001910~7ITEP3FE.htm

good seller . dropped ships from costa rica.


a hd6670 ultimate
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AT-6670ULT

or a hd7750 ultimate


mobos are


https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-B75MD3H




https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-H77MD3H


The second mobo is a much better mobo.


a crucial 256gb ssd

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148526


a 500gb hdd

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145447

samsung ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147094






this pulls 45 watts watching netflix


it pulls 65 watching


a bluray movie but if I want to it can game a bit.


I have 2 builds one has the sapphire hd6670 the other has the hd7750 both use this case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147123

I have an asus blu ray in one and a samsung bluray in the other. really quiet if you swap the fans out. oh here is the cpu cooler



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835226049

the cpu runs cool. this is not the lowest power setup but for power quality and speed it is very good.

 

[iloveATech]

In my opinion it's impossible for G530 not to take care of 1080p.
I'm also surprised that nobody in this thread mentioned G440. It's only 35W (compared to G530s 65W) and can be downvolted further.

It looks like from the research I've been doing that the i3 with the same clock speed will pull LESS watts than the G530, but keep in mind it's $130 vs $50.

If the G530 has questionable 1080 playback, I am concerned about going any lower on the same line (ie the G440T)

Can anyone say for sure the G530 that it plays hulu and 1080k fluidly? If so, I"ll buy it for sure

Another option (since the thread starter wanted the lowest POSSIBLE wattage htpc), something from 2009!:
http://liliputing.com/2009/09/intel-launches-1080p-capable-atom-chips-for-set-top-boxes.html 9W able to run 1080p? Sounds like a winner. Anyway, I'd probably still go with G440 and undervolt it a bit.

You know, I've spent a lot of time looking for the ol' Acer AR1600 that was advertised in a 2009 edition of Lifehacker. It said it was a great HTPC for only $200 at the time, and I thought, great, I'll pick it up for $80 now!

But guess what? Amazon.com sells it for $220 after shipping! And on ebay I can maybe get it for $180 after shipping. The pricing for HTPCs does NOT seem to follow the usual laws on buying technology; ie if I tried to buy any other computer from 2009 the price would be half what it is now.

Anyway, I am also not able to get any consistent feedback on any of the Foxcon or Jetway nettops that are on the Newegg website that use the Intel Atom chips you speak of. Also, nowadays the mkv files can top 14 gb and that's a lot bigger than back in 2009. I'm afraid all these nettops from that era (lol that era! listen to me) won't be able to handle either the video or simply moving that much data without a hiccup. If anyone has any first hand experience, please do share

 

[mfenn]

An Atom will not do high bitrate 1080P without competent GPU acceleration. Nvidia has shut down its chipset business, so the Atom+ION boards are drying up. Luckily, we now have cheap Sandy Bridge chips and mobos, so Atom can be relegated to the trash heap of history.

My recommendation is a G530 based system similar to the one that I posted earlier, except with the Biostar H61MGC. A G530 will have no trouble playing even Blu-Ray quality 1080P streams.

 

[PingSpike]

IIRC there isn't really a reason to go with the G440. While on paper is sounds like it will use a lot less power, I think x-bit labs had a piece on it where it showed it really didn't in practice. Coupled with barely any financial savings, much lower clock speed and only a single core single threaded processor and it is essentially a pointless product unless you need the absolute lowest priced s1155 chip available.

Here is the x-bit labs:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/celeron-g540-g440_7.html#sect0
I think there is a quirk in the design that prevents the use of some power saving features which result in a higher idle power usage. But it does use less power at full load...of course it had better. It only has 2/3 the clock speed and half the cores.

 

[Geofram]

I currently use a G530 on my HTPC. It plays HD content from Netflix, Blu-Rays, and x264 encoded movies/TV without any dropped frames or slowdown. I haven't tried Hulu+, but I have no doubt it would handle it as well.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I currently use a G530 on my HTPC. It plays HD content from Netflix, Blu-Rays, and x264 encoded movies/TV without any dropped frames or slowdown. I haven't tried Hulu+, but I have no doubt it would handle it as well.

Thanks. Good to know.

Still in the process of selling my old gear and finding a suitable motherboard with full pci slots.

 

[Binky]

pci

Sell it or use it elsewhere, and use an HDhomerun instead (ethernet).

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I run a g620 on my whs2011 box that doubles as a Plex MS for streaming HD content throughout the house. The g620 is totally capable for streaming HD without doing any on-the-fly transcoding to my devices (Laptop, 2 desktops and a ps3 in the main living room). Where the g620 struggles is having to transcode on the fly, ie for my particular use, to my android device over the internet away from home. On my LAN with the android device it does a pretty good job, only a few stutters with 1080p content. Over 4g say at work or something, it stutters pretty badly. Just food for thought I guess. I bought an i5 2400 for $100 from a friend that I'm going to throw into my whs2011 and replace the g620.

 

[mfenn]

I run a g620 on my whs2011 box that doubles as a Plex MS for streaming HD content throughout the house. The g620 is totally capable for streaming HD without doing any on-the-fly transcoding to my devices (Laptop, 2 desktops and a ps3 in the main living room). Where the g620 struggles is having to transcode on the fly, ie for my particular use, to my android device over the internet away from home. On my LAN with the android device it does a pretty good job, only a few stutters with 1080p content. Over 4g say at work or something, it stutters pretty badly. Just food for thought I guess. I bought an i5 2400 for $100 from a friend that I'm going to throw into my whs2011 and replace the g620.

You sure that's the CPU being maxed out and not just limited upload bandwidth?

 

[thestrangebrew1]

You sure that's the CPU being maxed out and not just limited upload bandwidth?

Initially I thought it was a bandwidth issue but I did a few things to check how the CPU handled streaming. I posted a thread on this at least a month ago here but the gist of it wad that in task mgr, streaming tp my ps3 CPU utilization wad around 5-10% on the LAN. Same thing when I streamed to my android phone. When I turned on 4g and started streaming CPU utilization went to 100% as soon as the file opened.

I should check it again though because I know I was playing with several media servers at the time trying to find one I liked. I know currently plex is stuttering, but its much better with the latest update.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

You sure that's the CPU being maxed out and not just limited upload bandwidth?

Initially I thought it was a bandwidth issue but I did a few things to check how the CPU handled streaming. I posted a thread on this at least a month ago here but the gist of it wad that in task mgr, streaming tp my ps3 CPU utilization wad around 5-10% on the LAN. Same thing when I streamed to my android phone. When I turned on 4g and started streaming CPU utilization went to 100% as soon as the file opened.

I should check it again though because I know I was playing with several media servers at the time trying to find one I liked. I know currently plex is stuttering, but its much better with the latest update.

Edit sry on my phone posting lol

 

[mfenn]

Initially I thought it was a bandwidth issue but I did a few things to check how the CPU handled streaming. I posted a thread on this at least a month ago here but the gist of it wad that in task mgr, streaming tp my ps3 CPU utilization wad around 5-10% on the LAN. Same thing when I streamed to my android phone. When I turned on 4g and started streaming CPU utilization went to 100% as soon as the file opened.

I should check it again though because I know I was playing with several media servers at the time trying to find one I liked. I know currently plex is stuttering, but its much better with the latest update.

That's really strange. I'm trying to figure out why the media server would care whether or not the data stream is local to the LAN or going out to the Internet (i.e. streaming to 4G) when the device has the same capabilities in either case. Sounds like a strange software bug to me.

EDIT: Well, one possibility is that the streaming server is trying to be clever and detect whether or not you are streaming locally or over the Internet. If that's the case, it might be trying to do a more intensive transcode to really reduce the bitrate of the stream.

 

[ElFenix]

In my opinion it's impossible for G530 not to take care of 1080p.
I'm also surprised that nobody in this thread mentioned G440. It's only 35W (compared to G530s 65W) and can be downvolted further.

there's no reason to mention the G440.

1st, TDPs are design guidelines for processors under a near 100% load. video playback isn't a 100% load (which is higher in absolute terms for faster processors - they're doing more at 100% than slower processors are). it's the same absolute load, and for sandy processors the same absolute load pretty much results in the same power consumption.

2nd, obviously TDP doesn't mean that any particular processor in the same TDP bin consumes as much power at 100% load as another processor in the same bin. a 2300 and a 2700k are both 95 watt binned but there's no way a 2300 uses the same power at load as a 2700k.

3rd, and most important for this thread, the G440 lacks EIST. that means it doesn't automatically reduce voltage when idling. so it actually uses more power at idle at than even a 2100.

so, same power consumption at load and lower power consumption at idle, with a much more capable processor overall that costs less than a happy meal more?

 

[wirednuts]

you know, this rumor that Netflix doesnt use gpu acceleration is just absurd.

netflix started with flash. it used gpu acceleration.

then netflixed switch to silverlight because it was cpu only, which would save them headaches from people not having proper gpu's or drivers.

then microsoft implemented gpu acceleration for silverlight because they realized not everyone had fast cpu's, and the industry was more worried about saving power then gaining speed.

now netflix has gpu acceleration again. i know, its a weird cycle they went on, but the fact is as of current and has been for awhile now, netflix uses gpu acceleration. you can use e350's and such to watch netflix in hd. period!

 

[assassin24]

Try these websites also:

Assassins HTPC custom HTPC'S and BLOGS
http://www.assassinhtpc.com/
This site has a good blog

How about some pictures showing a watt meter?
http://assassinhtpcblog.com/?page_id=2

Agreed. 😉

 

[VirtualLarry]

now netflix has gpu acceleration again. i know, its a weird cycle they went on, but the fact is as of current and has been for awhile now, netflix uses gpu acceleration. you can use e350's and such to watch netflix in hd. period!

You can now use an E-350, to watch Netflix HD in 1080P?

I think that if this happened, we would have seen more threads about it than a single post in this thread. THIS IS BIG NEWS... IF it's true.

Do you have any proof of this?

 

[wirednuts]

well i cant find a way to tell what resolution its running in, and what quality mode (silverlight doesnt tell you squat as far as i can tell), but whatever it is, it is very good.

any suggestions? youtube flash at 1080p is no problem, i dont see why silverlight should be any different. i see it wasnt supported when the chips first came out...

 

[Eug]

Hmmm... Re: Blu-ray...

I just use a dual-core Atom SFF machine with ION, and it plays Blu-ray just fine. (No 3D, but I hate 3D anyway.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmgxSxb6prM

I haven't tried HD Netflix though.

P.S. I have played moderately high bitrate MKV H.264 1080p files fine on a single-core ARM CPU on Android, with no stuttering. Well, actually on its GPU...

 

[mfenn]

You can now use an E-350, to watch Netflix HD in 1080P?

I think that if this happened, we would have seen more threads about it than a single post in this thread. THIS IS BIG NEWS... IF it's true.

Do you have any proof of this?

I don't have any proof, but the rumor is that MS/Netflix enabled GPU acceleration a few months ago. I've seen it pop up in a couple threads and an AT article mentioned it recently.

 

[Eug]

I just tried Netflix.ca HD on my dual-core Atom ION machine. Despite the fact that 1080p Blu-ray playback works perfectly, Netflix HD does not. I have the latest version of Silverlight, but Netflix HD remains jittery as hell. Works perfectly with SD.

Interestingly, CPU usage is only about 50% during this time (according to that CPU usage gadget that comes with Windows 7), but nonetheless the video stutters badly. It seems the browser app is allowing the HD playback on the GPU, but it just ain't working well. Either that or it's maxing out a single CPU core and not touching the other CPU core at all.