Radeon Xpress 200 onboard video enough for my HTPC?

[grimlykindo]

It will be running a 32" widescreen LCD (Sceptre) - and yes, the mobo has DVI out

The specific mobo is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130520

It will most likely get a 3000+ venice and 2x512 sticks of OCZ value ram

Since I'm doing no gaming, there is no serious need for a video card is there? The only problem that I can see is maybe the HDTV at 720p and 1080i. But the CPU should be able to take the load right?

I understand it as: Since there is no real rendering going on, its only passing the signal from the PC to the LCD - there should be very little strain on the GPU?

 

[Ronin]

Should work perfectly fine. I have that board, and it works like a dream with a 4800+ X2 in it.

 

[grimlykindo]

Originally posted by: Ronin
Should work perfectly fine. I have that board, and it works like a dream with a 4800+ X2 in it.

Thats awesome! So you really think my CPU (3000+) and my RAM (PC-3200 1GB) will be able to handle the HD content? This LCD can take 1080p, but it just downrates it to the native 1366x768 - PC (720p - HDTV). I watch and record alot of over the air HD content, so I need to be sure that it can handle it.

That 4800+ X2 must rock the house! Thats good to know cuz, that leaves me open to upgrades in the future with this mobo.

 

[Ronin]

For what you're talking about, I think you'll be fine. While I haven't used mine for that purpose, the IGP on the Xpress 200 is a capable card.

 

[grimlykindo]

thanks for the help Ronin! I look forward to getting this HTPC rolling. Right now my main rig (Sig) is a gaming and HTPC box.

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: grimlykindo
It will be running a 32" widescreen LCD (Sceptre) - and yes, the mobo has DVI out

The specific mobo is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130520

It will most likely get a 3000+ venice and 2x512 sticks of OCZ value ram

Since I'm doing no gaming, there is no serious need for a video card is there? The only problem that I can see is maybe the HDTV at 720p and 1080i. But the CPU should be able to take the load right?

I understand it as: Since there is no real rendering going on, its only passing the signal from the PC to the LCD - there should be very little strain on the GPU?

Nice, I will be making my pizza box now with that mobo for streaming and dvd's.

 

[grimlykindo]

Originally posted by: Zstream

Originally posted by: grimlykindo
It will be running a 32" widescreen LCD (Sceptre) - and yes, the mobo has DVI out

The specific mobo is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130520

It will most likely get a 3000+ venice and 2x512 sticks of OCZ value ram

Since I'm doing no gaming, there is no serious need for a video card is there? The only problem that I can see is maybe the HDTV at 720p and 1080i. But the CPU should be able to take the load right?

I understand it as: Since there is no real rendering going on, its only passing the signal from the PC to the LCD - there should be very little strain on the GPU?

Nice, I will be making my pizza box now with that mobo for streaming and dvd's.

I'm not sure what you mean by "pizza box", but it is the perfect mobo for a HTPC. It leaves ALOT of room for future upgrades, like PCIe vcard or an X2 CPU, or 4gb mem. Plus the passive NB is always nice for a quiet system. I want to put a ninja heatsink on there passive and only have a PSU fan and case fans. Hopefully I got enough airflow.

 

[L00PY]

I'm using that exact board, 3000+ Venice, 2x1GB with 256 shared for the IGP in a MCE box. It powers my LCD at native 1920x1200 and displays 1080i and 720p fine in a 3rd party app and WMP 10, but not in the MCE app itself. I haven't tried MMC for MCE. I'm using a HDTV Wonder too.

I suspect there's an issue with the video mixer MCE uses. There's finally a cheap fanless x1600 pro upgrade (<$120), so I'm going to go down that route next week.

 

[rbV5]

My 3000+ AMD64 was pretty borderline with the Xpress200, (using a MSI RS480M2 board however). 1.8GHz is enough "most" of the time, but struggled with highly compressed media like WMV HD and even with some HD transport streams. a bit more CPU or even dedicated memory for the IGP like some of the motherboards would make a difference.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

The Xpress 200 is pretty decent for onboard video from my experience (I have an Xpress 200M on my laptop) but you will probably wanna overclock that 3000+ a little if you want your videos to be smooth. Even with my 3000+ Venice @ 2.7 GHz, it's barely fast enough to run 1080p WMV/QT HD clips (averages 60-90% CPU load depending on compression) without stuttering or other performance issues . . .

 

[L00PY]

Let me also say that I am definately not CPU limited for OTA HD broadcasts. In fact, one problem I was having was that CPU usage was so low the processor was dropping down into Cool 'N Quiet mode which resulted in stuttering.

 

[grimlykindo]

Originally posted by: L00PY
I'm using that exact board, 3000+ Venice, 2x1GB with 256 shared for the IGP in a MCE box. It powers my LCD at native 1920x1200 and displays 1080i and 720p fine in a 3rd party app and WMP 10, but not in the MCE app itself. I haven't tried MMC for MCE. I'm using a HDTV Wonder too.

I suspect there's an issue with the video mixer MCE uses. There's finally a cheap fanless x1600 pro upgrade (<$120), so I'm going to go down that route next week.

Whoa, thats almost the exact setup! I'm glad to hear that it works great!

I have a 3200+ in my main rig that I might put in instead of finding a cheap 3000+ But then I need to replace the 3200+ with something - It would give me an excuse to go dual core!


Thanks for all the replies guys!

 

[route66]

Jetway makes a micro ATX mobo with an Xpress-200, but it has onboard memory (the MSI uses hypermemory) and the Jetway has more OC options. Just my thoughts.

 

[grimlykindo]

Originally posted by: route66
Jetway makes a micro ATX mobo with an Xpress-200, but it has onboard memory (the MSI uses hypermemory) and the Jetway has more OC options. Just my thoughts.

None of Jetways have DVI - which I need for the LCD

The no-OC option on the MSI sucks, but I really don't care since its gonne be in a HTPC case I won't want to overclock at all. (if anything I would under-volt/clock)

Thanks anyway for the suggestion, the supply of good integrated video mobos are very rare (at least with DVI)