Soliciting opinions: AMD 5050e 45w 2.6GHz dual core or 9150e 65w 1.8GHz quad core for my HTPC?

[Karaktu]

As the title says...

1) If I am running Vista Ultimate 32-bit w/ TV Pack 2008, 4GB, 4 analog and 2 digital tuners, which CPU do you think I should use?

2) XP Pro SP3 w/ Sage TV, 4GB, 4 analog and 2 digital tuners, which CPU do you think I should use?

Why the choice, do you ask? I have the 5050e running right now (just fine) with the 6 tuners, but I have to do a rebuild anyway. I have the 9150e here, and 1066 DDR2 is supported when running with a Phenom (I have a set of Crucial 2 x 2GB DDR2-1066, 1.8v).

I currently have 3 Media Extenders in the house (I am looking to switch over to SageTV).

The energy consumption is important because my HTPC is on 24/7. I run everything stock to minimize possible crashes and reduce heat.

In either case, I'll be using an ECS 780G motherboard and 3 x Hauppauge HVR-2250 PCI-E cards.

Thanks for the input!

Joe

Edit: Please do not stray into other hardware recommendations.

Edit #2: Have an LG HD-DVD / Blu-Ray player; haven't had any visible issues playing either media on a 40" Toshiba 1080p HDTV with the 5050e (but it's installed on a Biostar Nvidia 8200 board at the moment )...using PowerDVD 7.3.4617a -- last Blu-Ray watched was Babylon AD (skip it if you haven't seen it!).

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

For the more advanced Blu-Ray playback features utilizing the 780g IGP, I believe an AM2+ CPU is required. So, I'd say the 9150e.

EDIT: Of course, that's assuming you care about Blu-Ray at this point.

 

[razor2025]

I'd go with 9150e, since you have 6 tuners, I'd assume you're recording more than 2 streams at once....

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: razor2025
I'd go with 9150e, since you have 6 tuners, I'd assume you're recording more than 2 streams at once....

Ditto. Multiple tuners, multiple CPUs.

 

[edplayer]

Originally posted by: razor2025
I'd go with 9150e, since you have 6 tuners, I'd assume you're recording more than 2 streams at once....

Originally posted by: Karaktu
I have the 5050e running right now (just fine) with the 6 tuners, ...

I'm not sure what you are trying to do here. You say everything is fine and you want to minimize power use so why are you considering the 9150e?

 

[Karaktu]

Originally posted by: edplayer

Originally posted by: razor2025
I'd go with 9150e, since you have 6 tuners, I'd assume you're recording more than 2 streams at once....

Originally posted by: Karaktu
I have the 5050e running right now (just fine) with the 6 tuners, ...

I'm not sure what you are trying to do here. You say everything is fine and you want to minimize power use so why are you considering the 9150e?

Because I have it and...was just wondering what anyone else might think.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: Karaktu

Originally posted by: edplayer

Originally posted by: razor2025
I'd go with 9150e, since you have 6 tuners, I'd assume you're recording more than 2 streams at once....

Originally posted by: Karaktu
I have the 5050e running right now (just fine) with the 6 tuners, ...

I'm not sure what you are trying to do here. You say everything is fine and you want to minimize power use so why are you considering the 9150e?

Because I have it and...was just wondering what anyone else might think.

Sometimes when you have something it's hard to resist playing with it.

 

[hans007]

i have had a 9150e. and i had a be-2350 now.

the idle power difference between a 9150e (whcih runs 900mhz idle) and a be-2350 (1000 mhz idle) is around 15 watts. The 5050e actaully idles slightly lower than a be-2350 (at 1000mhz) and i've read its about 7watts.

so basically its a power waste of nothing is going on.

keep in mine a 9150e only runs 1.8ghz, vs the 2.6 ghz of your 5050e. encoding wise I think a brisbane cpu is clock per clocknearly as fast as a phenom 1. so keep in mind that the 2 cores of a5050e at max, can probably encode as fast as 3 of the cores on the 9150e.

anyhow, i would just stick with the 5050e. another interesting option would be to put a phenom 2 710 in there. They are rated at 95watts, but from what i've seen in reviews they probably use less power than a 9150e

 

[Karaktu]

Originally posted by: hans007
i have had a 9150e. and i had a be-2350 now.

the idle power difference between a 9150e (whcih runs 900mhz idle) and a be-2350 (1000 mhz idle) is around 15 watts. The 5050e actaully idles slightly lower than a be-2350 (at 1000mhz) and i've read its about 7watts.

so basically its a power waste of nothing is going on.

keep in mine a 9150e only runs 1.8ghz, vs the 2.6 ghz of your 5050e. encoding wise I think a brisbane cpu is clock per clocknearly as fast as a phenom 1. so keep in mind that the 2 cores of a5050e at max, can probably encode as fast as 3 of the cores on the 9150e.

anyhow, i would just stick with the 5050e. another interesting option would be to put a phenom 2 710 in there. They are rated at 95watts, but from what i've seen in reviews they probably use less power than a 9150e

I'll have to read up on the 710, but that would seem to be ideal if it does, in fact, use less wattage.

Otherwise, your thoughts more or less mirror mine. Most of the TV encoding is handled by the TV tuners anyway, which is why there isn't any problem running 6 tuners with a dual core CPU (in fact, I had a BE-2400 in there for awhile until I got a 5050e).

My main motivation is to get native DDR2-1066 support since it does definitely boost the onboard graphics speed a bit.

 

[hans007]

well i cant find one that has a direct comparison. I know from experience (with my own cpus and a kill a watt) that at idle a 9150e and a 9550 use more or less the same amount of power. the 9150e was a little better becuase it has a slower hypertransport of 1600mhz. like 2 watts if that.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...owdoc.aspx?i=3512&p=10

that shows the 9950 using much more at idle than the new phenoms. 9950 at idle runs at 900mhz just like all phenom 9000 chips. I believe the new phenom iis have more fine clock gating so they can go down to 800mhz idle ... and they are 45nm. So I would assume at idle a phenom 810 / 710 etc woudl use very low power . might not be less than a 5050e, but it would be less than a 9150e probably.