Thoughts on g620 vs amd "A" series apu

[ajs_fla]

Getting ready to build a small pc to use with my tv. Planning on using WMC7 play video from Ceton InfiniTV4 card, also will have a Blu Ray player or maybe a BluRay burner in it as well. May have some lite gaming when the kids are over (older games nothing very taxing on the system).

Questions are:

Any difference between ability of say a a6-3500 (3 core) or a4-3500 versus Intel g620?

Can all of these do well on the Blu ray and handle the Ceton card recording/playing tv streaming HD tv video into? Recommendations please

Plan on using a mini tower micro atx case or possible mitx case. Would probably opt for the mini micro atx case just for better cooling, from what i have read the Ceton card runs hot.

Case suggestion also not looking for a true htpc case but a decent smaller case for this.
Thanks for your help

 

[gmaster456]

Llano=better GPU, more cores,price
g620=everything else, temps, power consumption etc.

 

[Zap]

The Intel graphics can't quite get the 23.976FPS needed for movies. Supposedly the problem is mostly fixed, but you will have a "hitch" in the video every few minutes (was every 40 seconds before the fix). Most people probably won't notice, but it bothers the hell out of some.

Other than that, the Intel setup will use a lot less power and create less heat, thus leading to requiring less cooling and thus producing less noise.

The AMD will have better integrated graphics, though most people think of the higher end A8, which has better graphics than the A6/A4. What resolution is the TV? What "lite gaming" titles? One possible solution would be the Intel CPU + a lower end graphics card. No hitching video problems, still power-draw competitive with the AMD CPUs and with better CPU/GPU performance. That is, unless you really don't want to use a discrete card (may depend on your choice of case). In which case, how about considering the higher end AMD A8 CPU? It has better integrated graphics than the A6/A4. Basically when you read a review on these new AMD CPUs and how they can play games, they are talking about the A8.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Basically the A6-3500 is slower in CPU power in single-threaded and about the same in multi-threaded as the Celeron G530, while the A4-3500 is slower in both. It also consumes more power at full load. It does have a GPU that's two times faster, but in exercise for an HTPC it's only good for normal 1080p encoding with no image enhancements, just like the HD graphics.

I recommend you skip the Pentium G620 and go for the Celeron G530 as it's more than $20 cheaper and only 8% slower overall. As for the graphics, it depends. Both the Intel HD Graphics and the Radeon HD 6550D are enough for 1080p decoding, including Blu-Ray. They are not enough for image enhancements like noise and artifact reduction, image scaling, and adaptive processing. If you want those, you need a Radeon HD 6570 to get the full experience.

 

[ajs_fla]

Thanks for the info. Lite games (i hate to even say what they are are most people will just laugh like elf bowling hoyle board games angry birds etc maybe try Dirt3 or some racing game that would be a big step lol). I was really looking at the A4 and A6-3500 because they are 65 watt cpu. The a4 is dual core with only 160 radeon core BUT runs at 600mhz (graphics) and has turbo boost on cpu ( though it is a small increase). The a6-3500 is 65 w also but has 320 cores only running at 447mhz ( graphics) and cpu has turbo also. So more core at lower gpu speed and has triple core instead of dual.

I think my biggest concern is handling the Ceton tuner card AND good video to the TV (sorry the tv is 1080 led lcd 40 inch). I could live with the glitch the intel has with the stutter but I have always liked anything from my pc to pop up quick if it is a spread sheet or a web site. Until now i would have never accepted intel igp and most of teh time went with a separate board. Now I feel that the APU graphics are definitely good enough for me and possibly the intel graphics of the g620 is also good enough to pop up quickly. i really don't want a separate card as looking at this computer being on almost 24/7 and the separate card is just more watts running thru the meter. I plan on using a green 1 to 2 TB drive for recording to.
Since I would be recording video some of the time it could have several videoes recording while playing a video stream and possibly streaming a another to a 2nd tv/computer.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Thanks for the info. Lite games (i hate to even say what they are are most people will just laugh like elf bowling hoyle board games angry birds etc maybe try Dirt3 or some racing game that would be a big step lol). I was really looking at the A4 and A6-3500 because they are 65 watt cpu. The a4 is dual core with only 160 radeon core BUT runs at 600mhz (graphics) and has turbo boost on cpu ( though it is a small increase). The a6-3500 is 65 w also but has 320 cores only running at 447mhz ( graphics) and cpu has turbo also. So more core at lower gpu speed and has triple core instead of dual.

I think my biggest concern is handling the Ceton tuner card AND good video to the TV (sorry the tv is 1080 led lcd 40 inch). I could live with the glitch the intel has with the stutter but I have always liked anything from my pc to pop up quick if it is a spread sheet or a web site. Until now i would have never accepted intel igp and most of teh time went with a separate board. Now I feel that the APU graphics are definitely good enough for me and possibly the intel graphics of the g620 is also good enough to pop up quickly. i really don't want a separate card as looking at this computer being on almost 24/7 and the separate card is just more watts running thru the meter. I plan on using a green 1 to 2 TB drive for recording to.
Since I would be recording video some of the time it could have several videoes recording while playing a video stream and possibly streaming a another to a 2nd tv/computer.

The problem with AMD when it comes to CPU performance is that three Llano cores: two non-HT Sandy Bridge cores in multi-threaded, while two Llano cores are simply outclassed. They're also a lot less efficient, so much so that the A6-3650 should consume almost 2x the power that the Celeron G530 does under full load while giving you no additional CPU performance. The Radeon HD 6530D IGP is decent, but remember that you need DDR3-1600 to take full advantage of it. Given that the APU consumes so much power in comparison and costs more upfront (and BTW, TDP figures for low-power versions from BOTH AMD and Intel are BS; in reality you should only see a 10W or so decrease), it makes more sense to get the Celeron G530 and a Radeon HD 6570. It won't consume any more power and will give you much better gaming performance, along with (IIRC) being able to handle multiple video streams better and having full image enhancements. The HD 6570 doesn't require an external PCIe power connector, and barely uses any power even under full load.

Just so you get an idea:

Intel Celeron G530: $57
Radeon HD 6570 DDR3 Low-Profile: $70
Crucial 4GB DDR3 1333MHz: $23
ASRock H61M-VS H61 Motherboard: $55
Total: $205

AMD Fusion A6-3500: $100
A-DATA XPG 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz: $30 OR G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz: $50
AsRock A55M-HVS Motherboard: $59
Total: $190 or $210

The disparity in the RAM is because the G530 doesn't need dual-channel (it doesn't hinder its performance) and 4GB is the standard these days, so you can get 8GB down the road if you like. You'll get overall faster CPU and GPU speeds and comparable power consumption for only for a bit more.

 

[ajs_fla]

Thank You all for the input. The idea of the celeron in place of the g620 does make sense. I was hoping to with out having a separate video card and guess I could try it with the intel and always add a 6570 later if needed.

Appeciate all the advice . Cheers