CPU for HTPC

[othertomperson]

HI

 

What would you say the upper limit of CPUs with integrated graphics (from either Intel or AMD, I don't care which) is before it becomes overkill for an HTPC that will never run a game itself, and just runs as a DVR, Netflix, blu-ray player, receptacle for Steam in home streaming, that kind of thing? I'm not planning on bothering with a discrete GPU of any kind, and would like it to run silently on air, or as near as dammit.

 

I could set a budget for the whole build as like £300, or whatever, but even if it's within what I'm theoretically willing to pay there's no point in choosing an APU that can run battlefield 4 at 1080p and 30 fps because I'm never going to use it for that.

[DildorTheDecent]

HI

 

What would you say the upper limit of CPUs with integrated graphics (from either Intel or AMD, I don't care which) is before it becomes overkill for an HTPC that will never run a game itself, and just runs as a DVR, Netflix, blu-ray player, receptacle for Steam in home streaming, that kind of thing? I'm not planning on bothering with a discrete GPU of any kind, and would like it to run silently on air, or as near as dammit.

 

I could set a budget for the whole build as like £300, or whatever, but even if it's within what I'm theoretically willing to pay there's no point in choosing an APU that can run battlefield 4 at 1080p and 30 fps because I'm never going to use it for that.

HTPC would be fine with one of those cheap Pentium or Celeron CPUs i think. Or a AMD dual core CPU/APU. high end i3 would be pushing it i think, although it might be handy for DVR.

[GeneralBear]

i would go with the new amd am1 socket get am obo and a cpu for 100$ for a basic htpc

[othertomperson]

HTPC would be fine with one of those cheap Pentium or Celeron CPUs i think. Or a AMD dual core CPU/APU. high end i3 would be pushing it i think, although it might be handy for DVR.

 

Yeah I was looking at an AMD A4-4020 because it's less than £30, but would DVR be an issue for it?

[GeneralBear]

Yeah I was looking at an AMD A4-4020 because it's less than £30, but would DVR be an issue for it?

not to sure i know the 2ghz quad core one would be people are using it in servers and running plex so i know that would be

[DildorTheDecent]

Yeah I was looking at an AMD A4-4020 because it's less than £30, but would DVR be an issue for it?

Wouldn't really be a problem if just watching videos and doing DVR i think.

[GeneralBear]

Wouldn't really be a problem if just watching videos and doing DVR i think.

ive never done dvr but im interested in it i have no clue what kind of power it needs

[othertomperson]

Can APUs passthrough unprocessed 5.1 surround to a receiver like GPUs do? They should, I'm pretty sure AMD was doing that before nvidia, but Google is drawing a blank.

[Th3Architect]

I just built mine a few months ago and i went for the haswell i3 it's does everything great and gives it that extra bit of power when I'm streaming steam onto my tv downstairs

[TheProfosist]

Build a intel NUC system you can spec a decent one for that for about $500 including windows.

[othertomperson]

Build a intel NUC system you can spec a decent one for that for about $500 including windows.

 

Hmm that is quite interesting, but I do want it to have an internal optical drive. I still have blu rays and stuff that I want to use with it and would rather not USB it if I can help it

 

Thinking of this kind of thing:

 

CPU:  AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£31.39 @ CCL Computers)

Motherboard:  Asus A78M-A Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£47.15 @ Aria PC)

Memory:  G.Skill NS Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£26.04 @ Amazon UK)

Storage:  Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (£48.00 @ Amazon UK)

Case:  Silverstone GD05B-USB3.0 (Black) HTPC Case  (£76.86 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply:  Corsair RM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£65.94 @ Scan.co.uk)

Optical Drive:  Pioneer BDC-207DBK Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer  (£39.98 @ CCL Computers)

Total: £335.36

 

I will get a dual tuner tv card at some point, I think, but they're not on pcpartspicker and isn't particularly urgent atm

[GeneralBear]

Can APUs passthrough unprocessed 5.1 surround to a receiver like GPUs do? They should, I'm pretty sure AMD was doing that before nvidia, but Google is drawing a blank.

yes they can ive been doing it on my laptop for years in my bedroom to my sound system

[othertomperson]

yes they can ive been doing it on my laptop for years in my bedroom to my sound system

 

Schweeet thanks

[hal9001]

An i3-4130 would be nice

[othertomperson]

An i3-4130 would be nice

 

It would, but it's three times the price of this apu and seems overkill for what I plan on using it for... I mean if it weren't for the lack of blu ray support I'd probably just use a raspberry pi

[TheProfosist]

Hmm that is quite interesting, but I do want it to have an internal optical drive. I still have blu rays and stuff that I want to use with it and would rather not USB it if I can help it

 

Thinking of this kind of thing:

 

CPU:  AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£31.39 @ CCL Computers)

Motherboard:  Asus A78M-A Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£47.15 @ Aria PC)

Memory:  G.Skill NS Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£26.04 @ Amazon UK)

Storage:  Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (£48.00 @ Amazon UK)

Case:  Silverstone GD05B-USB3.0 (Black) HTPC Case  (£76.86 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply:  Corsair RM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£65.94 @ Scan.co.uk)

Optical Drive:  Pioneer BDC-207DBK Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer  (£39.98 @ CCL Computers)

Total: £335.36

 

I will get a dual tuner tv card at some point, I think, but they're not on pcpartspicker and isn't particularly urgent atm

yea that would be the one hurdle there, sorry

[GeneralBear]

It would, but it's three times the price of this apu and seems overkill for what I plan on using it for... I mean if it weren't for the lack of blu ray support I'd probably just use a raspberry pi

you could always use a usb blue ray drive on a pi but yeah these lowcost apus are from the laptop's basicly so good enough for most casual things

[othertomperson]

you could always use a usb blue ray drive on a pi but yeah these lowcost apus are from the laptop's basicly so good enough for most casual things

 

Well it's more the proprietary nature of blu-rays makes them a notorious pain in the arse when it comes to Linux but yeah.