HTPC Core 2

[aisle9]

Need some help thinking this one through. My mini-HTPC is a Dell Optiplex 745 SFF, linked in my signature as L. It has a 275W OEM power supply and 8GB of DDR2-667, along with Windows 10 64-bit. Right now, it's struggling to push 1080p video to my office TV. Lots of stutter. My thinking is that the C2D (not Pentium) E6600 is the source of the problem. Even a DDR3 GT 730 can push 1080p playback. 

 

I'm assuming that my CPU's the issue here, and I've got a couple options for replacement. I can get my hands on a Q6600 for $20 or a C2D X6800 for $50. The computer can't handle anything later than the 6000 series of Core 2 processors, and technically isn't even able to support quads, although it's been shown to do so. 

 

Assuming the CPU is the bottleneck, and I'm not 100% sure it is, which CPU would I be better off with? I have power draw and heat concerns about the Q6600, but I think I'm in on both. If the CPU is fine, what else could be pushing the poor performance? 

[tt2468]

3 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Need some help thinking this one through. My mini-HTPC is a Dell Optiplex 745 SFF, linked in my signature as L. It has a 275W OEM power supply and 8GB of DDR2-667, along with Windows 10 64-bit. Right now, it's struggling to push 1080p video to my office TV. Lots of stutter. My thinking is that the C2D (not Pentium) E6600 is the source of the problem. Even a DDR3 GT 730 can push 1080p playback. 

 

I'm assuming that my CPU's the issue here, and I've got a couple options for replacement. I can get my hands on a Q6600 for $20 or a C2D X6800 for $50. The computer can't handle anything later than the 6000 series of Core 2 processors, and technically isn't even able to support quads, although it's been shown to do so. 

 

Assuming the CPU is the bottleneck, and I'm not 100% sure it is, which CPU would I be better off with? I have power draw and heat concerns about the Q6600, but I think I'm in on both. If the CPU is fine, what else could be pushing the poor performance? 

You should be able to put any lga 775 cpu in that thing. The reason it might not support quads is they are very hot cpus, and with a small heatsink, thet's not fun.

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, tt2468 said:

You should be able to put any lga 775 cpu in that thing. The reason it might not support quads is they are very hot cpus, and with a small heatsink, thet's not fun.

and some bioses dont support some chips, etc. a friend of mine has a C2D mobo, and a C2Q, and whatever he tries they just wont love each other.

[aisle9]

4 minutes ago, tt2468 said:

You should be able to put any lga 775 cpu in that thing. The reason it might not support quads is they are very hot cpus, and with a small heatsink, thet's not fun.

The Dell mobo doesn't support the higher FSB of later Core 2's. Oh, if only it did... 

[mikat]

19 minutes ago, manikyath said:

and some bioses dont support some chips, etc. a friend of mine has a C2D mobo, and a C2Q, and whatever he tries they just wont love each other.

rlly? are they different? shiiiiiiit

[aisle9]

5 minutes ago, mikat said:

rlly? are they different? shiiiiiiit

LGA775 was around forever. Different FSB speeds, different requirements, completely nuts when you sit down and actually look at it. It really does seem like it should just be "insert chip, profit!", but it never is. 

[iHardware Shelden]

1 hour ago, tt2468 said:

You should be able to put any lga 775 cpu in that thing. The reason it might not support quads is they are very hot cpus, and with a small heatsink, thet's not fun.

LGA 775 was one of intels (if not) intels longest lasting socket and because of this many different boards with different chipsets and power delivery came out to support newer chips. Because of this, especially with the 775 socket, you have to make sure your board supports the FSB, power requirements and chipset. It is not as simple as it is now to just pop in a CPU and have a 99% chance of it working. Also the reason it should not support the C2Q is because of the 105watt power requirement versus the 65watt on the C2D and Pentium Dual-Core chips. Sorry to come off rude but I see people buying a Q9590 for a 775 board they found in a old Pentium 4 based system and get all butt hurt on why it is not working all because they didn't do the research before hand. 

[iHardware Shelden]

1 hour ago, aisle9 said:

LGA775 was around forever. Different FSB speeds, different requirements, completely nuts when you sit down and actually look at it. It really does seem like it should just be "insert chip, profit!", but it never is. 

Yep, anything from 533-1333 on the FSB, 65-130watt TDPs and 90nm-45nm chips. I've got to give Intel props for making a socket last that long, will always be my favorite  

[iHardware Shelden]

1 hour ago, aisle9 said:

The Dell mobo doesn't support the higher FSB of later Core 2's. Oh, if only it did... 

You could pick up a later Optiplex 760 SFF board for dirt cheap on ebay, those support the 1333FSB and might be worth while

[aisle9]

9 minutes ago, iHardware Shelden said:

You could pick up a later Optiplex 760 SFF board for dirt cheap on ebay, those support the 1333FSB and might be worth while

Hmmm...I'll look into that. 

 

Meantime, does it seem to you like my CPU might be the problem in pushing 1080 playback? It is an elderly little chip, and I really am wondering if Windows 10 is sapping it hard enough that it can't handle running MPC-HC as well. 

[iHardware Shelden]

20 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Hmmm...I'll look into that. 

 

Meantime, does it seem to you like my CPU might be the problem in pushing 1080 playback? It is an elderly little chip, and I really am wondering if Windows 10 is sapping it hard enough that it can't handle running MPC-HC as well. 

I have a E6850 in my HTPC right now with Windows 10 though I have a CRT at 800x600 What programs do you use to watch TV? VLC, Netflix?

[aisle9]

11 minutes ago, iHardware Shelden said:

I have a E6850 in my HTPC right now with Windows 10 though I have a CRT at 800x600 What programs do you use to watch TV? VLC, Netflix?

MPC-HC, YouTube via Opera browser, Netflix app. VLC and KMPlayer were both worse. 

[iHardware Shelden]

4 hours ago, aisle9 said:

MPC-HC, YouTube via Opera browser, Netflix app. VLC and KMPlayer were both worse. 

Yea I would try looking at a faster single thread chip, an E7500 should work and if you wanted faster than looking at a Optiplex 760 board might be your best bet.

[aisle9]

1 hour ago, iHardware Shelden said:

Yea I would try looking at a faster single thread chip, an E7500 should work and if you wanted faster than looking at a Optiplex 760 board might be your best bet.

I went ahead and bought the $20 Q6600 instead. It's running near the ragged edge of what my cooling and power supply can handle, but the price of a new board and an E8400 or the X6800 are just more than I'm willing to spend on this PC at the moment. If that X6800 comes down in price to the $20 range, I'll grab it and consider switching, but I'm hoping in the meantime that a Q6600 cures all ills.

[iHardware Shelden]

6 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I went ahead and bought the $20 Q6600 instead. It's running near the ragged edge of what my cooling and power supply can handle, but the price of a new board and an E8400 or the X6800 are just more than I'm willing to spend on this PC at the moment. If that X6800 comes down in price to the $20 range, I'll grab it and consider switching, but I'm hoping in the meantime that a Q6600 cures all ills.

That should do good, let me know how it works out

[aisle9]

1 hour ago, iHardware Shelden said:

That should do good, let me know how it works out

So far, so good. It doesn't push 4K playback, but I really wasn't expecting it to. It still struggles with 1080p playback to the 4K TV in the living room, but that's cool. I have a Radeon HD7770 for that...assuming it figures it that it's capable of 4K. It works nicely with the 1080p TV in my mancave, and that's really all I need it to do. Lots of testing left, but so far, so good. If it still gives me headaches, I know that X6800 is out there.

 

Even if it doesn't give me headaches, that X6800 will become very tempting for no reason other than to own one if it hits $20.

[xGGAx]

IT IS NOT YOUR CPU. I just retired my 10 year old pc with a 6400 Core 2 duo , 2 gigs of ram and a gt 610 1GB. I used to play blurays, mkv and avi videos at 1080p all the time. Everything was flawless in win 10 pro 64 bit, not so much in win 7 tho. Playback was a little choppy at the beginning, but it would be ok after 30 secs of so. I think you should optimize video settings and use(force) hardware acceleration on videos. Also make sure you dont have many processes running in the background