EPTi3-2120T fast enough for 1080p stream watching? - Page 2
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striderxxx
Canada443 Posts
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CharlieBrownsc
Canada598 Posts
On September 20 2011 23:01 Lonyo wrote: If (@ OP) you really want silent, you will need to consider your harddrives once you make everything else super quiet. If silence isn't an issue, a low power system wont need too much cooling anyway and if you are watching/listening then noise won't be much of an issue. How is an HDD relevant when watching streams? | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
On September 21 2011 00:06 CharlieBrownsc wrote: How is an HDD relevant when watching streams? Hard drive noise. It's got to be spinning to run the OS and all. Depending on the model of the old hard drive (if it's an old 3.5" 7200rpm hard drive, can easily be the noisiest thing in the system by far), I'd seriously consider getting an SSD if the rest of the system is quiet. | ||
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CharlieBrownsc
Canada598 Posts
On September 21 2011 00:09 Myrmidon wrote: Hard drive noise. It's got to be spinning to run the OS and all. Depending on the model of the old hard drive (if it's an old 3.5" 7200rpm hard drive, can easily be the noisiest thing in the system by far), I'd seriously consider getting an SSD if the rest of the system is quiet. Does the OS not load completely on the RAM? | ||
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Lonyo
United Kingdom3884 Posts
On September 21 2011 01:06 CharlieBrownsc wrote: Does the OS not load completely on the RAM? You can set the HDD spindown time to be very low (e.g. 3 minutes) and it will turn off under most idle loads. If you are doing other things at the same time it might not power down though. | ||
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propulsion
Germany65 Posts
It will be a Crucial M4 128GB. I am hoping for faster OS boot time, faster application boot time and most importantly for no HDD clicking noise while accessing the drive. Soundcard: The connection will be optical S/PDIF. So an internal card on the mainboard should do well. DSP features are not what I am looking for. The only thing it will have to do is converting the mp3/flac/... into an optical signal. Gigabyte is using a Soundblaster onboard. So this is more a marketing thing? Are there any alternatives to Soundblaster since Terratec is not researching sound cards anymore? Celeron G530: I think I will stay on the safe side with the i3-2120T. But the price... Passive Cooling: Thanks for the advice with the low profile aftermarket cooler/fan. Didn't think it could be sufficient. Also thanks for the link to the passive power supply. Sounds excellent. @Lonyo: How can you measure the power/watts? Did you use a specific instrument or did your computer tell you? Mac Mini: Interesting. Since Apple computers are normal intel PCs it should be an alternative. But I would definitely install Linux and Windows :-) Case: There are surprisingly many HTPC cases. That will be the next thing I will research. From a first look the price range seems to be €80-€600. So €80-€300 should be more reasonable. I will start at the low end. In the Computer Build Resource Thread ( http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=137554 ) Silverstone, Antec, Corsair, Cooler Master and Lian Li are recommended for cases. How much money do you think a good case should cost? | ||
Womwomwom
5930 Posts
From my experience, the Antec NSK2480B is a really good mATX HTPC case but its also pretty large for one. Also comes with a 380W PSU and if you pair it with a light powered system, I doubt you would really hear it outside Antec's dedicated PSU chamber. You've kind of danced around this but never really specified the max size of your system so I'm not sure what to suggest. Lian Li has some really cute mITX cases, like the Lian Li PC-Q11, but they are not cheap and they are aluminium so sound dampening is a bit harder. Of course, if you only have a slow spinning 140mm fan in there, it doesn't matter if it doesn't have really good sound dampening. Plus, if you use a PicoPSU, you can probably cram a shorter tower cooler in there like the Gelid Tranquillo or Scythe Ninja. I wouldn't spend more than $150 on the chassis. This budget takes into account any cases with premium aesthetic qualities like those Lian Li cases. If you choose to buy a Lian Li case, buy some steel thumbscrews while you are at it because Lian Li, in their infinite wisdom, decided it would be a good idea to use aluminium screws for the side panels. | ||
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Wabbit
United States1028 Posts
On September 22 2011 16:09 propulsion wrote: Celeron G530: I think I will stay on the safe side with the i3-2120T. But the price... I'm not sure why people think that i3 is "safer". The G530 has the same HD graphics (the Celeron has some features that are irrelevant to you disabled, such as QuickSync - you would need a Z68 mobo for that anyway) It has essentially the same clock speed. It's less than half the price. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Edit: Further reading + Show Spoiler + The "HD Graphics" in Celerons and Pentiums is almost the same as the HD 2000 Graphics in the core i3's and up as proven by Anandtech here The only thing you might care about is that the HD2000 does post-video processing (the decoder for playback is still there in the Celeron and Pentium), but if you really want additional post-processing, I'd rather get a $50 celeron +$30 discrete GPU(which will have way more capabilities and more customizable) than a $120 CPU. Here's AnandTech's summary: + Show Spoiler + Where the vanilla HD Graphics loses is in video features: Quick Sync, InTru 3D (Blu-ray 3D), Intel Insider (DRM support for web streaming of high bitrate HD video) and Clear Video HD (GPU accelerated post processing) are all gone. Thankfully you do still get hardware H.264 video acceleration and fully audio bitstreaming support (including TrueHD/DTS-HD MA). Missing Quick Sync is a major blow, although as I mentioned earlier I'm very disappointed in the poor support for the feature outside of the initial launch applications. The rest of the features vary in importance. To someone building a basic HTPC, a Sandy Bridge Pentium will do just fine. Personally I never play anything in 3D, never use the Clear Video HD features and never use Intel Insider so I wouldn't notice the difference between a Sandy Bridge Pentium and a Core i5 for video playback. | ||
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propulsion
Germany65 Posts
I'm back on the matter. Thanks for your help so far. Here is what I made out of it: # CPU: Intel i3-2120T # CPU-cooler/fan: Zalman CNPS10X Performa # Mainboard: ASUS P8H67-V R.3.0 # RAM: Kingston KHX1600C9D3LK2/4GX # SSD: Crucial m4 Remarks: + Show Spoiler + # I chose the i3-2120T over the Celeron G530 because it is much faster according to http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php (3529 > 2330), though the G530 should handle 1080p fine an uses also only 35W. # The CPU-Cooler is the biggest that fits into my case. # If it is not silent enough, I will buy a picoPSU. # I will not buy a HTPC case. It would have to be 43cm wide, but I could not find one to my liking. The good looking ones are not tall enough for big fans/coolers. # Future plans: Replace this PC with a 43cm-wide-HTPC with picoPSU based on the next generation Atom/ION (or later) and upgrade this PC with a better CPU/GPU. # I took your advice and chose the H67 chipset. # If I am not fine with the sound I will upgrade to an ESI MAYA44 XTe or E-MU 1212M PCIe. Cheeper soundcards should not improve quality of the optical output (based on forum readings). If you think I can do better, please tell me. Or just give me an "it's ok". | ||
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Shikyo
Finland33997 Posts
that's enough for watchin 1080p, if you need something more but please specify what: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116409&Tpk=celeron g530 mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138340 SSD fine. get 1333mhz ram instead, cheapest one Could you please tell me why Celeron G440 isn't enough? | ||
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propulsion
Germany65 Posts
I am german, so I cannot buy at newegg. geizhals.at/deutschland is a very good price comparison around here. To lower the shipping costs I will buy everything at avitos.com since they do have very good prices. Currently I am having problems with my mainboard. That is why I do want a high quality one. I did find an ASRock and an ASUS. The ASRock has the slightly better soundcard (should not be audible) and is ~7EUR cheeper. I will still buy the ASUS because of the even better name. I did choose these RAM sticks a week ago or so and do not remember my exact thinking process. The same sticks with 1333 are more expensive. Generally you are right, but I want the low voltage ones. I am still hoping to be able to only use one active fan (the one of the PSU) and hope the low voltage RAM can take the heat better (based on uninformed gut feeling). And it will cut my german electricity costs ;-) I will not only use the PC for stream viewing. But that is the main purpose. While running 1-2 streams I will surf the internet and work on some documents (yes, on a TV). That is why I want two cores. More power can't hurt also. | ||
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Shikyo
Finland33997 Posts
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articlesearch.jsp It's here for 40 euros. AsRock is a very good brand and is Asus's sister brand and hence I don't think the name should matter at all when choosing the mobo. Please read this review: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/celeron-g540-g440.html and this review: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-g850-g840-g620.html for some more perspective. or more specifically this: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-g850-g840-g620_8.html#sect0 and this: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/celeron-g540-g440_4.html#sect1 | ||
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propulsion
Germany65 Posts
There is a "Pentium G630T Low-Power" for 65EUR. Might that be the silver bullet? Well... cpubenchmark.net lists it at the same same speed as the Celeron G530. Do you have more specific infos? | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
edit: that's referring to i3-xxxT vs. normal i3, or something similar. Low-power Pentium has a little more cache and more features (I forget what, but it wasn't much) compared to the Celeron. Actually the main advantage of the lower TDP versions is that they're just guaranteed to run at a certain (slightly lower) power level and come with a slimmer heatsink. You're not even using their heatsink, and your application doesn't require strict adherence to a certain power level. CNPS10X Performa is overkill, and your old power supply is probably going to be the noisiest component. You can always tweak fan settings (well on most motherboards it works fine), but wouldn't you want like the CNPS10X Quiet or some other cooler targeted at low noise instead? Then again, you may even be able to get away with running the heatsink passively if it's that large... edit2: if you're using optical out for audio, then yes what you've read is pretty much right. | ||
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T0fuuu
Australia2275 Posts
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propulsion
Germany65 Posts
I will use an optical cable because I do not want to worry about ground loops. Since the coax digital connection does not need to convert the signal into light, it should have slightly less jitter, but I don't think I can hear that. @T0fuuu Thanks, but when it gets late I turn down the sound level pretty much and fan noise generally annoys me. Does this Hyper Threading make a difference? | ||
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propulsion
Germany65 Posts
Why not buy the Celeron G530 now for a great price and upgrade to a hopefully even less power consuming and faster Ivy Bridge CPU next year? ...since the Celeron G530 without dedicated GPU will be enough to view 1080p streams. Right? | ||
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propulsion
Germany65 Posts
# CPU: Intel Celeron G530 # CPU-cooler/fan: Zalman CNPS10X Performa # Mainboard: ASUS P8H67-V R.3.0 # RAM: Kingston KHX1600C9D3LK2/4GX # SSD: Crucial m4 Finally the G530 made it. Thanks again to all of you for your valuable input. | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
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propulsion
Germany65 Posts
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