Athlon 4850e Source or CPU/Mobo Recommendation?

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pcrosley

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#29604 13-Jan-2009 11:15

I had all my orders placed for my HTPC when I was informed by one vendor (who'll remain nameless) after they returned from Christmas break that an item "in stock" does not mean that they actually "have" the item, merely that they could try to find one if they had an order!

So my plan to use the Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R mobo with Intel E8500 cpu is out.

Since I was looking for a mobo with on-board graphics I was leaning towards the Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H (AMD 780G chipset) and the AMD X2 4850e cpu (because it looks efficient and cool). Can't seem to find any supply for the cpu however!

Anybody know of a source for the 4850e, or have a recommendation for an equable cpu (or mobo/cpu combo)?

Cheers!

Regs

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Snowflake

#189388 13-Jan-2009 23:24

i'm guessing that the 4850e is now discontinued looking at whats available from wholesalers e.g, http://bdt.co.nz/computer/group.aspx?cat=6436. Maybe someone has one in a retail store somewhere still. The 5000 is available and this forum post seems to indicate that there isnt much difference between them (although more heat was pointed out)

http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=21&threadid=103300

So my plan to use the Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R mobo with Intel E8500 cpu is out

The AMD would be a lot cheaper than the E8500 CPU and i', not sure why you would buy that specific motherboard anyway - its GPU is not capable of h.264 acceleration iirc. Better motherboards would likely be the GA-EG41MF-S2H (intel 4500 GPU) or GA-E7AUM-DS2H (NVidia 9400 GPU) if you wanted onboard. Otherwise a mobo with no onboard GPU and a cheap 8400/8500/8600 nVidia card to go in it.

The choice of the AMD board (GA-MA78GPM-DS2H) with the Radeon GPU may also be problematic - people here have indicated a lot of problems with ATI and H.264 acceleration. Perhaps, again, look for a board without the GPU and get a add-in nvidia card.

P.S. on my HTPC i found that it ran cooler with an add-in 8400GS than it did when using the onboard 6150 GPU. Probably due to the larger heatsink and more airflow over the graphics card

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pcrosley

49 posts

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#189431 14-Jan-2009 08:28

Thanks for the advice, Regs!

I'll have a look at the non-GPU mobos. I had just presumed one less board meant less heat but that's because I am not HW literate!

elkano

160 posts

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#189953 16-Jan-2009 10:30

Regs: i'm guessing that the 4850e is now discontinued looking at whats available from wholesalers e.g, http://bdt.co.nz/computer/group.aspx?cat=6436. Maybe someone has one in a retail store somewhere still. The 5000 is available and this forum post seems to indicate that there isnt much difference between them (although more heat was pointed out)

http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=21&threadid=103300

So my plan to use the Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R mobo with Intel E8500 cpu is out

The AMD would be a lot cheaper than the E8500 CPU and i', not sure why you would buy that specific motherboard anyway - its GPU is not capable of h.264 acceleration iirc. Better motherboards would likely be the GA-EG41MF-S2H (intel 4500 GPU) or GA-E7AUM-DS2H (NVidia 9400 GPU) if you wanted onboard. Otherwise a mobo with no onboard GPU and a cheap 8400/8500/8600 nVidia card to go in it.

The choice of the AMD board (GA-MA78GPM-DS2H) with the Radeon GPU may also be problematic - people here have indicated a lot of problems with ATI and H.264 acceleration. Perhaps, again, look for a board without the GPU and get a add-in nvidia card.

P.S. on my HTPC i found that it ran cooler with an add-in 8400GS than it did when using the onboard 6150 GPU. Probably due to the larger heatsink and more airflow over the graphics card

Some good points Regs.
The radeon can be a problem for onboard graphics, I am building my own HTPC with a GA-MA78GM-DS2 (older board) so we'll see what kind of issues I get and if they can be corrected.
The 4850e has never been sold in NZ to my knowledge, you basically have to source them from offshore (aussie sell them).
I'm not sure why that particular CPU has been left from our shelves, but it's annoying as I want one myself

The heat point is a good one too, I guess you have to weigh up system cooling and functionality over the added increase in power and/or noise. I'm trying to get my HTPC to run on as little power and as quiet as possible, so I'll try the onboard radeon 3200 and see if it performs okay. If not, I'll shell out for a passively cooled graphics card and see how that goes.
Horses for courses I guess, the main thing is a stable system!

CYaBro

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#189954 16-Jan-2009 10:44

I'm using the onboard HD3200 graphics card ATM in one of my HTPCs.
It works great but then I am not viewing Freeview|HD as we can't get it here!

I would highly recommend you look at getting a different AMD CPU cooler as the stock one is the noisiest thing in my case.
The Enermax Liberty 400W PSU is pretty much silent!

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

elkano

160 posts

Master Geek

#189955 16-Jan-2009 10:54

Any recommendations for an silent aftermarket CPU cooler?
I don't want to break the bank, but want something that will do a good job and be very quiet.

pcrosley

49 posts

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#189981 16-Jan-2009 12:12

elkano: The 4850e has never been sold in NZ to my knowledge, you basically have to source them from offshore (aussie sell them).

Yeah, I tried the aussie route but after 5 distributors told me they don't ship to NZ I gave up.

I ended up going along the lines Regs suggested. ASUS P5Q Pro with Core 2 Duo E7300 and ASUS Nvidia 8400GS 512Mb.

Concerned about ASUS statements that Windows "may not recognise" more than 3 Gb since I had already purchased 4Gb, but we'll see.

Now a real newbie question...... with that 8400GS having DVI and TV out, do I need anything like the MediaMVP, or is that redundant equipment?

CYaBro

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#189991 16-Jan-2009 12:48

pcrosley:
Concerned about ASUS statements that Windows "may not recognise" more than 3 Gb since I had already purchased 4Gb, but we'll see.

That is normal for Windows 32bit versions. You need to have a 64bit version to see 4GB or more RAM.
It will still work fine with 4GB installed.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

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Regs

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Snowflake

#190002 16-Jan-2009 14:09

Now a real newbie question...... with that 8400GS having DVI and TV out, do I need anything like the MediaMVP, or is that redundant equipment?

what are you plugging into for your screen? i have a dvi cable from the 8400GS in my HTPC to the samsung plasma screen and thats all i need.

note regarding the 8400GS - while this works perfectly for me for an HTPC, others have indicated that its crap for gaming and other stuff - what are you intending to use it for? HTPC only?

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#190033 16-Jan-2009 17:44

Regs: Better motherboards would likely be the GA-EG41MF-S2H (intel 4500 GPU)

of note i have a vaio with gma4500hd which is supposed to do h.264/avc but must say i havent been able to make it decode more than 576i/p on dvbviewer or windows 7 media center. so unless anyone else has managed to make it work for nz dvb-t i'd say otherwise?

Regs

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Snowflake

#190071 16-Jan-2009 23:05

joker97: Regs: Better motherboards would likely be the GA-EG41MF-S2H (intel 4500 GPU)

of note i have a vaio with gma4500hd which is supposed to do h.264/avc but must say i havent been able to make it decode more than 576i/p on dvbviewer or windows 7 media center. so unless anyone else has managed to make it work for nz dvb-t i'd say otherwise?

i have one of the intel dg45 boards in a box on the floor and havent gotten around to giving it a crack yet... maybe if it rains all weekend i'll give it a whirl and see if i get any further :-)

I'd still suggest that the mobo with gpu will probably run hotter than an add-in video card with giant heatsink though.... and the nvidia cards are so cheap and no hassle so, for now, it seems like the better option

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pcrosley

49 posts

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#190112 17-Jan-2009 07:15

Regs:

Now a real newbie question...... with that 8400GS having DVI and TV out, do I need anything like the MediaMVP, or is that redundant equipment?

what are you plugging into for your screen? i have a dvi cable from the 8400GS in my HTPC to the samsung plasma screen and thats all i need.

note regarding the 8400GS - while this works perfectly for me for an HTPC, others have indicated that its crap for gaming and other stuff - what are you intending to use it for? HTPC only?

I'm not a gamer, just going to use it as an HTPC.

As for what I'm going to plug into, I don't have a digital tele yet, so it will just feed my SD box. Sounds like the MediaMVP would be superfluous, though.

kiwijunglist

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#191085 21-Jan-2009 16:06

+1 on not recommending the onboard HD3200 (780G) because it doesn't like hardware deinterlacing H264 (ie TV3 1080i)

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

elkano

160 posts

Master Geek

#191097 21-Jan-2009 16:39

kiwijunglist: +1 on not recommending the onboard HD3200 (780G) because it doesn't like hardware deinterlacing H264 (ie TV3 1080i)

What board are you using? Currently I'm using a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H rev 1.1 (780G with onboard HD3200) and currently I'm not having issues (using MediaPortal). In saying that I haven't done a large amount of testing yet as have only been watching freeview for testing over the past 2 days while I try and get my remote working for mediaportal.