Quick question re Core i3 2120

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Quick question re Core i3 2120

1 | 2

geekiegeek

2513 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#657192 17-Jul-2012 19:50

kiwijunglist: hardware acceleration makes high cpu speeds unnecessary. does your motherboard support DTS-HD/True-HD audio, if not you may need to get a gpu in the future regardless.

As I only watch Freeview (set to stereo AAC), tv show rips (DD 5.1) and streamed content (itunes movies and Netflix - both DD 5.1). I cant see myself needing HD audio in the near to medium future. I decided to never own a shiny disk player again around the time that blue-ray came out - that includes CDs (flac all the way).

KiwiTim

376 posts

Ultimate Geek

#660893 24-Jul-2012 11:29

I made a HTPC using the i3 2120 but used a discrete graphics card as well. The Radeon HD5450 is cheap enough and entirely adequate. I had four windows open showing 4 HD Sky channels running at the same time, all going perfectly with the i3 2120 and a discrete graphics card.

The CPU has more than enough grunt, but I would sooner spend the money on a discrete graphics card than on an i5, which is definitely overkill.

Tim

gibben

46 posts

Geek

#661232 24-Jul-2012 19:52

Can I ask how you got on with your setup? I have just built a new HTPC based on an Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4 GHz and have had issues with pixelation for the first 20 ~ 30 seconds when switching to HD channels, it also happens when seeking .... This is happening on Sky HD channels. SD is fine as is blu-ray and file playback.

KiwiTim

376 posts

Ultimate Geek

#661350 24-Jul-2012 22:37

Hi,

My setup was fine with Sky. I did have a problem with pixelation but that was caused by a faulty Tevii S480 tuner. Got that replaced and the problem disappeared. I should say that I am using DVBviewer with DVBViewer Recording Service; I don't use WMC. My current graphics card is a Radeon 5670 which has more than enough grunt to handle 1080i and 1080p.

With DVBviewer you can select which codecs you wish to use for hardware acceleration, which is very useful. I found the selection of programs on Sky rather disappointing, and spend most of my time watching SBS off Optus C1, so ended up canceling Sky.

Tim

1 | 2