CPU Upgrade

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kiwijunglist

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#26667 29-Sep-2008 22:43

Hey All

I want to upgrade my CPU. Just wondering what you would recommend. I don't need to go for a low power cpu because my case is large with plenty of fans/airflow and is already quiter than the fan in my AV receiver. So No point spending the extra $$$ on a low power chip. I'm currently using an AMD X2 4200+ with stock cooling. Using coreavc my cpu useage is 80% on live TV (1920x1080 Display) but occasionally it is a bit sluggish so i want a bit more spare cpu power.

Not sure if a triple core would be faster than a similar priced faster dual core.

Was thinking of

$100 = X2 5000+
$145 = Phenom 8450
$158 = X2 6000+

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

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#167859 29-Sep-2008 23:04

Have you considered getting a video card instead? That will offload the 80% usage down to 10%, so the interface will be a lot more smooth.
However if you're going to continue to use CoreAVC software decoding, a triple or quad core would be of benefit to you.
But for single threaded applications its likely you wouldn't notice much difference - though im not sure how 1 core on that X3 compares to 1 core on the 4200.

Nety

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#167905 30-Sep-2008 09:05

Agree with the above statement.. leave the CPU it is fine for a media centre. Spend the money on a video card that fully supports hardware decoding instead. You will also get a better picture if you use hardware decoding rather then software decoding.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

kiwijunglist

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#167906 30-Sep-2008 09:13

when i tried a 8600gt in there it kept crashing in xp with hardware acceleration of progressive channels (interlaced was fine)
I tried a fresh xp install each time, with 3 different versions of nvidia drivers and latest pdvd8 ultra 2021 and MP RC2.
I dont want to go vista because of the evr flicker.
If i do go vista i can just use the onboard for hardware acceleration, but i find the evr flicker unacceptable.

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sbiddle

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#167909 30-Sep-2008 09:18

+1

Hardware acceleration is essential if you want to watch Freeview|HD with a good quality picture. A codec such as PowerDVD7/8's H.264 one or Arcsoft TotalMedia and a GFX card capable of H.264 hardware decoding isn't an optional extra, it's a prerequisite. Software decoding simply doesn't cut it, particularly witth 1080i content.

You have a board capable of hardware decoding but un fortunately ATI's Catalyst drivers still seem to be broken so it doesn't work properly with interlaced content.

sbiddle

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#167910 30-Sep-2008 09:19

kiwijunglist: I dont want to go vista because of the evr flicker.

What you mean? EVR is a far superior renderer, this is the first time I've ever heard of a flicker issue.

kiwijunglist

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#167913 30-Sep-2008 09:28

If you have evr renderer you get flickering of the OSD when you have video running.
It is probably not gonna be fixed until MP2 release

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FibgNXk-16c

Flicker comes in at 39 secounds
The video title is ati-evr-flicker, but the problem is with nvidea cards too
It happens if you have the OSD and video displayed at the same time
(he has tv guide running and video in the corner @ same time)

EDIT: I see you have GBPVR, it is a MP problem

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browned

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#167916 30-Sep-2008 09:44

kiwijunglist: Hey All
Not sure if a triple core would be faster than a similar priced faster dual core.

Was thinking of

$100 = X2 5000+
$145 = Phenom 8450
$158 = X2 6000+

$100 for Nvdia 8500 or 8600 will be much better idea.

I have a s939 Athlon 3800 X2 and it runs at about 10-30% on TV3 with my 8600GT.

But if you do upgrade get the Phenom seeing as power is not an issue. my 10-30% is on both cores so having one extra will be a great help.

Cheersdb
p.s. I can rip a Blu-ray disc while watching Freeview HD with no stuttering problems so I really think you need a Video card upgrade.

kiwijunglist

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#167917 30-Sep-2008 09:47

i guess i could try borrowing an 8500gt from somewhere.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

kiwijunglist

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#167918 30-Sep-2008 09:48

what ver of nvidia drivers for xp do ppl use?

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browned

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#167920 30-Sep-2008 09:55

kiwijunglist: what ver of nvidia drivers for xp do ppl use?

Just get the latest available from here

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

cheers

db

sbiddle

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#167924 30-Sep-2008 09:59

Since you only have XP the EVR issue won't affect you anyway. Hardware acceleration should be working perfectly with XP and VMR9 and an 8500/8600.

kiwijunglist

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#167947 30-Sep-2008 10:58

but it wasn't for me... kept crashing on progressive channels, interlaced was fine w. 8600gt

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eXDee

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#167979 30-Sep-2008 13:10

browned:
kiwijunglist: what ver of nvidia drivers for xp do ppl use?

Just get the latest available from here

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

cheers

db

New one came out a couple of days ago and fixed the HW acceleration issues i was having (dropping frames). After you install them uninstall PhysX that comes bundled if you don't play PhysX games (or any at all).

Quidam

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Ultimate Geek

#167981 30-Sep-2008 13:30

Hi -sounds like your Motherboards chipset has compatibility problems with Nvidia GPU's?

Have you googled this to see if others have this problem -or maybe it's a fault specifically with your board? I have heard that ATI GPU's are likely to work better with AMD chipsets (not surprising really) so maybe you want to look at an ATI card?

In spite of what some people try to tell you on this forum, it is a fact that I have a Sapphire HD3850 working perfectly with hardware accelleration -and it's a AGP variant too.

ps. using Power DVD 8 Ultra's H.264 codec and the latest ATI drivers.

"There is no way to Peace -Peace is the Way" (A. J. Muste)

kiwijunglist

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#167987 30-Sep-2008 13:58

No point in changing to another ATI video card. Hopefully catalyst 8.10 will fix it, as each catalyst upgrade seems to get closer to fixing things.Other people have put in 8500GT/8600GT into 780G mobo without problems, but there were in vista.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

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