Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Looking into HTPC...general question.

I thought all the new processors were quite efficient and shut down cores when not in use/needed.

In general, unless this is going to be a gaming machine I suspect you will be fine with any of the listed processors.

integrated videocard (VGA&DVI)+ 1gb ethernet + sound card

2 slots for Harddisk + 1 slot for CD/DVD

barebone 129$
2gig ram (2x1gb) 21$
Intel Pentium E5300 2.6GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W 69$
1 TB Western digital Green HD 94$

129+21+69+94 = 313$

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200W power supply -> really low energy consumption
low noise -> no graphic card fan (integrated on board)


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The Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB Hard Drive uses less power and supports quieter, cooler-running desktop PCs. Its breakthrough 32 MB cache makes this hard drive suitable for high-performance home and business computing, as it can handle high-end data-intensive and multimedia applications.

This hard drive incorporates WD’s GreenPower technology, which yields lower operating temperatures and low acoustics, best for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives use. The IntelliPower delivers a fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms; IntelliSeek Calculates optimum seek speeds; and IntelliPark automatically unloads the heads during idle. All the features help the drive to operation in lower power consumption and reduced noise environment.

Luc, thank you so much! That is an excellent suggestion.

I actually considered that Shuttle kit. My concern is the integrated graphics and lack of any expansion slots. I just don't feel comfortable spending money on this project and having zero ability to address potential future GPU demands. Also, becoming captive to Shuttle for mobo and power supply makes me uneasy. I guess part of the "fun" for me is leveraging existing and future resources to most effectively address the overall computing needs for our family. With the Shuttle, there is no future. But it does seem like an excellent value.

If my primary concerns were "green" and "small", that would be just the ticket. My primary concern is the video streaming, and I'm just not confident that the Intel GMA 950 is going to get it done.

Does anybody have an opinion (or place where I can find ADD-friendly resources on) the fundamental differences between the 4650 and 4670 video cards? I could shave a little money there (and on the memory) and get a faster processor if that's the sweet spot.

shuttlep2

this one has no videocard included, 400W CERTIFIED PSU. and 1 pci expresss x16



on the other hand
new 4770 review at tomshardware ( 109$ )

If you check the game benchmarks (ie: Crysis) you will see that the 4770 is a huge leap ahead of the 4670, for 109$ I think it's worth it.

places like anandtec.com usually have good articles on graphics platforms and differences.

I'd be looking at anandtech.com or techreport.com.

Techreport looks like a nice site. I've been wanting another tech site to replace Tom's since it has turned to crap.

Thanks Ken.

Thank you very much for the site references. Very helpful. Plan A (with reduced memory) is still looking pretty good at the moment.

I'm basing my HTPC design off of Anandtech's recent sub $800 PC guide. I'm basing it off of the Intel HTPC one...'cept with 8 gigs of ram and two 1TB hard drives it comes out to be about grand. The gigabyte motherboard (w/ NVIDIA 9400 gfx) plus 2.5 ghz Dual Core seems to be a great combo.

Great article, hietpas! Thanks so much.

This has all been fairly validating, actually.

I really like gigabyte motherboards and really don't plan to buy anything else. But - for me - I'd rather spend the money on a dedicated GPU rather than a more expensive mobo with integrated graphics. People really do seem to like that E5200 processor.