AMD Athlon or Intel Core2duo?

[Evolv]

If you're grabbing an AMD, grab this setup:

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

The onboard should be fine for the TV, it all depends on what resolution it supports.

+1 for that combo, it's a good motherboard.

 

[regalwhiskey]

FYI on cheap processors: This competes (Maybe)
This is a first time post for me, and I wanted to say that newegg has the newer AMD 64x2 ADV6000dobox 65nm running at 3.1 GHZ with great reviews. Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.1GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops The only thing is the short 1MB cashe which I suspect will effect performance somewhat. I have a Dell system (My last) and overclocking is not available in their BIOS. Bummer for sure.

 

[Evolv]

This will give you better performance than the X2 7750:
Newegg.com - Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

It's been proven that it beats a 7750 even with overclock:
bit-tech.net | Review - Athlon X2 7750 vs. Intel E5200 OC & Valuehttp://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2008/12/22/athlon-x2-7750-vs-intel-e5200-oc-review/4

 

[Peter.Cort]

I would say go with a cheaper intel core 2 duo, any mATX board you want and an ATI card, either 3k or 4k series as they will give you the best HD video decoding, much better then comparable nVidia cards. There are nvidia cards that will do the decoding but it will cost you quite a bit more. The thing is the 3k/4k ATI cards actually do the decoding on the gpu, taking the load off of the cpu, so you can in reality just buy the cheapest cpu you want and you'll be fine. If you can find it over there i'd recommend something like this.

Newegg.com - Intel Celeron E1200 1.6GHz 512KB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

Newegg.com - ZOTAC NF610I-E-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
-or something comparable, as it doesn't need to be a top of the line mobo, just something that is socket lga775 and will support pci-e-

Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H345F256NS Radeon HD 3450 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
and something like that.

won't cost you much over 100 USD, dunno what it would look like over in your neck of the world, but that's what I would look into.

 

[peter_ming]

wow,

i don't expect that there are so many options out there!! I'll certainly look into those options )

@peter.cort

so ATI does better on decoding HD material than nVidia? I have so far only used nVidia GeForce 7100GS on my office PC running on core2duo 4400 @ 2.00GHz, and the other one at home with the older P4 2.8GHz - AGP slot (forgot the type), so i'm not really familiar with ATI products.

 

[maroon1]

At newegg the E5200 cost only $72.99

 

[peter_ming]

hi,

I just checked my home pc config and it goes like this:

P4 2.8GHz
Gigabyte GA-8VM800M-775
Via P4M00/8237R
Graphic card nVidia GeForce FX 5500 256mb
RAM 1.2 GM
Maxtor 80 GB + 250 GB

What can I do to upgrade the performance, especially in terms of HD video decoding (no games for me)?

 

[Evolv]

If you want to keep that system going. Then this will do just fine for video decoding:
Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H365F512ANP Radeon HD 3650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

 

[regalwhiskey]

thanks for the input, I think I'll go with Athlon X2 (either a 6000+ or 6400+, I can't find a 7750 yet).

Now on with the mobo, do I need to have separate or onboard VGA card? I'll connect it to my 42" LCD running on Full HD, so can onboard VGA handle this well? I don't do games, photoshops, or overclock (can't understand it so rather not risk it).

Some thoughts after searching the web:
Newegg.com - ASRock ALiveNF7G-FullHD R3.0 AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
or
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

For optical drive I'll stick with DVD rom for now, but will probably upgrade to Blu-Ray in the future. If the onboard VGA does'nt support Blu-Ray, can I upgrade the add-on VGA in the future? Or I have to totally redo the mobo?

Any suggestion will be appreciated.
Peter

I'd use a DVI port and a onboard card. preferably the PCIe x 16
if the Mobo has the slot.

 

[Apokalipse]

The X3 series was kind of a flop. The x2 7750 can probably outperform it, and will be cheaper. The die shrink to 65nm is part of it.

They're the same basic architecture, and both are 65nm.

If you went with a 780G or 790GX motherboard, that will do your HD decoding and you won't have to get a dedicated video card (780G is essentially an integrated 3450).
If all you're doing is running a media centre, it won't matter much what CPU you have when the GPU does the decoding. You could just use an X2 BE-2300.

Just get 2GB+ of RAM (RAM is cheap) and it'll be quite responsive - paging file is actually one of the things that causes the biggest performance hits.