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Thread ID: 102966	2009-09-07 22:40:00	CPU upgrade for XBMC	nofam (9009)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
807874	2009-09-07 22:40:00	Can someone advise me on the best CPU for a cheapish upgrade; my current media box has an Asus P5GV-MX (www.asus.com), running a P4 3.0 which isn't cutting the mustard for XBMC. The MoBo is a socket 775, so my first choice would be an E8400, but I'm wondering: 1. Is there a better choice of CPU? 2. Would I still be limited somewhat by RAM speed and the integrated graphics; unfortunately XBMC doesn't support GPU offloading.	nofam (9009)
807875	2009-09-07 22:52:00	It won't take any Core 2 CPUs - it's based on the old 915 chipset. Heck, I don't think it would even support Pentium D, which needs 945 chipset or above. Probably the best upgrade option is a 3.8GHz Pentium 4 but I've never seen one in more than two years.	qazwsxokmijn (102)
807876	2009-09-07 22:58:00	It won't take any Core 2 CPUs - it's based on the old 915 chipset. Heck, I don't think it would even support Pentium D, which needs 945 chipset or above. Probably the best upgrade option is a 3.8GHz Pentium 4 but I've never seen one in more than two years. Yeah I should've done more research sorry :blush: Assuming that E8400 is the best option (SSE4 really helps with video encoding too), is there any certain version of it I should look for?	nofam (9009)
807877	2009-09-07 23:09:00	If you're not overclocking than a C0 stepping E8400 is fine. Otherwise E0. But still, get a E0 if you can. They run cooler and may use less voltage.	qazwsxokmijn (102)
807878	2009-09-07 23:41:00	If you're not overclocking than a C0 stepping E8400 is fine. Otherwise E0. But still, get a E0 if you can. They run cooler and may use less voltage. :D Just to confuse the issue even more, I see that an E8400 is the same price as a Q8400 (4Mb cache as opposed to 6Mb on the E8400). Would quad-core be better for a media centre? Am planning on running XMBC on Windows, as I also want to play Blu-ray, as this can't be done on XBMC/Linux - will add an Asus EN9400GT to handle the Blu-ray (either using Windows 7 or XP with Power DVD)	nofam (9009)
807879	2009-09-08 00:09:00	I reckon an E5200 would be more suitable...or invest in an Atom 330+Mobo for around $200 www.ascent.co.nz Stick with dual...fmpeg is still in the early stages of 2+ core utilization..	Blam (54)
807880	2009-09-08 00:40:00	I reckon an E5200 would be more suitable...or invest in an Atom 330+Mobo for around $200 www.ascent.co.nz Stick with dual...fmpeg is still in the early stages of 2+ core utilization.. Yeah I actually looked into an E5200 a while back because of the huge OC potential. But I've never overclocked before, and I don't really want to start with a HTPC, and even though I could ramp up the clock speed, the E5200 doesn't have SSE4. Atom boards don't seem to have PCI-e slots, so adding a card wouldn't be viable (and AFAIK, onboard video controllers still don't quite handle 1080p) Have found this so far: CPU (www.computerlounge.co.nz) Motherboard (www.ascent.co.nz) Seems to be a pretty good combination; Mobo has inbuilt HDMI. Thoughts?	nofam (9009)
807881	2009-09-08 00:49:00	Yeah looks good. Ascent has a pretty sweet dealio on that mobo. Pretty sure a lot of the mobos (w/hdmi out) these days can handle 1080p, I know there are a heap of AMD ones that do, with the 780G chipset, but I'm not so sure about the intel ones.	wratterus (105)
807882	2009-09-08 00:53:00	Yeah looks good. Ascent has a pretty sweet dealio on that mobo. Pretty sure a lot of the mobos these days can handle 1080p, I know there are a heap of AMD ones that do, with the 780G chipset, but I'm not so sure about the intel ones. Cheers Wrat - can you suggest an AMD equivalent of the E8400 and a MoBo with the 780G chipset? I've never used AMD gear before and know even less about it that I do about Intel (which is Sweet FA!! :p)	nofam (9009)
807883	2009-09-08 00:55:00	The 2.5ghz of clock speed would be more than enough for XBMC...no need to OC. Why do you need SSE4? Good point about the atom board...forgot about that!	Blam (54)
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