Is AMD better than Intel for HTPC?

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Dolphyn42

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We have been doing research for a long time on how to build our HTPC. If we stick to not using dedicated graphics, we'll go with an A6 or A8. If we do get dedicated graphics, we haven't determined what processor to get.
Looking at PassMark, the AMD Athlon X4 750K beats the Intel Pentium G3220. I've always seen people put a Pentium in their build with dedicated graphics, and people also seem to recommend Intel for better processing, so is the Athlon actually better?
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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A HTPC does not really depend on fast processing, many cores, or discrete graphics.
The big challenge for a HTPC is the case selection.
You will want a quiet case.

The amd apm solutions are strong on graphics if you want to play action games. They are weak on cpu power and power requirements.

The intel duo's are strong enough for HTPC and some can need exceptionally low power.

Either can use integrated graphics for full HD movie playback and strategy games like civ.

For smallness, look at ITX sized mother boards and cases. Intel has a good selection, amd is very limited.

My advice is to look for a case first.
 
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Yasin Tarabar

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Go with the Athlon, although slightly more expensive than Pentium, it has better performance. The Athlon is quad-core, vs. Pentium's two-core, meaning it can run more programs at once. It also has a higher clock speed, 3.4 GHz vs. 3 GHz, which, for your purposes, along with more cores, makes it much better.
 
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CTurbo

CTurbo

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AMD A series was made for this, but the Haswell Intel i3s and i5s are really good too. They run cool and don't use as much power as the AMDs which is important for small case HTPCs. I personally went with the A10-6800k and I love it even though it is overkill for HTPC uses.
 
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CTurbo

CTurbo

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There's really no such thing as "future proof" really. The best you can do right now is build on a platform that offers some sort of future upgrade path. You could get the A8 and fm2+ motherboard and you will have that as AMD will be releasing some new cpus on that platform in the near future.

Of course Intel Haswell offers a better upgrade path and is therefor more "future proof" simply because there are so many Intel cpus that are far better than the best fm2+ cpu. Make sense?
 
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Dolphyn42

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Yep. I will keep this in mind. Thank you.
 
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