HTPC CPU Suggestions

scottiemedic

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Okay, I tend to get long winded on questions since I'm AR and thorough so I'll try to keep it short.

I recently got an ASUS P8H77-I ITX mobo and Prodigy case to give my aging Phenom II HTPC an upgrade. The mobo will support darn near every Sandy and Ivy Bridge CPU. I'll also run an 128gb SSD boot and WD Green 1tb HDD for storage with BluRay optical til I get some better HDDs in RAID.

The question...
What CPU should I get? I need not worry about K series since I will NEVER OC it, but I guess what the real situation is, can I get by with just a Pentium or should I go i3 or higher? I'll need the onboard video (to begin with) so HD Graphics need to be considered, and down the road I'll get a GPU and turn on Lucid.

Mainly it will do 1080p video watching, Plex server and YouTube for Roku and store some files in a pseudo-NAS/Samba server for the house (pics and such). I really don't want overkill, but also don't want it choking out on me. And with the onboard video consideration, I'm kinda scratching my head (my old mobo had Radeon HD3000 series onboard so I never worried about it as it did fine for decoding).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Solution
I recommend the i3 3225 or i3 3245. They both come with Intel HD4000 graphics. I do not trust any igpu LESS than HD4000 to provide smooth consistent playback of all HD media. I know that HD2000 doesn't do it, and I have heard bad things about HD2500 and 1080p playback.

CTurbo

Pizza Monster
Moderator
I recommend the i3 3225 or i3 3245. They both come with Intel HD4000 graphics. I do not trust any igpu LESS than HD4000 to provide smooth consistent playback of all HD media. I know that HD2000 doesn't do it, and I have heard bad things about HD2500 and 1080p playback.
 
Solution

scottiemedic

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You think I could get by with 2x2gb RAM or should I spring for 2x4gb?

Also, do the T and S versions work 'as well' (I know there aren't 3225 or 3245 versions, but maybe a 3240T or 3250T)? I was thinking about the lower wattage and less heat. The Bitfenix Prodigy has plenty of fan space, but I really and obviously want noise to a minimum when it's running.
 

scottiemedic

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Yeah, I started digging deeper into specs on ARK and saw the lack of HD 4000 iGPU on a lot of my options (including Celerons and Pentiums). Thanks for the help, got my eye on the 3225 as it seems to be $25 cheaper than the 3245 and all that's lost is 100MHz.