Will Sempron LE-1200 + 780G play HD movies (smoothly) ???

It should be able to play HD media files without issue provided there is very little running in the background. If you haven't already bought the chip you may want to look into a 4450e or 4850e ($59 and $64 retail version as currently listed at Newegg). Both of these options will work in the same motherboard, faster HT, 2 cores, and are rated at a higher core speed. They also have the same 45w max TDP. I think for a little extra money this represents a fairly significant improvement even if you do plan to upgrade in the near future.

But thats just my opinion.

I went for a 5200 with a 780G, granted you could use a less powerful CPU but I wouldn't go with the strict minimum, I agree with Dacrath here and would go for something a little more energetic.

Yes, the 3500 or above chip will do a fine job.

I picked up a 5000+ for my 780G in my htpc, for around $48.

yep...been thinking of building my own AMD 780G + AMD X2 4850e... just waiting for some cash

The 780G is a nice little board. If you want to do light gaming, then you can play Spore next week on AMD's IGP:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inqu [...] re-lot-fun

I'll finally get an 8750 for the Gigabyte 780G board I bought months ago. I can't wait for Deneb, but I don't think Deneb will be 95 watts, so bios issues aside, most 780G boards don't support 125 watts:


http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inqu [...] map-leaked

From what I remember, Blu-Ray playback requires a 2 gigahertz dual core, so I'd go with a cheap X2 instead of the sempron for futureproofing, but if you don't want Blu-Ray then the Sempron will do.