Help deciding AMD Athlon Dual Core CPU for HTPC Build

I recently built my HTPC and used the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e.
Overclockers do not stock it, but I found it for a song over at e-buyer.

It is 2.5 GHZ at stock, and what is special about it is that it's a low power version of the chips that you linked to before. Therefore it runs cooler, and requires less in the way of active cooling to keep temperatures stable.

I have a quiet zalman fan running on it, and its all but silent. However I have heard reports that you can use a scythe mini-ninja to passivly cool it whithout the fan, and as long as you have a 120mm exhaust fan, it should clear the heat effectivly. This combo should fit in most small HTPC cases too!

Anyway, that is my recommedation. Hope it helps.

Thanks very much for your advice.

I won't be playing games, only using it for movies, music, recording tv and internet.

I'll check out the 4850e, thanks again.

Yep, totally. It works fine for me. I have it with an AMD 780G chipset. The integrated graphics are designed specifically for the playing of such video. This takes the load off of the cpu and frees it up so it can decode the movie.

Incidently I bought the gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] otherboard
And this board allows for a 90% Overclock on the integrated graphics core straight out of the box! (Just hit ctrl+F1 in the bios and it unlocks a secret menu, you can set the graphics core at 900!)

I have exact the same motherboard for my HTPC and it's fitted in a Antec Fusion case, and it is quiet!!!! i have 2 120mm fans spinning on low and a scythe ninja mini cpu cooler + fan , and it stays at 30 degrees idle! and I can't hear anything. Only a very very soft low breeze.

Processor is x2 5000+ be, and it's a good bang for the buck. And will handle everything nicely, the onboard video, is enough to play at 1920x1200 resolution. (videos that is)

I've been looking at that motherboad and getting for a media center in a few days.
Apparently the sb700 i think it was can get rather hot on the V1.0 of the board, the later released 1.1 has a larger heatsink on it.

HDD Fast as the Samsung Spinpoint F1. That's a fast hdd even faster than the seagate 7200.11 in most cases, and its cool, the samsung goes up to 32ºC while most hdds are hotter, like 40~45ºC, I've seen several hdd roundups and the spinpoing F1 seems really great.

I've found my Phenom quite faster clock for clock against my Athlon X2 in my applications, so I think its ok, but looking at the price, the 4850e is a great choice anyway.

There is a different in a couple of Gigabyte models. One has a P in the name and that's the model with the SidePort memory. If you don't get that one, then you'll need a video card instead of relying on the video from your motherboard.

The reason is because on-board video uses system RAM which is slower than the RAM on video cards unless you have SidePort memory.

I bought an Asus M3A78-EM and decided to buy a video card (HD 4670) partly because I noticed some microscopic lag in 1080p without a video card and also because I noticed my new machine which was only built as a test machine was more powerful than my main rig which means it's now going to be my gaming/HD movie PC.

The HD 4000 series video cards still have better clarity than the HD 3000 series anyway.

The GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM-DS2H has the sideport memory:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128341

I already had the graphics card, so I got a different model myself, but if I move the triple core and mobo to an HTPC after Deneb comes out, I'll go for a 4670 too.

Get a 6500+!!!!

en.expreview.com/2008/09/23/amds-best-dual-core-ever-athlon-6500-kuma-review/3/

quote:
With default voltage, the Kuma CPU can easily hit 3GHz. Raise volt to 1.4375V and core clock can reach 3.3GHz and passed SP2004 easily. Increasing voltage to 1.45V and 6500 can oc to 3.4GHz, but can not pass SP2004. Please this is only on air. Looks Kuma have outstanding OCbility.
unquote.

That is a fine example of what i was talking about. a quad on a 65w power envelope. You would chug that dual pretty fast, because, well, it is not the fastest CPU around (albeit with a excellent watt/performance ratio) and once you get started, you wont have only high-def movies playing.

Better choice i guess.

A AMD Phenom X4 9550 is a good alternative to the Phenom X4 9350e.
Although its TDP is higher at 95 watts the 9550 is much less expensive and has similar performance.

Underclock and undervolt

That's how AMD got the chip

you could get any dual core you like from x2 5000 and above.
i wouldnt recommend a black edition since it will require to buy a heatsink/fan unless you like the power efficiency and unlocked multipliers of the x2 5000 BE.