Upgrade htpc

[Teeroy32]

SO my HTPC has a pentium 4 3.4ghz and a HD6670, its now struggling to play hi-def video, namely a 1080 blueray rip over the network. I was also wanting to play Skyrim and emulators on it on my 106cm 1080 lcd, would a G630 or G850 do the job with the 6670 or would a i3 or possibly an FX-4100 fulfill my needs, looking at only spending about $200 at the most on cpu ram and mobo, mobo and ram dosn't bother me, I can get a board for around $50 and 8gb of 1600mhz geil veloce just like my desktop for $39. The TV is a 1080 LG 106cm. I'm in AUS by the way, so no newegg or amazon

 

[Teeroy32]

Does no one want to help?

 

[jaguarskx]

No. I really don't want to help. But... <sigh> ... since I don't have anything more interesting to do like counting the number of dust particles in the corner of my room I suppose I will help... for now...

For your budget build, I would actually go for the Penitum G8xx series, the most powerful one would be the G870 and it should cost less than the FX-4100 (at least in the US it does).

Click the following link for benchmarks which include the Pentium G860 and the FX-4100. As you can see the G860 is at least equal to the FX-4100; it only looses in Dirt 3.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fx-8120-6100-4100_6.html#sect0

There's also something else to consider; power consumption. When turned on and left idling the FX-4100 does consume less power than the Pentium G860 by a staggering 1.5w. However, when the CPUs have a moderate load (1 core @ 100%), the FX-4100 uses 20.2w more than the G860. At 100% load the FX-4100 uses 56.6w more than the G860.

Note, those are total system power consumption. The only differences between the tested systems (other than the CPUs) are the motherboard. You cannot install an AMD CPU in an Intel motherboard and vice versa.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fx-8120-6100-4100_8.html#sect0

My recommendation would be for the Pentium G860 for the following reasons:

- cheaper
- overall better performance in games (the FX-4100 is better for general application thought)
- lower power consumption

Now if you excuse me, my neighbor across the street has finished painting so I gonna grab my binoculars are watch the paint dry. This should be exciting...

 

[Teeroy32]

I know you can't mix cpu's and mother boards, even a dead set noob should know that that, I was leaning towards the pentium G myself, it was $35 cheaper then the 4100 and the cheapest intel board was $15 cheaper then the cheapest amd board on ple.com.au, which is the cheapest online store closest to me. I'll take it you where being humorous and not a dick, so thank you.

 

[melikepie]

Skyrim want's a i3.

 

[Teeroy32]

Realy, my old Pentium D 2.2ghx actualy played skrim, settings turned down, so a 3 ghz pentium G sandy should make it piss

 

[melikepie]

Realy, my old Pentium D 2.2ghx actualy played skrim, settings turned down, so a 3 ghz pentium G sandy should make it piss

It does not matter if it can play skrim he wants to play skyrim.

 

[Teeroy32]

hey smart arse it was obviously a typo, I meant Skyrim and any one with half a brain would have spotted it.

 

[jaguarskx]

Skyrim want's a i3.

The Pentium G8xx should be fine for Skyrim. The i3 has Hyper Threading (HT) which the G8xx does not. But games do not use HT. For a budget system the G8xx should be fine. Is the i3 a better overall CPU? Sure, but if there is a budget restriction, then you simply get the best you can afford to buy as long as the performance increase is justified.

Going from a Pentium 4 to a Pentium G8xx is well worth the price for the performance increase.

 

[Teeroy32]

Best answer selected by Teeroy32.

 

[Teeroy32]

https://www.ple.com.au/ViewWishlist.aspx?WishlistGuid=75334679-49c4-4f09-8068-1f6fec3e023b
This is what I'm going with, teamed up with the HD6670 I already have, which for its price is a surprisingly brilliant card.