I need to upgrade my HTPC. Budget is $500 in Best Buy gift cards (woo hoo credit card rewards!)
Why upgrade? I watch a lot of Twitch.tv and recently discovered I am dropping frames with HD content. Always blamed it on Twitch until I watched it on my office PC (2600k & radeon 5850s) and got butter-smooth framerates.
Looking for parts: CPU, Mobo, RAM
What I have:
AMD X2 5050e
A Gigabyte Mobo, AM2+ slot I think, onboard graphics
4 GB DDR2-800
Reusing case, power supply, storage, etc
Priorities:
Low Power consumption (idle and watching HD content)
Future Proofing
Usage:
Watching video clips and streaming web HD video.
The most gaming I would ever do is emulate N64 games.
Thoughts:
I'm thinking Ivy Bridge dual core.. but those don't seem to be out yet.
I see some people recommending Llano, but I'm afraid of the future-proofing of any AMD platform at this point.
Don't be afraid to lowball the $500 as I understand that's usually a fair budget for the whole PC and I'm reusing a lot of parts.
Why upgrade? I watch a lot of Twitch.tv and recently discovered I am dropping frames with HD content. Always blamed it on Twitch until I watched it on my office PC (2600k & radeon 5850s) and got butter-smooth framerates.
Looking for parts: CPU, Mobo, RAM
What I have:
AMD X2 5050e
A Gigabyte Mobo, AM2+ slot I think, onboard graphics
4 GB DDR2-800
Reusing case, power supply, storage, etc
Priorities:
Low Power consumption (idle and watching HD content)
Future Proofing
Usage:
Watching video clips and streaming web HD video.
The most gaming I would ever do is emulate N64 games.
Thoughts:
I'm thinking Ivy Bridge dual core.. but those don't seem to be out yet.
I see some people recommending Llano, but I'm afraid of the future-proofing of any AMD platform at this point.
Don't be afraid to lowball the $500 as I understand that's usually a fair budget for the whole PC and I'm reusing a lot of parts.