How are the IGP/HDMI boards?

R

romeozor

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 2, 2006
Messages
223
greetings,

there are some microATX boards which come with HDMI output and i'd like to know how the current chipsets handle HD data. if they use the cpu too much it will heat it up which means i have to get some more accurate cooling for the cpu which means more money out the window (i want to spend little as possible). on the other side i could get some pcie vga to do most of the data coding (like a HD2400 series card) but again it will bring heat and cost more money (i dont want this option only if there is no choice).

reason i want to build this because i have an unused 3600+ am2 on the shelf, and i recently got a 720 hdtv which has hdmi input. i dont want any prebuilt stuff because for one thing they are rare here, cost too much, and they offer a bunch of things i have no need for. this would be a simple download and move pc

to sum it up, are the (current) hdmi boards any good?
 
A 690/7050 mobo's HDMI out is pretty good but that single core 3600+ isn't going to get you very far if you want to go with HD content (Blue Ray/HD DVD) but regular DVDs and your standard Xvid/downloadable content is going to be fine.
 
Unless that's a Sempron, I'm fairly sure there are no single core 3600+.

Only single core 35/3700+ if I'm correct.

And I did read that the 3600+ X2 should be able to handle HD at stock.

If not, the ASUS M2A-VM, abit AN-M2HD, Biostar TF7050-M2, and... (insert other board here) should do fine and allow you to overclock (slightly, or to the max, depending on the board) enough to boost your clockspeed for CPU only decoding. It should be enough, but don't quote me.
 
Couldn't you just really cheap out on the cpu, doesn't take much at all for mp3/divx etc, and get one of the new ATI x2600ish cards with hardware HD decoding. I'm largely uninformed, just remember reading that it because a favorite of several OEM's because of this.
 
thx everyone
my bad i forgot to specify it is a amd x2 3600+ brisbane core so indeed it is a dual core cpu at 1,9ghz at stock
so there are no integrated solutions with proper decode in the chipset which would handle the dog part and wouldnt utilize the cpu as much? that is sad.
well as i said i dont really want to bother myself with buying all sorts of things, but if a vga is the cost then i guess i can buy a silenced edition entry level card. now i just hope i can manage to keep this quiet, i dont want to hear a squeal out of this box (well at least not the fans)
 
Sorry, no IGP solution handles HD decoding through hardware yet.

However, AMD has officially said that the 690G "Revision 2" can handle any HD codec just fine when paired with an X2 CPU. Officially they say 2.0-2.2GHz, but I think they're just playing it safe; your 1.9 should be fine. I'm running a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H and an X2 4000+ (2.1GHz) with no complaints. In fact, [H]'s review of this board even said it overclocks spectacularly.

The other nice thing about this chipset is that plugging in a better card does NOT disable the IGP automatically- I plugged in an X800XT as well to run quad-display in the future.
 
oh lovely, thankyou
i'm not in a rush, so i guess i can wait for a proper board
thanks a bunch
 
mavalpha said:
Sorry, no IGP solution handles HD decoding through hardware yet.

However, AMD has officially said that the 690G "Revision 2" can handle any HD codec just fine when paired with an X2 CPU. Officially they say 2.0-2.2GHz, but I think they're just playing it safe; your 1.9 should be fine. I'm running a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H and an X2 4000+ (2.1GHz) with no complaints. In fact, [H]'s review of this board even said it overclocks spectacularly.

The other nice thing about this chipset is that plugging in a better card does NOT disable the IGP automatically- I plugged in an X800XT as well to run quad-display in the future.
Click to expand...

All Gigabyte 690G have HUGE flaw, as they do not support 4gb ram properly under Vista 64-bit, and you can forget about 8gb.
 
CrimandEvil said:
And this matters with an HTPC how? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

A HTPC should be as powerfull as possible. Running 2gb works fine with MCE 2005, but you need 4gb for a HTPC and Vista. Unless you prefere a lot of harddrive pageing, that is.

Buying a broken board is not a wise move either.

Both Vista and Linux have trouble with 690G if you use 4gb.
 
edorf said:
A HTPC should be as powerfull as possible. Running 2gb works fine with MCE 2005, but you need 4gb for a HTPC and Vista. Unless you prefere a lot of harddrive pageing, that is.
Click to expand...
Oh please. Theres absolutely no reasons anyone in their right mind would waste 4 gigs of memory in an HTPC, it's just not needed. Any Vista based HTPC is going to use less then 2 gigs of memory, way less (more like a gig and a half).

:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
edorf said:
A HTPC should be as powerfull as possible. Running 2gb works fine with MCE 2005, but you need 4gb for a HTPC and Vista. Unless you prefere a lot of harddrive pageing, that is.
Click to expand...

Wow, just wow.

Where the hell are you getting this RAM info from?
 
CrimandEvil said:
Oh please. Theres absolutely no reasons anyone in their right mind would waste 4 gigs of memory in an HTPC, it's just not needed. Any Vista based HTPC is going to use less then 2 gigs of memory, way less (more like a gig and a half).

:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Paging bamboo:
My 8GB Vista 64bit is using 1.47GB with only Opera running. 1.5GB is not even enough to use one simple browser, not to mention video.

Unless you love them page misses, and the use of that harddrive paging, 1.5GB RAM is just way too little.

2gb gives you hardly any headroom, and Vista runs less smooth than compared to 4gb.

1.5GB for Vista is a joke, use XP.
 
edorf said:
Paging bamboo:
My 8GB Vista 64bit is using 1.47GB with only Opera running. 1.5GB is not even enough to use one simple browser, not to mention video.

Unless you love them page misses, and the use of that harddrive paging, 1.5GB RAM is just way too little.

2gb gives you hardly any headroom, and Vista runs less smooth than compared to 4gb.

1.5GB for Vista is a joke, use XP.
Click to expand...
Wait. Your system take up close to 1.5 gigs with just Opera running?
Dude. You've got some problems if thats right. Either that or I'm really glad I went with Vista32 cause my Vista32 HTPC takes that a little less then 1.2 gigs with just MCE open (it jumps to a little above 1.5-1.7 with live TV/DVD/video playback).

So yeah, you've got a problem cause four gigs of memory for an HTPC is joke and not a very funny one at that.
 
valve1138 said:
Wow, just wow.

Where the hell are you getting this RAM info from?
Click to expand...

From Vista 64bit. System monitor. I did not know that was from hell. I thought we were talking about Vista, and not the Devil. Anyway:

My 8GB Vista 64bit reports on RAM:
Total 7678MB
buffered 3625MB
Free 2976MB
Used: 1.49GB
Used pagefile: 1402MB
numbers do not dance

MY 4GB Vista 64bit reports on RAM:
Total 3069MB
buffered 2021MB
Free 348MB
Used: 1.11GB.
used pagefile: 1265MB
Using onboard GFX 256MB.
numbers dance slightly

The 4gb rig, with 2gb ram:
Total 1789MB
buffered 1198MB
Free 0MB
Used: 982MB.
used pagefile: 1240MB
Using onboard GFX 256MB.
(the numbers dance quite a bit)

The 4gb rig, with 1gb ram:
Total 765MB
buffered 218MB
Free 0MB
Used: 600MB.
used pagefile: 990MB
Using onboard GFX 256MB.
(the numbers dance quite a bit)

Still only running Opera.

Absolutely no use in that "wowing" of yours. Get up to speed. Just look at them numbers.

Vista eats all the ram you can throw at it, and adapts to your stock of RAM.

You can feel the RAM.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Wait. Your system take up close to 1.5 gigs with just Opera running?
Dude. You've got some problems if thats right. Either that or I'm really glad I went with Vista32 cause my Vista32 HTPC takes that a little less then 1.2 gigs with just MCE open (it jumps to a little above 1.5-1.7 with live TV/DVD/video playback).

So yeah, you've got a problem cause four gigs of memory for an HTPC is joke and not a very funny one at that.
Click to expand...

I with you on this one. This is ridiculous.

That an edorf appears to be a plant from MSI, just look at all his posts.
 
valve1138 said:
I with you on this one. This is ridiculous.

That an edorf appears to be a plant from MSI, just look at all his posts.
Click to expand...

fu?#!h&{! BS.

I would have used Gigabyte if the boards worked, but they do not. Gigabyte has posted a BIOS that seems to fix the 4GB issue, but not the 8gb issue. For most users, this puts Gigabyte back in the game.

MSI got the 4gb issue too: MSI K9AGM2. Even Asus got it. The list is long.

These issues are not fixed until somebody shakes a tree. The MSI board is used to prove that it is not an driver issue, not a hardware issue, not a RAM issue, etc. It is an board issue. I get so much BS trying to fix these rigs, it is hard to believe, the latest being a MSI plant.

Get a life!
 
CrimandEvil said:
Wait. Your system take up close to 1.5 gigs with just Opera running?
Dude. You've got some problems if thats right. Either that or I'm really glad I went with Vista32 cause my Vista32 HTPC takes that a little less then 1.2 gigs with just MCE open (it jumps to a little above 1.5-1.7 with live TV/DVD/video playback).

So yeah, you've got a problem cause four gigs of memory for an HTPC is joke and not a very funny one at that.
Click to expand...

There is no problem at all. This is what Vista uses if it got the resourses at hand. I have used a HTPC for months with a 690G with 2gb, sure it works, like XP with 512MB RAM.

Adding 2gb more, was a great improvment. And yes, memory usage increased. Nothing wrong with the rig.

I have posted some more numbers from two different setups. Sure you can run XP with 512MB ram, but it is not that smooth, is it? Just the same with Vista.
 
Just a fyi on the 690 AMD boards, if you want to decode blue ray or hddvd with the onboard graphics you will need something in the likes of an fx 62, for no frame skipping or drops. If you already have the x2 3600+, your best bet would be to get a Geforce 8400 or 8500 which can be found in the deals for as little as 40-60$ or the ATI hd 2400 or 2600 which have the acceleration in the gpus,

I also saw an ATI x1650 for 40 AR at newegg of which im not sure on the decoding ability of the card.


On a side note you can take a look at the nforce 7050 boards they might have h.264 decoding built into the chips although I have yet to find quality reviews to support this
 
rhansen5_99 said:
Just a fyi on the 690 AMD boards, if you want to decode blue ray or hddvd with the onboard graphics you will need something in the likes of an fx 62, for no frame skipping or drops. If you already have the x2 3600+, your best bet would be to get a Geforce 8400 or 8500 which can be found in the deals for as little as 40-60$ or the ATI hd 2400 or 2600 which have the acceleration in the gpus,

....

On a side note you can take a look at the nforce 7050 boards they might have h.264 decoding built into the chips although I have yet to find quality reviews to support this
Click to expand...
1.) NV's boards don't and the Intel 7x00 series boards don't even support any sort of Purevideo HD features (BR/HD DVD decoding).

2.) You don't need an FX62. You just need at least a 2Ghz X2 for it.
 
edorf said:
A HTPC should be as powerfull as possible. Running 2gb works fine with MCE 2005, but you need 4gb for a HTPC and Vista. Unless you prefere a lot of harddrive pageing, that is.
Click to expand...

Are you kidding? where does this mentality come from? you are playing video albeit alot of it is becoming hd you still dont need 4gbs, a system like that would be happy with 1gb shit. I have an 800mhz linux machine that can still play downloaded video files. and when I first built my htpc years ago it had 512 in it.

slap 2gbs in it and be done. as far as cpu power yah just dont need to be as powerful as possible, get a cpu that will handle the tasks that it needs to.

Keep in mind that HTPCs sit most of the time...
 
rhansen5_99 said:
Just a fyi on the 690 AMD boards, if you want to decode blue ray or hddvd with the onboard graphics you will need something in the likes of an fx 62, for no frame skipping or drops. If you already have the x2 3600+, your best bet would be to get a Geforce 8400 or 8500 which can be found in the deals for as little as 40-60$ or the ATI hd 2400 or 2600 which have the acceleration in the gpus,
QUOTE]
Good luck with vc1 and Nvidia.
Click to expand...
 
Andhar said:
Are you kidding? where does this mentality come from? you are playing video albeit alot of it is becoming hd you still dont need 4gbs, a system like that would be happy with 1gb shit. I have an 800mhz linux machine that can still play downloaded video files. and when I first built my htpc years ago it had 512 in it.

slap 2gbs in it and be done. as far as cpu power yah just dont need to be as powerful as possible, get a cpu that will handle the tasks that it needs to.

Keep in mind that HTPCs sit most of the time...
Click to expand...

Funny, but MCE2005 needs a Sempron to run at 2.1GHz to run. s754. That is with no headroom at all.

High def video kind of requires 2.4GHz x2 cpu with the integrated GFX to run. If you believe them people who made the hard stuff.

Keep in mind that I never told you XP sucked with 1gb.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Like all of your posts. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Get a life!
And what is this crap about the UN in your signature?

Get a board run a few aps under vista, record a couple of simultaneus TV shows, and try to use the machine at the same time. The 890g lags under slight usage with 2gb and Vista. It is so on topic as can be, even though such hardware is uncomon among the users here and they do not get the point.

But bitching is aplenty. That kind of ruins the forum.

I stand by ALL of my statements, and you will all agree when ram is cheap enough for you, just as consesus on XP have over time.
 
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