Really the buying begins the case is on its way an Aplus GL3
and I am down to two motherboard chipsets 780G or 785G
depending on the processor- it looks like an athlon II x2 250
is the best bet with its low power requirement I did fancy
going x3 but keeping the price down to around £60 I don't
see a low power option so if anybody has an idea I'd be
interested to hear it.

Derek W

"DerekW"  wrote in message 
news:llmJm.11201$TK7.11112@newsfe18.ams2...
> Really the buying begins the case is on its way an Aplus GL3
> and I am down to two motherboard chipsets 780G or 785G
> depending on the processor- it looks like an athlon II x2 250
> is the best bet with its low power requirement I did fancy
> going x3 but keeping the price down to around £60 I don't
> see a low power option so if anybody has an idea I'd be
> interested to hear it.

I do not think you can get ULV CPUs for desktops yet although they must 
probably will surface at some point (for low voltage desktop machines) my 
PDC 1.3ghz ulv is 90.5% as fast as a Core 2 Duo 1.66ghz (going by wei 
scores) yet the machine its in gives 6.5 hours web usage... thats pretty 
impressive although it does have a 6 cell battery which helps. My old EEE PC 
901 Atom 1.6ghz gave 4.5 hours web usage and it also had a 6 cell battery so 
either the 6 cell in the EEE is much less powerfull or the machine with ulv 
cpu is doing a fine job at doing exactly what it was designed for...

"Nick Le Lievre" <nicklelievre@jerseymail.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message 
news:hd4sl4$cu6$1@news.albasani.net...
> "DerekW"  wrote in message 
> news:llmJm.11201$TK7.11112@newsfe18.ams2...
>> Really the buying begins the case is on its way an Aplus GL3
>> and I am down to two motherboard chipsets 780G or 785G
>> depending on the processor- it looks like an athlon II x2 250
>> is the best bet with its low power requirement I did fancy
>> going x3 but keeping the price down to around £60 I don't
>> see a low power option so if anybody has an idea I'd be
>> interested to hear it.
>
> I do not think you can get ULV CPUs for desktops yet although they must 
> probably will surface at some point (for low voltage desktop machines) my 
> PDC 1.3ghz ulv is 90.5% as fast as a Core 2 Duo 1.66ghz (going by wei 
> scores) yet the machine its in gives 6.5 hours web usage... thats pretty 
> impressive although it does have a 6 cell battery which helps. My old EEE 
> PC 901 Atom 1.6ghz gave 4.5 hours web usage and it also had a 6 cell 
> battery so either the 6 cell in the EEE is much less powerfull or the 
> machine with ulv cpu is doing a fine job at doing exactly what it was 
> designed for...

I'm pretty well limited to AMD  I need the 780/785 chipset for its onboard 
video's ability to decode bluray in hardware for an HD TV output (1080i)
and later for DVB-S2 or possibly  DVB-T2 as HD terrestrial comes on line in 
December ideally to use a twin tuner for PVR applictions i.e. record one 
channel while watching another so a decent margin of processing power is a 
must of course I can always upgrade later if needs be.
Derek W

"DerekW"  wrote in message 
news:ymoJm.29406$tF5.24932@newsfe25.ams2...
> >
> I'm pretty well limited to AMD  I need the 780/785 chipset for its onboard 
> video's ability to decode bluray in hardware for an HD TV output (1080i)
> and later for DVB-S2 or possibly  DVB-T2 as HD terrestrial comes on line 
> in December ideally to use a twin tuner for PVR applictions i.e. record 
> one channel while watching another so a decent margin of processing power 
> is a must of course I can always upgrade later if needs be.
> Derek W

My HTPC has a Gigabyte G41 board with an e5200 overclocked to 3.3ghz, 4GB 
Crucial RAM, Sony Blu-Ray, 1TB HDD, 9800GT Low Profile, Antec Minuet 350 
mATX case, Hauppuage HVR 2200 atv/dtv dual tuner, Windows 7 HP its great.

"Nick Le Lievre" <nicklelievre@jerseymail.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message 
news:hd6830$mrn$1@news.albasani.net...
> "DerekW"  wrote in message 
> news:ymoJm.29406$tF5.24932@newsfe25.ams2...
>> >
>> I'm pretty well limited to AMD  I need the 780/785 chipset for its 
>> onboard video's ability to decode bluray in hardware for an HD TV output 
>> (1080i)
>> and later for DVB-S2 or possibly  DVB-T2 as HD terrestrial comes on line 
>> in December ideally to use a twin tuner for PVR applictions i.e. record 
>> one channel while watching another so a decent margin of processing power 
>> is a must of course I can always upgrade later if needs be.
>> Derek W
>
> My HTPC has a Gigabyte G41 board with an e5200 overclocked to 3.3ghz, 4GB 
> Crucial RAM, Sony Blu-Ray, 1TB HDD, 9800GT Low Profile, Antec Minuet 350 
> mATX case, Hauppuage HVR 2200 atv/dtv dual tuner, Windows 7 HP its great.

Sounds the ticket Nick my choice of case is just down to matching aesthetics 
with my Sherwood Newcastle Reciever I have a DVB-T  in my desktop (Videomate 
SAA7020) but I'll wait a bit before diving into the DVB-T2 market at least 
until there is a bit more choice or possibly just go direct to DVB-S2 plenty 
of time to play with the options.

Derek

On Sun, 8 Nov 2009 00:34:38 -0000
"DerekW"  wrote:

> I'm pretty well limited to AMD  I need the 780/785 chipset for its onboard 
> video's ability to decode bluray in hardware for an HD TV output (1080i)
> and later for DVB-S2 or possibly  DVB-T2 as HD terrestrial comes on line in 
> December ideally to use a twin tuner for PVR applictions i.e. record one 
> channel while watching another so a decent margin of processing power is a 
> must of course I can always upgrade later if needs be.

NVidia 8x00 and better chipsets can decode H264 (BluRay etc) too, but
you need a certain spec to be able to run the advanced deinterlacing
options with 1080i. I don't know how that compares with ATI.

If the video chip can do all the decoding you don't need a lot of
processing power, but it might come in useful if player applications
make it possible to decode 1080i in hardware while deinterlacing it in
software.

-- 
TH * http://www.realh.co.uk

"Tony Houghton"  wrote in message 
news:20091108154418.39b10431@realh.co.uk...
> On Sun, 8 Nov 2009 00:34:38 -0000
> "DerekW"  wrote:
>
>> I'm pretty well limited to AMD  I need the 780/785 chipset for its 
>> onboard
>> video's ability to decode bluray in hardware for an HD TV output (1080i)
>> and later for DVB-S2 or possibly  DVB-T2 as HD terrestrial comes on line 
>> in
>> December ideally to use a twin tuner for PVR applictions i.e. record one
>> channel while watching another so a decent margin of processing power is 
>> a
>> must of course I can always upgrade later if needs be.
>
> NVidia 8x00 and better chipsets can decode H264 (BluRay etc) too, but
> you need a certain spec to be able to run the advanced deinterlacing
> options with 1080i. I don't know how that compares with ATI.
>
> If the video chip can do all the decoding you don't need a lot of
> processing power, but it might come in useful if player applications
> make it possible to decode 1080i in hardware while deinterlacing it in
> software.
>
> -- 
> TH * http://www.realh.co.uk

The ability of the Radeon HD 3200 onboard video 
http://media.bestofmicro.com/4/3/84387/original/chart_hdtv_cpu_load.png
 was the decider it really takes enough load off the cpu to allow for other 
processes to have headroom. I believe my choice of processor should be 
enough ( as its a good deal faster than the those in the test) well at least 
until I start seriously looking at satellite options though its difficult to 
find comparison benchmarks for most of my intended applications what ever 
happens its going to be a learning experience - I'm even going to try 
running a linux OS for comparison.

DerekW

On Sun, 8 Nov 2009 16:44:26 -0000
"DerekW"  wrote:

> The ability of the Radeon HD 3200 onboard video 
> http://media.bestofmicro.com/4/3/84387/original/chart_hdtv_cpu_load.png
>  was the decider it really takes enough load off the cpu to allow for other 
> processes to have headroom. I believe my choice of processor should be 
> enough ( as its a good deal faster than the those in the test) well at least 
> until I start seriously looking at satellite options though its difficult to 
> find comparison benchmarks for most of my intended applications what ever 
> happens its going to be a learning experience - I'm even going to try 
> running a linux OS for comparison.

I don't think there are viable Linux drivers for ATI HD video decoding
yet, but support is supposed to be coming eventually. Then you'll need
applications to support its API, unless there's a VDPAU backend. VDPAU
is NVidia's video decoding API which can theoretically support other
hardware too. It is supported by some video players already, but
it usually involves downloading svn snapshots etc and compiling them
yourself, and I think it can still be a bit flaky in some cases.

-- 
TH * http://www.realh.co.uk

"Nick Le Lievre" <nicklelievre@jerseymail.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message 
news:hd6830$mrn$1@news.albasani.net...
> "DerekW"  wrote in message 
> news:ymoJm.29406$tF5.24932@newsfe25.ams2...
>> >
>> I'm pretty well limited to AMD  I need the 780/785 chipset for its 
>> onboard video's ability to decode bluray in hardware for an HD TV output 
>> (1080i)
>> and later for DVB-S2 or possibly  DVB-T2 as HD terrestrial comes on line 
>> in December ideally to use a twin tuner for PVR applictions i.e. record 
>> one channel while watching another so a decent margin of processing power 
>> is a must of course I can always upgrade later if needs be.
>> Derek W
>
> My HTPC has a Gigabyte G41 board with an e5200 overclocked to 3.3ghz, 4GB 
> Crucial RAM, Sony Blu-Ray, 1TB HDD, 9800GT Low Profile, Antec Minuet 350 
> mATX case, Hauppuage HVR 2200 atv/dtv dual tuner, Windows 7 HP its great.


I have found an Antec "Micro Fusion Remote 350 - UK" case.  Is that the 
same?

I assume that you are using Media Center in W7 HP (?)  - I have found that 
is quite good at driving my Hauppauge Nova DVB-S2 PCI card.

I have been unable to download the manual.  How is the LCD display connected 
and can Media Center display the channel name?


-- 
Michael Chare

"Michael Chare"  wrote in message
>
> I have found an Antec "Micro Fusion Remote 350 - UK" case.  Is that the 
> same?
>

No its better, do not get the Minuet case if planning on adding a 9800gt low 
profile the PSU is not up to the job, I only found that out afterwards still 
have not put in place a fix.

> I assume that you are using Media Center in W7 HP (?)  - I have found that 
> is quite good at driving my Hauppauge Nova DVB-S2 PCI card.
>

Yes W7 media center.

> I have been unable to download the manual.  How is the LCD display 
> connected and can Media Center display the channel name?
>

Would not know about that sorry.