AMD APU build

mad turnip

HI All,

Looking to do a HTPC for the parents for christmas.

I have some stuff already from previous builds etc and just wanted to see if I was missing anything and any recommendations anyone has.

What I'm looking to buy:
ASRock QC5000-ITX
Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini-ITX
PCTV DVB-S Pro 4000i

What I have:
400W ATX PSU
2x2Gb DDR3 (DIMM)
2x 500Gb HDD.
Tv/Monitor
Keyboard/Mouse
Windows

Requirements are 1080P, Dvd drive. Maybe a Bluray drive in the future.
Any case recommendation should preferably take an ATX PSU.

I'm interested if anyone has any comments on the power consumption of the DVB-S card and if there is any issue of using both tuners at once espically on an APU build.

Cheers,

Eoinmc97

Looks good to me. All you need so is a CPU, so I suppose whatever fits your budget? I think the A8 series offer good price/performance.
The CM 130 is a good case but can be a little loud.

mad turnip

Eoinmc97 wrote: »

Looks good to me. All you need so is a CPU, so I suppose whatever fits your budget? I think the A8 series offer good price/performance.
The CM 130 is a good case but can be a little loud.

ASRock QC5000-ITX comes with an intergrated CPU, A4 5000.
The clock speed worries me a small bit coming in at 1500MHz, 4 core, but from what I read on reviews its fine for what I plan on using it for.

I was thinking of swapping the case to:
http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Inter-Tech-SY-800-Mini-ITX-ohne-Netzteil-schwarz_994465.html
Downsides is it has no fans, but with such a low power CPU I'm not sure it will affect things too much.

the_syco

It having a passive heatsink, personally I'd want something sucking the hot air out.

Eoinmc97 wrote: »

The CM 130 is a good case but can be a little loud.

The overall case, or just the fans? If just the external fans, would some rubber screws help quiten it?

The ones I linked to I found to be a good design, and you can clip off the "dangly bits" after you fit on the fans, to ensure a tidy setup. Made a large difference to a (non-HTPC) case; I don't hear the fans from that PC anymore.

ED E

Will that manage HVEC playback? Its not a big thing now, but will be within a year or two.

Johnboy1951

I'm interested if anyone has any comments on the power consumption of the DVB-S card and if there is any issue of using both tuners at once espically on an APU build.

I don't know that particular card - I use TBS cards.
The two cards I have do not suck resources, in fact they are quite light on resources. One dual tuner DVB-S card and one dual tuner DVB-T card.

Presently I have them in a Dual Core P4 old Dell PC with original PSU.
That PC is not used to display the output except in exceptional circumstances .... but is capable with on board video, of displaying all SD channels. The HD channels are a bit too much for it .... I think it has about 8MBs ram allocated to the video
I generally run a minimum of two TVs/devices from those tuners and have run 5 without any problems.

So unless that Sat card is exceptionally hungry I doubt there would be any problems.

mad turnip

the_syco wrote: »

It having a passive heatsink, personally I'd want something sucking the hot air out.


The overall case, or just the fans? If just the external fans, would some rubber screws help quiten it?

The ones I linked to I found to be a good design, and you can clip off the "dangly bits" after you fit on the fans, to ensure a tidy setup. Made a large difference to a (non-HTPC) case; I don't hear the fans from that PC anymore.

I'll stick a couple of fans on it sure it only brings the cost up a small amount. One intake and one outtake should be plenty.

Will that manage HVEC playback? Its not a big thing now, but will be within a year or two.

I doubt it for the most part. Maybe 24 fps will be possible but I would imagine since its software decoding most cheap modern CPU's will even struggle I find it hard to believe a software decoding solution will catch on tbh.

I don't know that particular card - I use TBS cards.
The two cards I have do not suck resources, in fact they are quite light on resources. One dual tuner DVB-S card and one dual tuner DVB-T card.

Presently I have them in a Dual Core P4 old Dell PC with original PSU.
That PC is not used to display the output except in exceptional circumstances .... but is capable with on board video, of displaying all SD channels. The HD channels are a bit too much for it .... I think it has about 8MBs ram allocated to the video
I generally run a minimum of two TVs/devices from those tuners and have run 5 without any problems.

So unless that Sat card is exceptionally hungry I doubt there would be any problems.

Thanks! I only plan on using them for SD but having never bought a PCI DVB-S card I had no idea of what the requirements might be.
I've decided to switch to a single tuner as I know my dad rerouted the other coax to a different room and he will be reluctant to run another from the dish into this room considering how much effort it would be.

http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/TechniSat-SkyStar-S2_644575.html

Alun

mad turnip wrote: »

I'm interested if anyone has any comments on the power consumption of the DVB-S card and if there is any issue of using both tuners at once espically on an APU build.

That's a PCI card, and your MB doesn't have any PCI slots.

Get one of these ...

http://www.tbsdtv.com/products/tbs6982-dvb-s2-dual-tuner-pcie-card.html

No problem using both tuners with a 400W PSU. I run the same tuner (well actually the 6981, it's predecessor) on an AMD E-350 based board with a 150W picoPSU, so you'll be fine.

mad turnip

Alun wrote: »

That's a PCI card, and your MB doesn't have any PCI slots.

Get one of these ...

http://www.tbsdtv.com/products/tbs6982-dvb-s2-dual-tuner-pcie-card.html

No problem using both tuners with a 400W PSU. I run the same tuner (well actually the 6981, it's predecessor) on an AMD E-350 based board with a 150W picoPSU, so you'll be fine.

Oh **** me, nice spot I thought it was PCI-e x16