Phenom II X4 or Phenom II X6

[Crash2009]

Any Phenom II users out there? I am trying to narrow down the choices a little, and get some advice on a RAM problem. Price aside, do you like the X4 965 Black or the X6 1090T Black better for the HTPC. Does one over the other run all the toys better?

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-P ... MBOX).html

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-P ... RBOX).html

I am planning to install one or the other in an Asus M4A78PRO. Currently, I have, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, and 1 pair of dual channel DDR2 Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5C. I have another pair of the same ram that I have been unable to get working properly. I might have to upgrade the ram at the same time, or shortly after. I would like to end up with 8 GB.

Have you had any trouble trying to get 2 slightly different pairs working? Did you end up having to buy a 4 module set? Or did you just stuff 8 GB in the first 2 slots? Is it possible that the AMD X2 6000+ is the reason I am having trouble with the second pair? Or is it more likely a motherboard limitation? Or have I just had some bad luck getting the second pair working? I have RMA'd the second pair twice now.

Any comments on any of the questions above would be welcomed.

[barnabas1969]

Both CPU's are more horsepower than you need, unless you are planning to run 4 or 5 extenders simultaneously. They are also both hotter than you need, if you want the machine to be quiet.

For a quiet machine, try to choose a CPU that is lower wattage. There are many CPU's available that are 73 watts or less.

As a general guideline, you will need one CPU core for each Media Center extender that you want to run simultaneously. You will also need a minimum of 2GB of RAM, plus 1GB for each extender that you want to run simultaneously. So, for example, if you want to run four extenders simultaneously, you would want 4 CPU cores, and 6GB of RAM. And... if the total of the RAM is more than 4GB, you need to run a 64-bit version of Windows 7.

[Crash2009]

Thanks for the great advice. I don't even have one extender right now but I expect to try out the Echo soon. If I like it, and apparently I will, I would expect to be running 3 extenders total. So at a minimum, I would need 3 cores and 5 GB of ram. So my thoughts of a Phenom X4 with 8 GB will be plenty. Since my Athlon is running 89 watts my choices of Phenom have been narrowed down to these two designated by the green Y, which run at 95 watts. Just 6 more than I have now. Temps likely won't change much.

Based upon your advice, to keep the watts, heat, and fan noise down, I eliminated all the higher wattages, 140, 125, etc. And there was also some other advice from a different forum which was to eliminate cpu's with a lower clock speed than I all ready have. Apparently my Athlon X2 6000+ is faster than some Phenoms when only running a single or dual thread application.

How much extra resources do you need for Comskip? Say I am running 3 extenders, recording on 3 tuners, and watching one tuner live?

[barnabas1969]

I have four extenders and 10 tuners. I can run all four extenders plus the TV that is connected to the HTPC, and record on all 10 tuners. The CPU will hover around 35% while doing all this.

I use ShowAnalyzer (SA), not Comskip, so I can't comment on how Comskip utilizes the CPU. By default, SA runs in a low priority. It will take CPU usage all the way to 100% but since it runs in low priority, it will slow down if other processes need the CPU. In DVRMSToolbox, you can adjust the number of workers so that you don't slow down the PC too much. I don't know if you can make Comskip a low priority process... but if it is possible, I recommend it.

I have SA configured to run two workers. Even though it takes all available CPU, I don't notice that it's running at all.

[Crash2009]

I see your point now, about the Phenom being way more than what I need in an HTPC. You are running a lot of stuff there on your quad 2.8 and only using 35% of the CPU. What are your performance scores with that rig of yours?

Maybe I should hold off on the CPU upgrade untill I actually need it. I would likely get more instant mileage with a video card and an SSD.

I am not using a commercial skipping application right now. I was just curious to know what demands a commercial skipping application made upon the system. I didn't realize Comskip was the name of a product. I thought the name was an abbreviation of what it does. (rookie error)

[barnabas1969]

The Windows Experience Index for my PC is as follows:
Processor: 7.3
Memory: 7.5
Graphics: 6.6
Gaming Graphics: 6.6
Primary Hard Disk: 7.7

As you can see, my "lowly" 2.8GHz CPU scores pretty well. It has a lot to do with the FSB speed at 1333MHz. Media Center is an I/O intensive application, so you want a fast FSB.

You'll notice that my CPU is 95 watts. But... you'll also notice that I put it in a HUGE case. I wouldn't recommend a 95 watt CPU in a Small Form Factor (SFF) case. I see your case is a mid-tower... so 95 watts is probably fine for you.

I built my machine before I knew exactly what I was getting into. If I did it again, I might go a little cheaper and not throw as much horse power at it. However, I am extremely pleased with the performance of my system. I don't see any lag on my extenders or on the PC. Everything is snappy in the menus and playback is smooth.

[barnabas1969]

I looked up the PassMark scores on my CPU and the Phenom II X4 965. The Phenom scores 4201 and mine scores 4585, while your Athlon 64 X2 6000+ scores 1631.

That should give you a good idea of what you're up against. Based on those scores, I don't know if I would try to run more than one extender on that CPU. You don't want to run the CPU more than 70-80% all the time. When you run a CPU under a continuous load over that, it will become sluggish when you need a quick response like in the Media Center menus.

[Crash2009]

Yes, your system does score well. Mine is telling me I need a video card. Maybe I should throw in this Zotac I have in stock GT430 PCI 512MB 64BIT DDR3 ZT-40605-10L

As far as cooling goes, this case does pretty good. Here are the temps at idle. It is pretty ugly to have in the TV room. I think I'll leave it in the hobby room with the server and the switch, fan noise is no big deal in this room, I just turn up the volume on the Pioneer SX 1250.

As you can see, not a lot of planning went into mine. I started with an Infini4, crammed it in a box, then upgraded the box to make it work. I didn't even find you guys until after it was built.

For now, I think my priority should be to fix the ram problem, upgrade the video card, get an extender, then think about the CPU.

Thanks for helping me sort this out and come up with a plan.

[Crash2009]

I'm gonna scrap that Zotac pci idea, drop the Ceton into the lower PCIe, and look for a proper video card for this box.

[Crash2009]

Looks like Crucial has all the answers to my memory problem.

[barnabas1969]

This card is a good price and will work fine for an HTPC. I've personally tested it in my rig and it worked fine.

[Crash2009]

Thanks for the tip on the card, but I all ready pulled the trigger. I went with the XFX Radeon HD 6770. I just couldn't stop my self, I got a Phenom too. The temps did go up a bit, but not too bad.

I thought I was going to have a battle on my hands, but everthing dropped in smoothly in less than an hour. The only prep I had to do was uninstall the old driver and boot a couple times. Shut down, move the clear CMOS jumper and pull the battery. Win 7 sure is smart. WMC complained a little about the driver while in windowed mode. So I full screened it, then went back to windowed. Hasn't complained since.

WEI is happy for now. I think the next upgrade will be a SSD.

Thanks again for all your advice. Is your area effected much by the hurricaine?

Speccy must be making a mistake...DDR2 running at 1705 Mhz?

[barnabas1969]

No, the storm didn't affect us except some rain for a couple of days.

How's the fan noise on that video card? It sure has a big fan.

[Crash2009]

Yea, big fan. No noise that I have noticed yet. The Antec Kuhler push/pull is louder than the Radeon. Kinda hard to tell in this room. The server is to my left and the switch is to my right. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150540 The card was on sale this weekend, I thought I would take a chance on it. 109.00

Gpu-Z doesn't get the rpm.

[barnabas1969]

Are you planning to play games on that thing? You sure like to go big if not. I worked real hard to make mine silent, and I was afraid to go with water cooling for fear of leaks. I can't hear a peep from mine, but if you don't mind some noise I guess you're in real good shape performance-wise.

[Crash2009]

Yea, it's probably overkill for an HTPC. Like I said before, I just kinda slapped this thing together. Next one will be different.