CPU Upgrade?

[edpete97]

Good day,

My current rig is a I5-2320, 12GB ram, 120 Intel SSD, 4TB of storage. I use it for Windows 8.1 Pro Media Center with 3 extenders, all Xbox 360's. I'm also using the HD Homerun Prime for live TV everywhere. I am using Windows Media Center, with the 3 extenders. My son occasionally plays games like minecraft, world of tanks, spore, etc. Lately, I'm noticing when various TV's are being used throughout the house, either live TV, or streaming one of many MP4's to the various ROKU 3's I also have, things get real choppy. I'm on a gigabit network with MOCA at all TV's for the Xbox 360's running MCE. So I grabbed an I7-3770k on a whim on sale at Microcenter for $249 thinking it may help. I haven't installed it yet because I'm not convinced it's needed. Should the I5 be enough for MCE, 3 extenders, playing games, and streaming movies (sometimes simultaneously)? Thanks for the advice...

[Scallica]

What is the memory and CPU usage when the issue occurs? That's the first step.

[Cryofax]

Good day,

My current rig is a I5-2320, 12GB ram, 120 Intel SSD, 4TB of storage. I use it for Windows 8.1 Pro Media Center with 3 extenders, all Xbox 360's. I'm also using the HD Homerun Prime for live TV everywhere. I am using Windows Media Center, with the 3 extenders. My son occasionally plays games like minecraft, world of tanks, spore, etc. Lately, I'm noticing when various TV's are being used throughout the house, either live TV, or streaming one of many MP4's to the various ROKU 3's I also have, things get real choppy. I'm on a gigabit network with MOCA at all TV's for the Xbox 360's running WMC. So I grabbed an I7-3770k on a whim on sale at Microcenter for $249 thinking it may help. I haven't installed it yet because I'm not convinced it's needed. Should the I5 be enough for WMC, 3 extenders, playing games, and streaming movies (sometimes simultaneously)? Thanks for the advice...

Are you noticing the stuttering in any particular combination? The games would be the major CPU hog if they're more recent with options pumped up. Believe it or not, Minecraft is a ridiculous CPU hog.

You didn't mention your GPU. Using the onboard one? If so you might consider a discrete card that can take some of the burden off the CPU (espcially during movie streaming + games etc).

[edpete97]

Do multiple extenders require extra CPU power? If I'm running all 3 tuners to 3 extenders while streaming an HD movie ti a Roku, is that a memory intensive task or cpu?

[edpete97]

Well, it appears to be CPU. I'm consistently hitting between 85% and 96% CPU while taxing the system. To test, 2 extenders are watching live TV, third extender is watching a streamed 720P movie from my HTPC, and 4th tv, using ROKU 3, is watching a 1080P streamed movie, also from the HTPC. Ram utilization is @4.01GB of 16GB used. Does that all seem about right. Screenshot attached and thanks again for the advice.

[christoph86]

Pretty sure it's the streaming that taxes the CPU. If you are having to do any transcoding then it will tax the CPU pretty hard. I don't believe using extenders for live tv is very CPU taxing, nor is playing native recording tv.

[werds]

Pretty sure it's the streaming that taxes the CPU. If you are having to do any transcoding then it will tax the CPU pretty hard. I don't believe using extenders for live tv is very CPU taxing, nor is playing native recording tv.

From my personal experience I agree as well. Transcoding, gaming, and streaming, are the things taxing his CPU the most. Now the extenders do use some clock cycles but that is miniscule for the most part if you remove all the other items. As to whether you will gain from it or not, well if you are running a cpu intensive game like Minecraft and transcoding regularly I say go for it... then again the upgrade I did on my HTPC this past week would normally be called overkill by most as well

[LuckyDay]

Should the I5 be enough for WMC, 3 extenders, playing games, and streaming movies (sometimes simultaneously)? Thanks for the advice...

It should be enough for a couple of the few tasks listed simultaneously.

If you're doing everything above at the same time often a (decently priced) CPU upgrade isn't honestly going to remedy it. Transcoding, streaming, and playing a CPU intensive game all at the same time is going to put a strain on most of the i5 series.