Easy HTPC

Building an AMD HTPC – Capable of Blu-ray HD – Audio Playback

Introduction

It has been quite a while since I last went under the hood of my current Home Theater PC (HTPC), but judging by the gradual degrading performance that I was beginning to see when watching the latest movies, it was pretty clear that an upgrade was in order.

While 720p HD video content plays back relatively well, action-packed and even regular scenes in 1080p HD content struggle quite a lot – the GIGABYTE H971 Home Theater PC, which we reviewed back almost exactly two years ago (here), still impresses us ‘till this day with completely rock solid stability. But when it comes to current day video and audio, it is now sadly dated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly fine for DVD playback and DVD quality audio, but now with Blu-ray HD audio from Dolby and DTS tracks out and in truck loads on Blu-ray discs, this HTPC has seen its day when it comes to high-end HTPC features.

With way too much Intel chip action in this office, we decided it was time to get some AMD silicon in play around here. So, we contacted our friends at AMD to see if they would hook us up with a processor to use in our new HTPC build. They obliged rather nicely with not only one, but four of their latest processors to try out – ranging from dual-core all the way up to quad-core – we’ll pick one today based on a range of tests.

We also have a bunch of other hardware to show you in this article, which go into building this AMD based HTPC. We searched long and hard for the right hardware for this Blu-ray playing beast and not only does it do it well, it does it probably better than any other HTPC that you have seen before. For one, it is able to output Blu-ray DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD as it were intended by the movie studios (using bitstreaming). It also does it in style.

Let’s take a look here and see what we recommend for an AMD HTPC build in 2009 and then we’ll put it to the test and see just what it can do and exactly how much power it is going to suck out of your wall, all while entertaining you in your lounge room.

Read the whole build process-

via Building an AMD HTPC – Capable of Blu-ray HD Audio Playback Introduction :: TweakTown.

While Intel is proudly boasting about the sheer performance that their new Core i7 processors delivers, AMD has gone down a different route, choosing instead to expound about the value of their offerings. For example, their current Dragon platform, consisting of a Phenom II processor, AMD 790GX motherboard and an ATI Radeon HD 4870, is touted as a competitive yet value for money alternative to Intel’s pricey Core i7 offerings. Of course they both serve different needs of end-users.

Additionally, AMD also carved out a niche for themselves amongst HTPC builders. Ask any HTPC enthusiast what is their motherboard chipset of choice and chances are he would be using an AMD 780G. The main reason behind this is the board’s integrated Radeon HD 3200 GPU. This integrated graphics processor (IGP) is actually based on the older Radeon HD 2400 GPU, which barely even qualifies as an entry-level GPU by today’s standards. But as an IGP, however, it is one of the best, thanks to its ability to crunch high definition (HD) videos. It’s kind of like being the smallest fish in the ocean, but the biggest fish in the pond.

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Via Hardwarezone.com

For a long time, integrated graphics processors (IGP) have had a bad reputation amongst computer users. Anyone who has an inkling of knowledge of graphics chipsets will avoid IGPs in the same way Count Dracula avoids the sun. Truly, most, if not all IGPs, have long been considered as nasty things due to their incompetent graphics performance that is suited to nothing more than standard office editing applications.

AMD was probably the first to shake things up in the IGP platforms market with their AMD 690G platform and has raised the bar yet again with the AMD 780G platform boasting the Radeon HD 3200 graphics core. You can actually have a decent gaming platform out of these and have silky smooth Full HD video playback of Blu-ray content all of which says quite a bit of its power under the hood against past IGP implementations. But all this graphics goodness has so far been on the AMD processor based platform.

Fortunately, NVIDIA has come around last year to inject a much needed boost to the IGP scene involving Intel processor platforms with their GeForce 9300/9400 motherboard GPU (mGPU). Its success can simply be expressed by the fact that Apple’s entire new product lineup from desktops to Macbooks are all equipped with this system chipset. In our first experience with it, we were impressed at how much more powerful it was than anything that came before it, including Intel’s then new GMA X4500HD graphics engine on the G45 chipset. Undeniably it is the current king of the hill of IGP chipsets for both the Intel platform and in certain aspects, even the AMD platform with their equivalent 8300 series.

With that in mind, we turn our attention to the Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi (hence forth known as the Zotac 9300-ITX). As its name hints, the Zotac 9300-ITX comes in a mini-ITX form factor, measuring only 17 by 17cm, which is surprisingly small (compared to your standard fare of other boards). Coupled with the highly capable GeForce 9300 mGPU, this makes it the ideal platform for HTPC setups.

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Via Hardwarezone.com

Sunnyvale, California-based AMD is expected to unveil a new high-end processor that will become available with a factory-set clock speed of 3.2GHz. The new processor is part of the company’s latest 45nm-based Phenom II processor lineup and will provide users with the computing performance of a four-core CPU. Details on the processor, simply dubbed Phenom II X4 995, have just been leaked on the Internet, providing us with a pretty general idea on its overclocking capabilities.

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Via Softpedia.com