Advice/Comments on HTPC for HD encoding.

goldfingerz · Post by **goldfingerz** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:42 am

Hello everyone,

I've decided to go along and upgrade my home linux server and turn it into an HTPC that's gonna be placed in the living room. Here's what I'm planning on doing with it.

- Run mythtv with HDHomerun.
- Encode HD videos into xvid.
- Run mail, file server also.

I'm planning on starting by buying these parts:

- GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H
newegg.c a/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128363
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
newegg.c a/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
- Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB)
newegg.c a/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134582

I want this system to be able to encode HD (720p or 1080i) content into xvid files. It also needs to be quiet and eventually small.

For the case, to start off I have a sonata II from antec (mid tower - it's big but not too noisy) I plan on using. From that point, I will judge what noise reduction needs to be done to the cpu and I'll shop around again for a slim mATX case. The only other thing I plan on adding is my current 250G HD from seagate (ATA) and maybe a DVD drive.

An alternate configuration I thought of doing is switch the cpu for this one:
- Intel Celeron 430 Conroe-L
newegg.c a/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116039

Let me know what you guys think of this. One thing I was hoping on doing with the Conroe-L cpu is maybe run it fanless. Let me know if it's possible. Would it also be possible with E8400 if it's underclocked?

I'm also listening to suggestions on slim cases for this mATX board, super quiet PSU and CPU cooling solution at a reasonable cost.

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:50 pm

How much encoding do you plan to do, because E8400 will be a lot faster than Conroe-L . . ?

goldfingerz · Post by **goldfingerz** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:22 am

I will have about 2 to 3 hours of HD video per day to encode.

goldfingerz · Post by **goldfingerz** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:35 am

I'd also like to know if anyone knows what the equivalent to this setup would be with an AMD processor?

dereksbelanger · Post by **dereksbelanger** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:36 am

I really like AMD, (just built myself an AMD HTPC) but they dont make a chip that is as fast as the E8400 when it comes to encoding xvid. In fact, only E8500, Core2 Extreeme and i7 chips are faster in this application. Your at the sharp end of performance with the E8400

An AMD 7750 CPU on a 790GX mobo would be reasonably close in encoding performance to the E8400. It also has better onboard video and cost about $100 less than the Intel config you've listed.

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:00 pm

goldfingerz wrote:I will have about 2 to 3 hours of HD video per day to encode.

That's a fair amount. Seems like a Conroe-L would be a waste of money since it will require many more hours a day of processor at full load. Getting a processor that is 5X faster is going to save a lot of electricity.

I don't know if you have to go all the way up to E8400, though. Especially if you have a good way to setup the encoding to happen when you otherwise wouldn't be using the system for anything. I'd consider getting at least an E5300 or going with AMD X2-based solution and leaving the Celerons and Semprons alone. The new Phenom 2 X3s might also be a good alternative to E8400 if you are looking for really good encoding performance. Slightly less money and slightly faster but also higher energy consumption at load.

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:34 pm

be sure that the xvid encoding in linux is proper multithreaded.

I'm assuming your hd material is mpeg2 hd?

goldfingerz · Post by **goldfingerz** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 5:37 am

My HD material is mpeg2.

I've decided to go in the middle and get an E5200. It's a lot cheaper then the E8400 and slightly more expensive then the CONROE-L, except the E5200 is a more complete CPU.

And thanks for all the suggestions.

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:59 am

I don't know about CA, but in the US the price difference between E5200 and E5300 is <$10. Might want to check that out . . .

goldfingerz · Post by **goldfingerz** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:42 pm

At newegg.ca (canada), the E5200 is at $93 and the E5300 is at $120. I had seen it, but for 100mhz more, the $30 extra wasn't worth it. I've already placed my order. Can't wait to get it and try playing HD off of it with mythtv.

CroSsFiRE2.0 · Post by **CroSsFiRE2.0** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:45 pm

I'd also check out infonec too since your in canada, website sucks but service is great. If you live in the Toronto area, stopping by their Markham store would be a good idea since they price match and usually has the same prices as the egg

goldfingerz · Post by **goldfingerz** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:22 am

So I received my cpu, motherboard and ram yesterday. I put everything in an Antec Sonata II with 2 hard drive. One a 120gb Western Digital and the other one a 250Gb Seagate, both IDE.

The whole system is running smooth and quiet. The only noisy part are the hard drives. Any recommendation on a new hard drive I could get that wouldn't make as much noise, besides SSD.

I was planning on getting a >500GB sata drive. Or maybe something smaller in the 2.5" form factor.

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:25 am

goldfingerz wrote: The only noisy part are the hard drives. Any recommendation on a new hard drive I could get that wouldn't make as much noise, besides SSD.

I was planning on getting a >500GB sata drive. Or maybe something smaller in the 2.5" form factor.

The WD 640Gb Blue is on sale today at newegg (see the Deals section of the forum)! That's a very good one.
EDIT: Ah, you're in Canada.

If you want something smaller and quieter, the 2.5" WD 500Gb Blue will run you about $105.

goldfingerz · Post by **goldfingerz** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:46 am

I imagine a 2.5" will be quieter than a 3.5" hard drive.

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 6:12 pm

Get a small 2nd drive or if running a 64 bit OS, use 4-8GB as a swap drive(ram disk). Video encoding thrashes hard drives and the swap file in windows, so putting it on a ram disk or SSD is a godsend. Or just turn the thing off it you have a 64 bit os/enough ram. Or if you are running Linux.

Even getting the swap file onto another small hard drive is a massive speedup. Do that much at least.