CPU question for building HTPC

[Sargjl1]

I am about to venture into the world of building my own CPU.

My first question is about my CPU. I have an Intel Dual Core T5750 from a Gateway laptop that decided to become a brick after the 1yr warranty. My only option was to replace the whole motherboard and the keyboard. Though I really liked the laptop I am okay moving on without it. Will the CPU be enough to run a HTPC with intentions of 1080p and Blu-Ray?

I will have other questions as I research more.

Like... Is it an okay idea to try and have my HTPC also be my media server for my network? or should I build a separate machine for that?:shrug:

Thank for all the support.

[Jon]

You will have issues with 1080p content unless you also pair that CPU with a video card that can do hardware accelerated playback of respective content. I've pretty much stuck to ATI cards and they do quite well (nVidia cards will too, but I'm not as familiar with them). Any of the recent ATI HD series of cards will be fine (3xxx-series and up).

Media serving from your HTPC is fine. There's no real overhead involved other than requiring the system to be powered on to be available to clients. I prefer a standalone server, but I have 5 clients. Having a server allows you to grow a bit easier and also doesn't constrict your case once you start adding drives.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Before talking about what the CPU can handle, or DXVA or any of that... could you explain a little more clearly what you're planning on doing?

The way I read it, I gather that you salvaged the bare processor out of the dead laptop, and you want to install that chip into some other motherboard? Am I correct in my interpretation here?

Because, if that's the case, you may want to consider a different path. While there are aftermarket motherboards that will support the laptop CPUs, they're very hard to get, they're very expensive, and most of them are very limited on expansion slots, which would in turn severely limit your options when it comes to a video card.

[Sargjl1]

I was planning on using the bare cpu out of the laptop. It doesn't rank much lower than the AMD 4850e which had been recommended to me before and I had read that laptop cpu's can easily be overclocked and run a bit cooler than desktop cpu's. I also read that I really only needed to make sure the cpu would fit in the new motherboard, which I was in the process of looking for. But both responses seem to be on the same ship as far as video cards...

[Old Thrashbarg]

I also read that I really only needed to make sure the cpu would fit in the new motherboard, which I was in the process of looking for.

It's not as simple as whether it'll physically fit... there are several similar and completely incompatible sockets, and I believe a Socket P chip will physically fit into a couple of 'em, with very bad results.

And anyway, like I said, you're going to have trouble finding any Socket P board, it's going to be extremely expensive if you do find one, and most of them only have a single PCI slot, which is a bad choice for adding in a video card.

Honestly, what you're trying to do is just a really bad idea all around. You'd be far better off just buying a standard desktop CPU and motherboard. A standard CPU, motherboard and RAM together would be cheaper than most of those specialty Socket P boards anyhow, and you could probably also sell that T5750 to reclaim some of your cost.

[Sargjl1]

Yeah. I did more research and the most PCI slots I could find were 2 extra. Think I am going to go with a package deal...

What is the minimum I should look for in a CPU/ Mobo that will support good graphics for a Blu-Ray play back, dual channel tuner, and such. I think I would prefer a mobo that has good enough built in graphics to save space but not and essential.

[Robmoo]

It doesn't take much CPU power to play a Bluray disk. I use an AMD MB with integrated graphics. However, most of the time I'm playing video transcoded to MKV files. How much CPU power you need depends largely on how the video is encoded and the playback software. I use XBMC which I believe still does not support hardware acceleration, so I needed a bit beefier CPU. I bought a pair of AMD 7750 Kuma's (2.7GHZ dual core 95Watt) for my HTPC's and adjusted my encoding method and have had no problems. Prior to this I was using a pair of BE2400 2.3GHZ processors. They are gathering dust. Perhaps I'll build an NAS using one of them.

If there isn't much price difference between the 4850e buy the faster CPU. You can always underclock, but I'd avoid overclocking an HTPC if you want a cool, quiet, lower power rig.