What is a decent cpu for media centre? (that has an mATX mobo)

My inlaws currently have a 4 year old AM2 cpu in their media centre and the motherboard is starting to go.

Currently it does everything they want except for full screen Game Center Live at 3MB/s setting.

If you "pop" out the video and maximize firefox its fine but if you make it full screen it stutters. Confirmed its the aging hardware by running it on different computers in the house.

At any rate, its only a video streaming/media centre so the demands are not that high so I want to keep the cost under $200 for board and cpu.

I was looking at the Intel G620... If going intel, should I hold off for the Ivy bridge?

I am kinda out of the game when it comes to AMD, what are my options there?

All opinions are welcome!

First, check out the review that Hookie did a while back on the A8 quad core.
ok well maybe not first but im sure you might like the prices below going with a amd setup.

config 1 (dual core+gpu, mother,ram)
AMD A4-3400 $69.99
GIGABYTE GA-A75M-D2H $79.99
SAMSUNG 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 MV-3V4G3D/US $47.99
$197.97 without shipping or go do the 4gig kit for only $25.99, making your total cost $175.97 without shipping.

config 2 (quad core+gpu, motherboard, ram)
AMD A6-3650 $109.99
GIGABYTE GA-A75M-D2H $79.99
SAMSUNG 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 MV-3V4G3D/US $47.99
TOTAL 237.97
or with 4gigs instead (same sammy ram listed above.) total $215.97.

really kind of hard to beat either setup with a intel+gpu config. intel is faster per clock then amd yes but for their basic needs they wont notice a difference. same thing for the ram i choose for the price i think it is a gem with the 1.5v that it is also specced for. either lower latency with the increase in voltage or use the OC setting to run the ram faster. i saw one post where it were up to DDR3-2133+ on 1.5v forget the timings though.

while i havent seen much said about the IQ of the sb gpu or video processor as far as BD playback goes. the closest thing i have on hand is the i3 mobile itx rig in my sig. it isnt the best but maybe good enough for them on the IQ side for bd or GPU-assisted video goes. i would rather have a amd card or nv for hw decoding, even the entry level amd with 160sp. will have a much better IQ then what my itx setup has. the 6410D on the amd A4 dual core has a 160SP count. now the A6 on the other hand with the 6530D has a 320 sp so IQ will be even better vs the two amd gpus.

looking at intel yes the dual core is $10 more at newegg for about the same actual clock speed at 79.99 vs 69.99. i dont think intel has yet increase the EU core count for the onboard video in 2gen i series. i dont think that is going to happen till ivy. IQ will increase with more EU but it seems to take intel longer to do things like this then amd. then looking at the boards, the crappy boards about the same price as the decent-good boards from amd. the decent-good boards cost a bit more though.

honastly, i would go with the amd A4 apu and 8gigs of ram. For the total cost of your motherboard/cpu, you now have ram included too. Not 4gigs but 8gigs which will be way more then enough for them for many years. then if they need a bit more multi-tasking power down the road. just pop in a new FM1 quad core apu, amd seems to now be on the side of having a longer lasting platform. Even for $237.97 the quad core setup isnt bad either. either way you go your just getting a much better bang per buck here. with performance difference on amd vs intel, they just plain wont notice.

I'd recommend a MB/CPU combo based on Intel 21xx or AMD APU series MB. I'd check with Memory Express or Direct Canada. Easter is coming up this weekend which is usually a good time for a sale.

The integrated graphics in either of these chips are adequate for 1080p media playback. Especially capable is the AMD APUs. Capable integrated graphics is about the only area where AMD is ahead of Intel right now.

Thanks for the opinions!

I will definitely check out the AMD cpus suggested. As noted, I previously went AMD and it lasted a good 4 years and is only just now starting to show its age.

Evil, thanks for the detailed response!

I'd say an AMD APU like the others have said.

Agree with Evil. The AMD APUs seem perfect for a media center.

I had a CPU sitting around, so I went Intel - it works great for 1080P video playback, and transcodes on the fly to stream content to other computers and phones via Plex.

Running a i3-2100, and a cheap second hand motherboard I got in the classifieds. All together this would also hit your $200 price point pretty easily. It's a matx rig, and just using onboard video/sound... works great in the living room.

Also pulls about 4K PPD average runnnig F@H for our T32.