HTPC CPU upgrade 4th gen i3

[Joe88]

Looking to give my htpc a boost, its a dell insprion 3647 sff with an i3 4150. Thinking about just doing a drop in upgrade to a 4590 to get the 2 extra cores or 4790 to get 2 extra cores and 4 extra threads and slighty higher clockspeeds. These are the non k variants. I assume psu should be ok with the slighty higher tdp 54w to 84w. It also using the stock dell heatsink so whatever heat difference to factor in.


I dont not game on this pc, its just the couch pc which I use all the time, watch yt, twitch, have it hooked up to a 40in tv. I do unrar stuff time to time and media playback of x265 1080p mkv's. The 4160 does handle playback fine, just wondering if its worth $40 upgrade it for an older pc which were pulled from the trash. I also upgraded the ram to 8GB.

 

[mackerel]

If you're not running out of CPU now, why upgrade at all? If you do, then maybe also look at the T suffix series CPUs which have a lower power limit.

 

[Joe88]

I didnt even know the t series was a thing, looks to be 2x the price I assume this board has a bios microcode update to support those t cpu's since they came out in the same quarter

 

[Evilsizer]

what video card is in the pc? honestly things i would go with first, SSD if it doesnt have one, more ram 16gb, and GPU. main reason being the newer VP engine on the nv 3k/4k cards. I need to dig more into amd side but avoid the 6400/6500 ones. when i looked those up they do not support newer codec and have a semi nerfed VP engine. Intel arc might be the way to go but newer cards to support new video codec's is going to be around 100ish. starting with the intel A310/380 they tend to be about 10-15 apart on new egg with the nv 3050 being pretty high along wit the 6600. since you dont game getting a 3050/6600 is not worth the cost. if the video card in there now is enough for the video watching you do then go with the other two upgrades i mentioned.

 

[Joe88]

Theres already an ssd in it, im using the integrated gfx on the cpu, intel hd 4400. Only other sff gpu I have is a radeon 5450 from my old htpc, and thats going to be alot worse than the cpu gfx.

 

[Evilsizer]

not sure where you live, look at prices on NV GT1030's if you dont want to go with a Arc 310. Both are LP cards that do not need a power connector. when you look at the GT 1030's make sure they come with the LP bracket. if you buy the Arc 310 new it will come with one.

ASRock Low Profile Arc A310 Video Card A310 LP 4G - Newegg.com

Buy ASRock Low Profile Arc A310 4GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 ITX Video Card A310 LP 4G with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

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SPARKLE ECO Arc A310 Video Card SA310L-4G - Newegg.com

Buy SPARKLE ECO Arc A310 4GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 ITX Video Card SA310L-4G with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

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i picked up another GT 1030 from ebay but with all the fee's and taxes, it was around $50.

 

[Joe88]

I went with the refurb 4790 from amazon for $45, a little bit more money than ebay prices but free/easy return if it doesnt work (and used giftcard balance)
Wont get here till next week so I'll let you know


also saw some refurb dell mff systems with i5-10600T for about $275 which I considered but decided to pass on, I have a 1TB hdd in this system now for media files, so would have to get an ext enclosure and I also couldnt use my media center remote (IR based), I have a special board that can turn the system on from a completly off state from the remote, that interfaces inbetween the front panel connectors, these new systems dont even have headers, the power button & front usb connectors are all built in, no internal usb headers either. I expected it from the mff system but the sff version is the exact same design. Thats enough rambling about this though.

 

[Joe88]

Installed and everything is fine, system does feel a bit more snappier, idles around 29C and load about 59C.


Thats about it for this system as far as upgrades go, 8GB ram, 4790, 256gb ssd, 1tb hdd, and the whole ir internal remote system.
Would like to see if in the future the board can be replaced but looking at it, it doesnt seem to be a regular board, looks like a cross between a itx and matx, it has 2 expansion slots, and the board is elongated forward https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/fDUAAOSwKIliqXAN/s-l1600.jpg
So its looking like a no to that, could probably just stick and itx in there though and hope the 4 screws line up.