I'm skeptical. As most everyone has posted, Bluray and AMD don't seem to go in the same sentence. Heck, HTPC and AMD don't seem to work, if ATI is in the equation.
I find it rather funny, and sad, that my HTPC, with a 9600, works better then the much faster, nearly twice, Supermicro, dual Xeon, with a 4670 in it.
It would be great if AMD/ATI actually got HTPC right...
They haven't yet...
I'll be making the move in the not too distant future. My current i7 965 EE CPU will be for sale.
Strange. I used a 3650 (PCI-e) in my HTP without any ongoing issues for nearly two years. I've just upgraded it to a 5670. Any issue I did strike was usually solved by upgrading the codecs (K-Lite)/application used to display content (Media Player Classic/MPC Home Theatre). I have content in lots of different formats.
When I upgraded to the 5670, there was a display issue with the drivers on the CD. Updated those to Cat 10.2 and issue solved.
I'll be making the move in the not too distant future. My current i7 965 EE CPU will be for sale.
Were I to build a system at the moment, it would look like this:
That is only about $5k shipped and taxed. What did I forget?
Were I to build a system at the moment, it would look like this:
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition Gulftown 3.33GHz
Noctua NH-U12DX 1366 120mm SSO CPU Cooler
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Motherboard
CORSAIR XMS3 12GB (6 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
OCZ Z-Drive R2 M84 PCI-E 512GB PCI Express Solid State Drive
SAPPHIRE Radeon 5870 2GB 6-Monitor Eyefinity Support
Antec P193 Gunmetal Gray Aluminum
Antec CP-1000 1000W Continuous 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC
LG Black 10X Blu-ray Burner
That is only about $5k shipped and taxed. What did I forget?
Do you want SATA 6Gbps or USB3? If those two aren't priorities, then both the Asus Rampage II GENE and MSI X58M are good small motherboards with 2 PCI-E 16X slots. They are both µATX too. The Rampage II GENE has more BIOS settings, but it is also ~40$ more expensive. Both use the Intel X58 chipset and the LGA1366 for higher-end Core i7.
I would drop the Antec P193 and CP-1000 and instead go with the Antec P183 and the ABS MJ-900 900W 80 Plus GOLD certified power supply. Much more efficient and no more expensive. You don't need a thousand Watts anyway (any good 600W should be enough for your configuration).
Seasonic maybe? No, it is not too old in my opinion. If it still operates quietly, then why not reuse it?I was hoping to reuse the Seabreeze or something 700W PSU in the current system.
Antec Solo. Ok airflow inside and reasonably quiet (dampened side panel). It is heavily built.Urrrr, edit expired. Is there a case that does not have a front panel door, but not too naked inlets either? I need access to 4x5.25" bases, for the HD, optical, indicator/HD and secondary power switches.
Is that giant heatsink-heatpipe thingie need for the mainboard?:monky:
Not really inefficient, but the cooling on most chipsets is inadequate IMHO. A modern CPU draws ~100W and has a giant heatsink with a large fan on it. The chipset has to disperse 20-40W and all it gets is a little heatsink that hopes to get some spare airflow from somewhere else? Some chipsets have tiny fans, but that isn't any good, either.
The Gigabyte boards I use have heatpipes that evenly distribute the heat to many points on the board, so the odds of some part of it being in airflow from something is much higher. Put on the neat PCI slot heatsink thingy and you can guarantee the entire chipset will remain cool even in the quietest/most crowded systems.