I am gutting my Ahanix 301 case of its matx mobo/mem/cpu due to mobo problems.
I am trying to get the most bang for my htpc buck and my spending limit to replace the mobo/mem/cpu is $350.
I’ve read up a bit regarding the current state of intel vs amd and picked an amd/nvidia 8300 matx mobo with a phenom 9350e cpu. here are the 3 parts in my wishlist.
ASUS M3N78-EM AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
$90
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$32
[i]AMD Phenom 9350e Agena 2.0GHz Socket AM2+ 65W Quad-Core Processor Model HD9350ODGHBOX[/i]
$170
I am feeling stingy and thought i could save $100 bucks and go with a 45w cpu instead of the phenom. This would also give me a cooler running system (i think).
[i]AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor Model ADH4850DOBOX
$57[/i]
My questions if anyone can advise are:
– What am I giving up “video and audio playback wise” using the x2 cpu instead of the phenom considering the (am2+ / nvidia 8300 igp) mobo config. i have selected.
– Is it possible to passive cool the x2 (45w) cpu.
-Is there any benefit to increase ram from 2x1gig to maybe 2x2gig. I will be running XP (media center) on this machine.
-will i get HD video AND audio thru the hdmi port of the mobo?
Thanks everyone….great forum btw
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