On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 10:23 AM, Joe <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jfwd@phlobus.net">jfwd@phlobus.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
So I'm in the market for an upgrade, and I was curious if anyone
had some recommendations on what features I should look for. More
specifically:<br></blockquote></div><br><br>What's your content source? ATSC isn't too hard to decode on modern parts. I used an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with enough CPU left over to do a commflag job in the background. H264 on the other hand, is a CPU hog. I had to upgrade to an X2 6000+ to get the job done. So far, the HD-PVR users are reporting 3Ghz to be about what you need. I've found that the new CPU can decode anything I've thrown at it, though some streams do sometimes hit about 85% CPU on one of the cores. I suspect that's due to the stream not having "slices" so it has to use a single core for most of the work. <br>
<br>I haven't seen any issue with noise, but that's more about the case and fans. I'm using a nice Antec case with 2 large fans running about 50% speed. I can barely hear it from about 3 feet away. Heat has not been a problem. The case was a little expensive, but it's been worth it, IMO. If you get a cheap case, spring for some nice fans to replace the ones that come with the case. Large and slow are better for noise. <br>