[mythtv-users] sempron 3100 v. 64 3000+

[Raphael]

Rich West wrote:
> Raphael wrote:
>> Gabe Rubin wrote:
>>   
>>> On Jan 31, 2008 3:17 PM, Tom Greer <trgreer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>     
>>>> Fry's regularly advertises motherboard/CPU combo deals.  I recently picked
>>>> up a ECS AM2 socket motherboard with built-in nVidia graphics and an AMD
>>>> BE-2350 Althlon X2 CPU for about $80.
>>>>
>>>> I'd pursue a deal like that rather than invest any additional money in a
>>>> socket 754 system.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tom
>>>>       
>>> That is a good point, and indeed, is how I got this current system.
>>> The only thing is that the deal was for a small form factor iDeq made
>>> by biostar that included the CPU.  The computer is similar to a
>>> shuttle.  So getting a new mobo is not an option here, although I
>>> would certainly wait for a deal like this if I wanted a new system
>>> completely.
>>>
>>> I guess the consensus is that I am not going to get much difference in
>>> performance by simply plopping in the new CPU, or if I do, it won't be
>>> $50 worth of difference.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>     
>>
>> Well... the difference just has to be enough to turn off xvmc going by 
>> your original post, if that's worth $50 to you. 2 GHz on an athlon64 is 
>> definitely enough to watch HD w/o xvmc in my case. That was socket 939, 
>> but the only difference in your case should be lack of dual channel 
>> memory. I don't know how that affects media playback, I'd guess not 
>> much. With the sempron do you peg at 100% with xvmc off?
> 
> I've got two AMD Athlon64 3000+ processors that I was going to list on
> ebay.  One came out of my backend server (which ran fine, but I really
> needed a dual core in that system) and the other came out of my machine
> (which I just upgraded to a dual-core box for software-based MPEG2
> encoding).
> 
> The Athlon64 3000+ worked great in my backend-only system, but it was
> pretty heavily pounded by multiple recordings and a commercial flagger. 
> It couldn't handle, however, flagging commercials while recording when
> there were multiple recordings goign on (with only one mythcommflag
> process allowed to run).  

But mythcommflag is niced.... Problems with too much disk i/o instead? 
You should be able to record and do other things at the same time all 
while commflagging. If more processor time is needed it'll force the 
commflag to wait, at least that how it works for me.
Recording several things all at once doesn't sound like anything that 
should take any cpu time at all unless you're using software encoders. 
If you're recording digital TV like HD by simply dumping to disk, it 
won't take any cpu time, so commflagging will be the only thing hogging 
the processor. If you're watching at the same time, then the playback 
will actually use a lot of cpu on the FE for HD, which is why he was 
asking about playback qualities of the 3000 w/o xvmc.

> It was too much for the system.  I upgraded,
> and, yes, I had a hard time finding a microATX system with enough PCI
> slots for my 3 PVR150's.
> 
> Socket754 chips are definitely becoming harder to find.  I bought in to
> them at the tail end of their availability (Dec. 2006).  The 3000+ was
> popular, and it was right at the threshold from the Sempron to the
> Athlon (hence the cross-over).  Oddly enough, I have Sempron 3000's in
> my FE that are 64-bit and run rather well, not without XvMC's help,
> though (yes, the Sempron pegs at 100% with XvMC off).

Not too odd, though, considering that your performance matches the 
performance the OP reported also with a sempron 3100 (can watch HD with 
xvmc).

> 
> I'd swap from the Sempron to the Athlon, but I am not sure if there
> would be much difference.. that, and for some reason, the motherboards
> in my FE's don't seem to see the ability to slow up the clock speed on
> the Athlon64 3000+'s when the system is not in use (trying like mad to
> keep the energy use down a bit).
> 
> -Rich
> 

Powernowd wanted to tell me that was a problem as well. So I simply 
loaded all the required modules manually first before loading powernowd. 
I can't remember why it wasn't loading the modules automatically.
Some of the early socket 754 systems were known to specifically not 
support cool and quiet though, so you may be out of luck. At the time it 
was considered by some motherboard manufacturers as an "advanced" 
feature for socket 940 and then 939.

What I'm saying finally though is that if you don't record many shows at 
once and commflag them at the same time all while watching a recording 
while that's going on, then a 2GHz athlon should work to watch and 
record and commflag HD channels without needing xvmc - at least that is 
my experience with recording one HD show while watching an HD recording 
and commflagging at the same time on my machine. Since I moved to HD I 
haven't recorded more than one HD show at the same time since I have 
only one HD tuner.

Raphael