<div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">It sounds as if Sandy Bridge remains problematic for video, and so I was<br>
thinking of getting a system with<br>
i3-2120 <a href="http://www.provantage.com/YITEP3CR.htm" target="_blank">http://www.provantage.com/YITEP3CR.htm</a> and<br>
GT440 based fanless<br>
<a href="http://usa.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/ENGT440_DC_SLDI1GD3/#" target="_blank">http://usa.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/ENGT440_DC_SLDI1GD3/#</a><br>
<br>
For just a bit more I could get Ivy Bridge<br>
i5-2400S <a href="http://www.provantage.com/~7ITEP3F0.htm" target="_blank">http://www.provantage.com/~7ITEP3F0.htm</a><br>
<br>
Ivy Bridge supposedly is better, but not perfect, on the tearing.<br>
But I haven't seen a lot of success reports with any Intel graphics.<br>
<br>
Is it reasonable to expect the Ivy bridge to work, or would the i3/GT440<br>
combo be better? Something else?<br>
<br>
This is primarily for a FE, but since I also want to run<br>
Windows on it I figured I needed a CPU with more oomph than the bare<br>
minimum. Also, I may want to offload some BE processing onto it.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Sandy/Ivy Bridge won't come into play at all if your using an Nvidia GPU with VDPAU, you can use just about any CPU. The only way the processor may make a difference is if you were using VAAPI with the Sandy/Ivy bridge processor's built in graphics processor. VAAPI is supported, however it is not as refined a solution as VDPAU.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Go with the cheaper processor and at least an GT430 for the optimal support (make sure you have 96+ cuda cores on the nvidia GPU; so no 420/520/610 even though the model numbers are higher)</div><div>
<br>
</div><div>My recommended build is a good Ivy Bridge capable motherboard, cheap $45 Celeron G540 CPU, and 4-8GB of RAM. Coupled with a Nvidia GPU and VDPAU you will have excellent performance today and an easy path for upgrades when CPU/RAM prices drop.</div>
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