[mythtv-users] core 2 duo mobile or athlon 64 x2?

[Brian Wood]

On Feb 8, 2007, at 5:13 PM, Steven Adeff wrote:

> On 2/8/07, Dawning Sky <the.dawning.sky at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm thinking of (re-)building my myth box and deciding which cpu to
>> use.  So in terms of heat and noise, which is better, core 2 duo
>> mobile or atholon 64 x2?  And what will be the minimum clocks,
>> respectively, for them to handle deinterlaced 1080i mpeg2?
>
> noise is a wash, as its more a matter of what heatsink you purchase.
>
> idle the Athlon will use less power, full bore the Core 2 Duo will use
> less power.
>
> Do you *need* the speed of a Core 2 Duo? Not specifically, but for
> h264 you will, and right now the Athlon64's can't touch the
> performance of them, so if your willing to spend the money I would
> suggest the Core 2 Duo.
>

I'd agree with you, but the other side of the economic coin is that  
great deals can be had today on AMD 939 chips and mobos. These units  
will work fine for Myth. Even the top-of-the-line 939 chip, the FX60,  
can be had for under $400. You'd have to be a bit more careful with  
cooling and clockdown to get the same power/noise profile but you'd  
save enough for a lot of storage or another capture card or two.