Not that long ago it was a significant challenge to build a small and quiet home theater PC (HTPC). Mini-ITX was an option, but case selection was limited and more importantly the form factor was held back by the lack of decent integrated video performance and the power/heat dissipation requirements of the processor (CPU) and graphics (GPU). With both of […]
Read moreThis is a fairly high level comparison of the two, but given the recent surge in reviews of the new AMD platform I thought it was beneficial. Looks like we have a nice competition brewing! The Lynx system (A3850 + Gigabyte A75 motherboard) performs well and matches the Core i3-2100T system. The first Fusion APU, the E350N, manages even lower […]
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Intel’s Sandy Bridge Pentium chips released about a month ago piqued our interest for what could be a perfect combination of price and features for many HTPC builders. X-bit labs reviewed the G850, G840 and G620 and found them quite capable and recommended them specifically for HTPC use. With the G620 performing similarly to the Clarkdale i3-530 and sipping only slightly more power […]
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Over the last several weeks we had the pleasure of testing the new Intel Mini-ITX Media Series Motherboard, dubbed the DH61AG. This is what I consider to be the first truly HTPC-centric motherboard. Since the first integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU) with HDMI output was introduced we have heard boards coined as the “the perfect HTPC board” or “HTPC nirvana.” […]
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Having previously examined both the 95 and 35 watt extremes in the Sandy Bridge CPU lineup, we now turn our focus to the 65 watt 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2400S and Media Series DH67GD micro-ATX motherboard with built in IEEE 1394a (FireWire) support. With the basic capability questions already answered, let’s find out if by providing four physical cores with lower […]
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In our launch coverage of Intel’s Sandy Bridge we took an in-depth tour of the platform’s capabilities. But our previous coverage was limited to a higher end member of the CPU lineup with a 95 watt TDP, that made is less ideal for dedicated home theater PC (HTPC) use–especially considering its tantalizing siblings scheduled to arrive shortly thereafter. Fortunately we […]
Read moreWhen Intel gambled by packaging its graphics processing unit (GPU) with the central processing unit (CPU) in last year’s Clarkdale the home theater PC (HTPC) niche benefited immensely from the power saving, performance gain and features like HD audio bit streaming provided by the new platform. The bet obviously paid off, because this year’s Sandy Bridge melds the GPU and […]
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