780G motherboards. What do you think?

So I've been pondering the idea of making a cheap HTPC. I mean CHEAP!. I've looked at the 780G motherboards which have an ATI HD3200 graphics adapter built onto the board with VGA,DVI, & HDMI outputs. What do you guys/gals think of these. I know it is an AM2 mobo but really I could get a cheap single core AMD and throw in there and care less. I am looking to play Blu-ray movies and surf the net on my big screen.

It seems like a solid onboard solution.
 

When it comes to CPU's I always get the Retail version. Besides this doesn't come with the cooler.
 

piratepast40

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I think the point was that you should try to get a dual core instead of a single core. The price difference is minor and the BE 2350 is pretty easy on the power and heat while giving you some general purpose advantages.

This review is pretty favorable to the chipset/GPU combo and shows that the sempron was lacking if the GPU was able to offload some tasks.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/03/04/amd_780g_chipset/

IMHO, this chipset with the HD3200 seems very capable and has plenty of features. I woulnd't hesitate to use it in a general purpose desktop and would even use a LAN box since the heat and power requirements are so low. I know many people on this forum prefer the "high powered firebreathing dragons" but there is definately a market for performance in a smaller package.
 
 

San Pedro

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780G is now the best solution for a cheap non-gaming HD-HTPC. It does UVD so it will be able to play back 1080p content. Just need a large hard drive or a blue ray player for the high def content.
 

derek85

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Just make sure you get a more powerful CPU, I also suggest dual-core 2.0GHz+, a single-core is not going to cut it even with UVD doing all HD decoding...
 

cleeve

Illustrious
Even a single core Sempron 3200+ can run blu-ray with a 780G mobo.

Unless you're planning to do alot more than movies a single core is fine when paired with the integrated Radeon 3200, although stepping up to a 3500+ wouldn't be a bad idea for some leeway.

Seriously, a cheap 780G, Sempron, and 1GB of RAM will make a great HTPC. Anybody who says you need more is advocating overkill for something that's going to play movies and record TV shows.
 

San Pedro

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Agree with cleeve.

In fact, you might not even need a graphics card with UVD if you had a 2+ ghz dual core cpu. I bet the AMD 4000+ in my HTPC could do 1080p without the help of the graphics card. . . Just don't have any 1080p videos to test it with.
 

cleeve

Illustrious
San Pedro, motherboards based on the AMD 780G chipset have a Radeon 3200 built in to the motherboard - no separate graphics card required.

That's why the CPU can be a low-end single core for HD video playback, the integrated Radeon GPU handles the video acceleration beautifully, even 1080p. :)
 

piratepast40

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According to the THG review, a processor with 2.0 gh seems to be the lower end for decoding with this chipset. My thoughts on the dual core were because he mentioned some web surfing. I seem to get some "useage creep" after I've had a computer for awhile and tend to do more than I originally planned. You most likely woulnd't be watching a movie and doing something else on another monitor at the same time but you could very well be recording and doing something else which would justify the dual core. In any case, you're absolutely right about only needing a single core if you're just doing playback. Hmmm... having more processor than you really need ... is that a type of "geek bling" ? :sol:
 

KyleSTL

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I think they're wonderful, if I had $500 bucks (that I didn't know what to do with) I'd throw together a new system based on it to replace the HTPC I currently have in my Antec NSK2480 (which BTW I love).
 
I'm doing an HTPC based off of the 780G. I'm going to wait a little while though (actually I have no choice, I'm not home from college for another month and a half) and let them finish working out the bugs (which are few). I'm going to throw in a 4850e which is a 45W dual core that should cost around $90. I know it is overkill, but for that price, why not? It is "supposed" to go on sale either tomorrow or next week.
 

San Pedro

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Yeah, I'm tempted to build an HTPC with the mobo too, just to see how cheap I could do it.

BTW Cleeve I understand that the mobo has a dedicated graphics solution, I was just saying a dual core CPU probably wouldn't need help from the graphics card to do 1080p. I think the CPU would be powerful enough on its own.
 

cleeve

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Ah, my mistake. You're probably right about decent dual-core CPUs, although I've seen HD fail on slower dual-core CPUs.

The Turion X2 in my laptop will skip terribly during 1080p playback.
 

Jackalope73

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I think it would be a mistake not to get a dual core cpu for what they run nowadays. As for boards this is the only board I have found that has dedicated graphics memory for the IGP 64mb and up to another 512mb can be allocated from main system memory. http://www.jwele.com/motherboard_detail.php?225#_spec
It also has solid capacitors for the VRM like the Gigabyte. And you can OC the Igpu up to 1100mhz. 900mhz stock from what I have read. The graphics sideport memory is also independantly overclockable. It is reasonably priced too.
 

KyleSTL

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HD 3200's stock clock is 500mhz. HD 3100 (780V) will probably be 400mhz, and HD 3300 (790GX) will probably be 600-700mhz. That's pure speculation though. And yes, all reviews I've seen so far indicate the 780G's IGP overclocks like crazy.