CPU for a low power home server/HTPC

[DillySix]

I'm looking to build a low power PC that I'd use as an HTPC, and a home server for my development files/media/whatever. I've been considering the AMD 5350 due to its price point (~$50) and low power consumption (25W). I'm worried about a couple things, like the fact that it's a year old and the fact that all of the motherboards for it only have 2 SATA ports (I really need 3), except two ASRock models that seem to have issues. So, basically, I guess I have two questions.

■Is there any evidence that AMD is going to release a successor to these Kabini processors (a low power desktop CPU) any time soon? I haven't found anything, but I could have missed something.

■Are there any usable alternatives for my needs out of the current processors released that would be both low power and not too expensive?

 

[lazyboy947]

Cant find anything solid to show that any time soon kabini will get a replacement, based off some roadmaps, and wikipedia, there should have been a replacement for kabini, and the next one will be the carizo apus, and carizo-l on the low powered like kabini.

For the pricing of a am1 system is quite small so if u replace it later on you arent losing alot like investing in a higher end apu or intel setup.

You can get a sata addon card that most of the am1 boards will take.

Other options would be something like a low powered pentium, or kaveri A4 or A6. They will have stronger cores, instead of more weaker cores, which might make up for the difference. But there really arent any below 50w. the A8 6500t is a 45w richland based apu but is quite expensive compared to kabini

 

[popatim]

While that amd would make a fine file server its performance is too sluggish to make a pleasant HTPC experience. I would suggest an Intel G1820 ($50) and a Cheap socket 1150 motherbd at minimum.

For an htpc you dont really care about power, its more about the user experience. But the extra 25w this processor uses would only get used while its working hard and if you let both work hard for 2 days the intel would use an extra 10 cents worth of electricity over the amd.

If you had a data center with lots of servers, then you worry about power savings because it adds up fast with thousands or processors. But for a single pc thats probably asleep 15hrs a day its a non-concern IMO.

I use i3's myself for the better integrated GPU. The G-series come with HD video chips while the haswell i3's come with HD4400 or hd4600 mainly.

 

[lazyboy947]

not sure if it matters on what software u use for media streaming, but if a raspberry pi can be used a htpc for media playback, then why wouldnt a 2ghz or less apu not be able to do so if a 900mhz arm based quad core can?

 

[popatim]

Yes software has a great impact on the user experience. While the pi can run plex & xbmc, how fun would your windows 8 experience be?

I can only speak from personal experience that my AMD Phenom2 x3 720 wasnt great experience and the 5350 is slightly less powerful.
MY HTPC consisted of PhenomII x3 720, 8gb ram, 128gb samsung 830 ssd, 2tb samsung f4 HDD. The same components moved to an i3-4160 & H81 motherbd now offers a noticeably more satisfying experience. And yes I unlocked the 4th core, overclocked the triple core (couldnt do both) and the i3 is still noticeably quicker in just about every task. Running win 8.1 on both systems.

Now the original cpu was an athlonII x2 240 which I quickly swapped with the 720 that I had in the server it was that anemic. LoL

 

[lazyboy947]

my current htpc uses a stock A8 5600k with 4gb ram, and a 128gb ssd, all media is kept on a x2 x5450 raid5 array server. Either stream thru plex or just streams off the server.

It comes down to the usage, as during transcoding with plex my x2 x5450s can peak at 80% during a single stream, but its not constant, the avg usage is below 10%. But when not streaming off the server, i have not had a problem with the A8, which is obviously not kabini lol or a A4 4000 with just video playback off the network, or local.