[cypher21]

It's been a while since i posted, but it's time to replace my NMT.

I've been looking at lots of threads, and especially the one of eskro made me think of a good setup to enjoy media the next few years in full glory.

I need a future proof htpc which is capable of running all media in full glory.

I've got a Denon 1911 receiver and want to use the TrueHD/DTSMA audio, no 3d tv yet, maybe next year.

The htpc casing needs to be small and quiet.
So I came up with the following:

[CPU+iGPU] A6-3500 or A4-3400
[MOBO] Asrock A75M-ITX (€ 68.00)
[CASE+PSU] Antec ISK 300-150 E (€ 79.90)
[FAN] Shuriken Rev. B CPU Cooler (€ 24.10)
[MEM] Corsair Vengeance lowprofile 4gb (€ 25.60)
[SSD] Silicon Power 32GB E20 (€ 48.10)
[Remote] Asrock Smart Remote (€ 22.70)

TOTAL (without CPU): €268,4

Since I only have 150w power, i need a 65 watt cpu.

Now there are two choises,
The A6-3500 (€ 64,-) or A4-3400 (€ 56,50)

The price difference is almost nothing, so my feeling sais go for the a6-3500 BUT I'm not going to play any games, this htpc will only be used for downloading and as mediaplayer while running Win7 X64 with XBMC.
Someone adviced me to go for the A4 since it has two cores running on 2.7ghz where the A6 has 3 cores on 2.1ghz. So the A4 should perform better for media apps and so.

Anyone has a preference for one of the cpu's and why?

[bluray]

For almost the same price, A6-3500 is the better choice. You'll get one extra core and better HD6550D, and it still operate at 65w TDP.

[cypher21]

that was my first choice too,
The only thing that made me doubt was that remark about 3 x 2.1 ghz vs 2 x 2.7ghz

If something only uses a single core, it will be quicker on the A4

If i look at the cores being used on my desktop pc while running xbmc, i can see all cores are used and cpu power equally shared amongst them , so then the A6 would be quicker.

Ah well, might indeed go for the A6, Both cpu's will be more then capable of running the stuff I want in full glory i guess

[bluray]

that was my first choice too,
The only thing that made me doubt was that remark about 3 x 2.1 ghz vs 2 x 2.7ghz

If something only uses a single core, it will be quicker on the A4

If i look at the cores being used on my desktop pc while running xbmc, i can see all cores are used and cpu power equally shared amongst them , so then the A6 would be quicker.

Ah well, might indeed go for the A6, Both cpu's will be more then capable of running the stuff I want in full glory i guess

When you build HTPC base on Windows 7, the extra core always come in handy. You might need it to do multi-task like watching movie and copy/encode video in the background at the same time. You'll be very happy with the 2.1GHz (2.4GHz Max Turbo) and HD6530D in it!

[cypher21]

my thoughts exactly
Thanks for confirming, going to order the stuff

[eskro]

no doubt go for A6-3500

[Balinus]

A6-3500.

As bluray point out, the extra core will take care of W7 background processes.