[jonass21]

i run xbmc on my linux mint 11 box and it runs pretty well, it occasionally hangs up but nothing horrible. I use a single core amd sempron to save money and power, but recently i checked out my friends htpc running on an intel i3 duo core 3.1 gz i believe and it was astounding how much smoother it was. Is there an amd equivalent i could get to match the i3? Also he had a ssd whereas i have hd but i didn't think that was the problem. Also here is my motherboard, no graphics card installed

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/intr..._ID=492#dl

[RaggSokk3n]

equivalent to price, performance or power consumption?

[Robotica]

amd e350, e450 or e1800

[teeedubb]

I've got the feeling that some thing with your setup is causing the un smooth feeling, what does your friend run xbmc on? ... Have you tried running the 'top' command to see if it is your cpu that's holding you back? Also mint uses compiz right? Are you disabling it before running xbmc? Using xbmc with compiz makes xbmc feel 'jerky' on my i7.

[RaggSokk3n]

amd e350, e450 or e1800

not close to anything except power consumption...

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if you want it all you will have to go Intel...

[jonass21]

equivalent to price, performance or power consumption?

Close to performance

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I've got the feeling that some thing with your setup is causing the un smooth feeling, what does your friend run xbmc on? ... Have you tried running the 'top' command to see if it is your cpu that's holding you back? Also mint uses compiz right? Are you disabling it before running xbmc? Using xbmc with compiz makes xbmc feel 'jerky' on my i7.

He runs it on windows 7. I haven't tried disabling compiz but I will and let you know how that goes, should I enable something in place of it, or does xbmc handle that on its own? Also, what is the"top" command? Never heard of that.

[Dougie Fresh]

amd e350, e450 or e1800

not close to anything except power consumption...

---

if you want it all you will have to go Intel...

+1. The next best thing in my experience would be the AMD A6-3500. The Zacate (E350,450,etc.) are not comparable to an i3 or A6. The A6 will use slightly more power and throw a lot more heat.

To get i3 performance on a budget look at the Pentium G860 as long as you don't need 3D.

[RaggSokk3n]

amd e350, e450 or e1800

not close to anything except power consumption...

---

if you want it all you will have to go Intel...

+1. The next best thing in my experience would be the AMD A6-3500. The Zacate (E350,450,etc.) are not comparable to an i3 or A6. The A6 will use slightly more power and throw a lot more heat.

To get i3 performance on a budget look at the Pentium G860 as long as you don't need 3D.

G465 looks great to; 35W and HD Graphics for just above 30$

[teeedubb]

I've got the feeling that some thing with your setup is causing the un smooth feeling, what does your friend run xbmc on? ... Have you tried running the 'top' command to see if it is your cpu that's holding you back? Also mint uses compiz right? Are you disabling it before running xbmc? Using xbmc with compiz makes xbmc feel 'jerky' on my i7.

He runs it on windows 7. I haven't tried disabling compiz but I will and let you know how that goes, should I enable something in place of it, or does xbmc handle that on its own? Also, what is the"top" command? Never heard of that.
[/quote]

Top is a command line process monitor - it will show you what's using your cpu. Open xbmc, press ba k slash to window xbmc, open a terminal and run top, then play around in xbmc while keeping an eye on top.

The quickest way to test without compiz would be to open a terminal, run 'sudo killall compiz' (this will cause your desktop windows to lose their borders but this is undone after a reboot) and then run xbmc from the same terminal.

Also do you have the proprietary Amd gpu drivers installed? From memory amds drivers are tied to xorg versions and mint 11 is old no? You could try the xbmcbuntu 12.04 live image to see if xbmc is any better with that.

[jonass21]

amd e350, e450 or e1800

not close to anything except power consumption...

---

if you want it all you will have to go Intel...

+1. The next best thing in my experience would be the AMD A6-3500. The Zacate (E350,450,etc.) are not comparable to an i3 or A6. The A6 will use slightly more power and throw a lot more heat.

To get i3 performance on a budget look at the Pentium G860 as long as you don't need 3D.

I looked at those a6 processors but they don't have them for socket Am3, would just getting a dual core x2 be close?

[Dougie Fresh]

I looked at those a6 processors but they don't have them for socket Am3, would just getting a dual core x2 be close?

I totally missed the link to the motherboard. Yes and AM3 processor would help, eh?

Purely performance-wise, this would be close to an i3-2100: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103885

[RaggSokk3n]

not close to anything except power consumption...

---

if you want it all you will have to go Intel...

+1. The next best thing in my experience would be the AMD A6-3500. The Zacate (E350,450,etc.) are not comparable to an i3 or A6. The A6 will use slightly more power and throw a lot more heat.

To get i3 performance on a budget look at the Pentium G860 as long as you don't need 3D.

I looked at those a6 processors but they don't have them for socket Am3, would just getting a dual core x2 be close?

a6 is fm2 witch gives you the nice on-board graphics - witch is needed to be comparable to a i3

I looked at those a6 processors but they don't have them for socket Am3, would just getting a dual core x2 be close?

I totally missed the link to the motherboard. Yes and AM3 processor would help, eh?

Purely performance-wise, this would be close to an i3-2100: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103885

but would you recommend that for most htpc cases? I always get a bit skeptical with amd - although it says 3,1GHz it is 95W(!) witch means in most common htpc conditions it will be too hot to preform half of that...