[sethjvm]

So I have had it with my Biostar E350 mini-itx machine after 1 year.
The e350 is fine as a HTPC only or as a media-server only but asking it to do any combination of both is too much.
The mini-ITX form factor is annoying me because I have 2 USB dual SATA docks attached for media storage.
The biostar motherboard is annoying me because it keeps killing my USB dock requiring a reboot (Biostar support seems...less than helpful.)

I have a Corsair CX430M supply, 2x4GB G.Skill 1600 DDR ram, a 120 GB SSD, 2x 1TB drives, 2x 2TB drives and 2x 3TB drives, a nMedia 6000B case, a Windows 8 x64 license, and a HDHomeRun dual OTA tuner.

I want to use XBMC, Plex media server, WMC for recording OTA, MCEbuddy to remove commercials, netflix (metro app), ESPN3, sync 2 iphones and 2 ipads, Amazon instant video, and eyefi. No gaming!

I do not currently have a need or desire for 3D (WAF). I also don't want both a server and a htpc (WAF). I need a one box solution.

I am really struggling with which way to go with the processor, my budget for MB/CPU/APU is $250 or less. I really want to avoid the biostar situation where I get something "just good enough" and then realize 1 year later that I should have spent a little more and been happier with the machine for an extra couple of years.

I have a microcenter near so I can get the G3220 for $60 or the i5-4570 for $160 (I will use the newegg H87 ECS MOBO for $60 AR with either) or I can get a A10-6800k and MSI A85X mobo for $170 AR.

I really want to like the G3220 but I am concerned about this one situation that is fairly common when I sit down at night to watch stuff: recording two shows and watching one...will it cause dropped frames, stuttering, etc? If the G3220 can't handle this, then it will not pass WAF.

I really see no value in the i3 when I can get the A10 which has nearly identical CPU performance and significantly better iGPU performance. So the question boils down to...what would the XBMC hardware gurus do?

[GortWillSaveUs]

IMHO,....A10

[sethjvm]

Thank you Gort. I like your A-10.

Do you do any transcoding with it? Do you ever notice it bogging down and if so, what circumstances?

[wsume99]

I have a Pentium G620 in my HTPC and I have no problem recording three HD shows while watching a fourth HD show in WMC. I see no reason why the G3220 would not be suitable.

I see that you want to run Plex. Does that mean you'll be streaming to mobile devices also? That is where your bottleneck will be. You need to size your CPU based on the number of simultaneous Plex transcodes you'll be preforming at the same time.

[GortWillSaveUs]

Thank you Gort. I like your A-10.

Do you do any transcoding with it? Do you ever notice it bogging down and if so, what circumstances?

I haven't in a while,..but when I first built it,..I was trying everything and didn't have problem.
Been just too busy lately, and have had only enough time to watch movies I already have on hand.

[sethjvm]

I ended up with Windows 8.1, an A8-6600k, MSI FM2-A85XA-G43, 2x4GB G.Skill cl9 1600 DDR3 ripjaws in an nMedia 6000b case. I have an aftermarket hsf from NZXT coming from newegg.

I have played with overclocking the IGP to 1167 and the RAM to 1866 but I don't really notice any difference for my use. It is so much more powerful than the e350 that I wish I had done this from the start.

I am struggling with the concepts of undervolting and overclocking since the msi clickbios II software is not as intuitive as some of the other manufacturers' software. I realize that the concepts are not the same thing but what I want is low idle power and I want turbo mode to go to the max that the CPU can handle. Is it possible to undervolting but max the turbo? I tried searching tomshardware and overclockers.net but those sites don't seem to have a step by step type of tutorial. Does anyone have links or guides that they would recommend?

[GortWillSaveUs]

If I were you,...don't mess with Over or Under clocking,........unless you really know what you're doing.
There are just too many chances that it'll hose the whole system,..and as you seemed to have noticed,..not really see a difference.

The system you have will work extremely well! Good luck!

[wsume99]

Try a google search for K10STAT. I don't know if it works for Richland but I have used that application before on older AMD CPUs. It allows you to adjust CPU voltage based on the speed state. When I used the program I did exactly what you are looking to do - I lowered the voltage only at the idle state.