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Devices => PC's and Other Hardware => Topic started by: MrHaugen on December 19, 2010, 04:35:15 pm

Title: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: MrHaugen on December 19, 2010, 04:35:15 pm
My HTPC just got a blackout yesterday, so I'm wondering if I should replace the parts on the old one or just buy a brand new HTPC. I'm wondering what requirements it is for onboard graphic cards. I've been loocking at the ASRock Vision 3D 137D. It seems to have good enough specs, but I'm not sure about the NVIDIA GeForce GT425M Graphics.

If there is even a possibility that this can not handle MC and Theater View well, then I'll just by some new components in my old HTCP cabinet. What do you think? What's your experience with onboard GPU?
Title: Re: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: MrHaugen on December 21, 2010, 02:33:47 am
It's bought :) If it can't handle MC's Theater View, then I'll just return it.
Title: Re: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: MrHaugen on January 02, 2011, 03:48:38 pm
Looks like this baby can run everything MC can throw at it! Theater view and 1080P playback is not a problem at all. It even handles 3D and have a bluray player. If that is not enough, it's almost totally silent. At least to my standards. It's also really small. Just around one and a half CD cover in size.
Title: Re: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: marko on January 17, 2011, 01:44:19 pm
Hi MrHaugen,

How are you getting on with this... Still happy?

Title: Re: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: MrHaugen on January 18, 2011, 02:44:25 am
Hey. Yea, I'm very happy.

Now that I have had it run for a while, it's obvious that it's not totally silent. But if you just have some other sound source, it's really not a problem. My main concern today is that it boots up from sleep now and then. Have happened 3 nights since I got it. It's not that often, but it's often enough when it's your bead room and you get woken up :) Wondering if I have to invest in a power source filter or something. Perhaps try to deactivate the "power on after loss" BIOS settings?
Title: Re: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: Scolex on January 18, 2011, 04:07:51 am
Next time it does it check to see if windows installed an update.
The default time to check for updates is 3am if that is indeed what is causing the restart you may want to change the time.
Title: Re: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: marko on January 18, 2011, 04:55:45 am
Hmmm.... decisions, decisions...

review at anandtech suggests noise at 35db when max'd out, which is not too bad.


Good call there Scolex.



Title: Re: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: MrHaugen on January 18, 2011, 09:30:14 am
Next time it does it check to see if windows installed an update.
The default time to check for updates is 3am if that is indeed what is causing the restart you may want to change the time.

I've disabled all updates, so that should not be the problem I think. And it's happening more than once a month. Don't want that forced reboot crap on my machines. Can it really boot the PC from sleep to check for updates?? My problem is that the machine turns on when it's in sleep or hibernate modus. It's a bit annoying when you're trying to sleep your self.

I'll double check the Update options just to be sure, but it sounds a bit unlikely that this is the cause. I've also had the same problem with my Vista laptop, when it's plugged in the power socket at nights.
Title: Re: HTPC and GPU requirements
Post by: MrHaugen on January 18, 2011, 10:07:09 pm
Just checked that Updates was off. Checked the Power settings with power loss as well. Nothing there that can wake the machine up. I put the PC to sleep tonight, just to hear the low fan nice and HD spin 5 minutes after. Hopping mad, I pulled out the keyboard and mice, to see if they was the reason for the wake up. But no. 30 seconds after I put it to sleep, it booted up again. Annoying as hell this is.

I do think that this is because of some instability on our power grid though, and not really the machines fault. I have to shut down both my Laptop and my workstation completely unless I want to be woken up by those too. I'll have to see if I can get some sort of filter for my PC power connectors.