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[roolark]

OK, so I love MC16... purchased and started using it in late April. My setup, though is LOUD (and a power hog). So, I'm going to try out the new AMD Zacate processor. This will be a work in process as I don't have a lot of money. Basically, I'll move some parts from my current setup to my new one, and eventually replace them, too. I'll let you guys know what my experience with AMD Zacate is. For those who don't know, it's supposed to be an Intel Atom/Ion alternative, but much more powerful, especially in the graphics area.

Processor / Mobo: ASUS E35M1-M PRO AMD Zacate E350 AMD Hudson M1 Micro ATX Motherboard/CPU Combo
Should use around 26 watts at max HD playback
Ram:Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7/4G
Supposedly it won't really need the fan (reviews) but we'll see.


Was $197 total after rush delivery, on newegg.
I'll be moving over my DVD drive (buy blu-ray soon I hope), thermaltake case, and 600GB harddrive (hitachi hdt712064, don't know the speed, will replace eventually). I might transfer over the power supply, I have no idea on that yet, though. Hauppage USB Tv tuner

[roolark]

Just finished setting up and enjoying my new HTPC.

Windows 2008 R2 x64 (I'm a university student so it was available)
AMD E-350 Zacate / Hudson integrated processor / GPU
ASUS E35 M1-M Pro Mobo
4GB DDR3 Kingston Ram
Seagate 7200rpm 500GB Momentus notebook drive
Hauppage  WinTV HVR-950Q usb
Display: 42in Samsung LCD HDTV

The comp is QUIET. Now all I need is a nice looking case for it (not the full size ugly beast it currently occupies.

Theater View looks fantastic, TV watching is smooth, mp4 files look fantastic. It's admittedly a bit slow if I try too many heavy multi-tasking activities (evident during the setup process of all needed software/hardware). However, for the MC stuff I want it to do, it's working perfectly.

Here are the JR Marks (benchmark):

=== Running Benchmarks (please do not interrupt) ===

Running 'Math' benchmark...
    Single-threaded integer math... 17.925 seconds
    Single-threaded floating point math... 8.220 seconds
    Multi-threaded integer math... 17.979 seconds
    Multi-threaded mixed math... 8.029 seconds
Score: 364

Running 'Image' benchmark...
    Image creation / destruction... 3.847 seconds
    Flood filling... 4.151 seconds
    Direct copying... 3.204 seconds
    Small renders... 11.912 seconds
    Bilinear rendering... 10.339 seconds
    Bicubic rendering... 9.099 seconds
Score: 517

Running 'Database' benchmark...
    Create database... 2.508 seconds
    Populate database... 5.099 seconds
    Save database... 0.625 seconds
    Reload database... 0.263 seconds
    Search database... 5.659 seconds
    Sort database... 4.110 seconds
    Group database... 3.028 seconds
Score: 1010

JRMark (version 16.0.64): 630

[roolark]

Just thought I'd update my experience:

The AMD APU E series is working very well. I had some problems initially, but hardware acceleration in MC 16 (and I'm assuming 17) fixed that.

PROS:
*Low power consumption
*Quiet, fanless
* perfect blu-ray / dvd / audio playback

CONS:
*Too slow for audio / video rips
*Netflix will not play well on this platform. MS Silverlight, as implemented by Netflix, does not use the graphics acceleartion.

[machinehead]

I built a similar HTPC with the AMD Zacate proc.

When I try to play higher res. streams from Netflix, the video and audio get out of sync badly.

I also tried playing a higher res. standard DVD and had the same problem.  Wondering if
this is enough power.

My machine scored about the same JR benchmark, and I am using MC17.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[perpetual98]

Funny that I see this thread this morning, as I was going to post a similar one...

Just updated to 11.12 AMD drivers (I think that's the version) and was watching a BD rip of Up.  Had all sorts of issues with audio being out of sync and the video being choppy.  I tried bitstreaming and that didn't help, but it was nice to see the DTS-MA light up on my Onkyo. 

I turned bitstreaming off and it seemed that after starting and stopping the movie a time or two it worked better, but there was just a hint of lag with the video.

I didn't go into CCC to see if some things got switched back on.  If nothing has switched back on, I will probably roll back to an older ATI driver to see if that fixes it.

I am also having the same Netflix issues.  I just use my Xbox 360 to stream stuff.  We recently switched back to DirecTV and I use my HTPC less and less, which is a shame since it used to be the ONLY source for viewing (OTA TV, dvd rips, Netflix)

[BayensF]

Hi, look for the "A/V Sync Problems in TV recordings and Blu-ray Playback" and you will find my solution to set Video Decoder (12 Feb BayensF)

[Bill Kearney]

Tangentially, I utterly DESPISE the morass that are the ATI display drivers.   I gave up on trying to use an ATI card in a core2quad setup and replaced it with an nvidia card.  All was well, my playback looked nicer and the driver didn't fight me when I was dealing with resolutions going out through an AVR to the TV.  

That is, until I tried to update the box to Win7 service pack 1.  Very, very, very long story short, it was the ATI drivers having half-uninstalled themselves that caused the OS to be unable to update itself.  Took way too much work to get enough of the old crap reinstalled and then re-removed again to get SP1 to load properly.  So you'll not see me using any ATI cards any more...  at least not until nvidia jumps off the same cliff...