Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[stevemac]

Hi,

Starting to plan new PCs for main office and TV areas.  Have not built anything new for a very long time and have never used AMD CPUs.  I also want to consolidate / simplify and get rid of vmWare and NAS solutions

Current
---------
Main PC: old EX58 motherboard with Intel I7 CPU and low end graphics card
vmWare: running on Fujitsu RX300 S7 server
MC running on virtualised debian machine (vmWare)
TrueNas virtualised on VMware


Proposed
-----------
Office PC

• Windows 11 Pro
• probably Intel I7 14700K CPU, but also looking at Intel Ultra 7 265K
• 32GB DDR4/5 RAM
• motherboard supporting PCIE5 and good array of options for nvme4 boot and data drives
• enough sata ports for upto 4 high capacity spinning drives and an optical drive
• 10gbe NIC (prob SFP+)
• use integrated graphics as do not watch a lot of content on this device
• MC will run on this device and be the server for content to other devices (MC and DLNA)

Client PC (main TV area)
----------------------------
cheapest solution to..

• run MC so can
• watch bluray quality content from MC on office computer
• listen to multi-channel flac audio
• probably want 2 x HDMI out - one to TV and one for multi-channel audio to receiver

so questions
---------------
For Office PC

• Any point moving to AMD CPU?
• can someone recommended a 10gbe SFP+ card for Window 11

For client PC

• appreciate hardware and OS recommendations.
• Happy to do Linux Debian but do not have much experience with video and multi-channel FLAC with Linux and HDMI
• is raspberry Pi 5 capable?  Last time I played with the PI - it could not do multi-channel audio over HDMI

thanks,

Steve

[Awesome Donkey]

Any point moving to AMD CPU?

Yes, they're the best you can get right now for CPUs. I wouldn't even consider a Intel CPU in 2024 due to all the issues Intel has had with 13th and 14th gen, along with the Intel Core Ultra 200 series being a complete disappointment. In terms of price, performance and stability AMD has got Intel beat right now.

[rec head]

I switched my client from a full size HTPC with dedicated graphics to an Intel NUC last year and it plays UHD rips. You can probably find an AMD equivalent. My only point is that you don't need a huge rig anymore unless you plan on pushing all the settings to the max.