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[machinehead]

I have read as many of threads on this subject as I can find.

I guess I am a very literal person.

None of the threads really start to nail down the dividing line between what will and won't
successfully run RO HQ.

I am returning the machine I just built to newegg and don't want to have to do it a second time.

Many of the video card reviews online are "older", 6 months seems to be an eternity in the video card world,
so not sure how relevant they would be.

I want to build a HTPC that will render RO HQ and do audiophile 2 channel music, no video gaming.

The music piece is easy, as it does not require much horsepower, just a very good card and DAC.

I am new to the video world, and am a bit overwhelmed with all of the decoders, filters and
video formats that I didn't know existed.

I have read some guys say you need to start with an i5 proc. min., but others run an i3 with a good video card
and run RO HQ just fine.

I would like this thread to start to ferret out the dividing line of the bare min. needed to build a machine to run RO HQ.

Which i3 or i5 proc. is min. if you plan to run a discrete video card?  Do you need Sandybridge or will some of the older ones suffice?

What is the min. nVidia card to run RO HQ without any problems? 

--

What are the same min. specs for an AMD proc. and ATI video card?

--

What chipset to look for on a motherboard that will maximize the above hardware?

--

Do you need  more than 8Gig  when running Win 7 64?


Again I have read as many relevant posts on the subject, and most get off topic on
the specifics of each video card, without coming to a conclusion of what a min. spec might be.

Please try to keep responses on topic to helping everyone come up with a spec.

Thanks for all of your knowledge and help, I think the answers could be helpful to more noobs than just myself.

[jgreen]

Did you read that thread on the MC17 board from a few weeks ago, talking about this very issue?  True, no one there stated what a minimum spec would be, because how would anyone know?  OTOH there is a range of user reports there stating specs and performance.  Reading that, you should be able to infer the Minimum Specs.

[machinehead]

Hi jgreen,

Thanks for your input.

I did read that thread and others.

It seemed like the recommendations were all over the place.

Some say min. req. is i5 proc. with a video card with DDR5 memory and lots of shaders.

Others say they got by on an i3 proc. with a video card with DDR3 memory.

Not to mention the range of i5 processors available, nor did it even begin to look at AMD.

Even if you look at high end DDR3 and the DDR5 video cards, the specs and prices vary wildly, as
glynor was pointing out.  Do I need a $300 card or will a $75 card work.  That is just one of the many
questions I walked away with.

At the end I walked away pretty confused.  That is why I started this thread hoping for people
to chime in with actual experience of what combo has worked for them running RO HQ.

For you guys doing video for a while it is probably pretty easy stuff, for us noobs, its all very confusing.

[jgreen]

MH--

I think most of the posters on that thread were not saying "this is the minimum", but rather saying "this is what worked for me".  Also, many posters mentioned what kind of screen resolution worked flawlessly, and at what res the playback might have gotten jumpy, if it did at all.  I think if you read through that you'll get an idea of what's going to work fine.  While RO HQ is fairly taxing on resources, RO Standard is much lighter, and darn good looking also. 

I wish I could help you more with this, other than to say it's going to require a decent proc (my i7m worked fine), along with a reasonably good 2d video card (my 2gig ati worked fine).  I would note that if you're looking to get away as cheap as you can, it is PROBABLY wise to stick with an Intel CPU, as the consumer AMD's seem to be missing odd bits, and at slower speeds that may matter. 

Also, make sure your anti-virus is set to allow Media Center and JR worker to do their stuff.

Also worth noting, you get a free trial of MC, so maybe try it on the machine you have now and see how it flies.  Good luck!

   

[texneus]

I've read all the threads I can find and I think it's all very confusing.  The lack of minimum requirements makes it very very difficult to plan a future build that will play RO HQ but is also as low a power as possible at idle without a huge amount of trial and error.  Two specific questions...

Does anyone know if something like an Intel Atom or AMD Zacate if paired with an nVidia GT450/550 -ish card will play 1080i / 1080p RO HQ successfully?

Does anyone know if one of the faster Sandy Bridge or AMD Llano without an added video card will play 1080i / 1080p RO HQ successfully?

[pcstockton]

I just bought an ASRock CoreHT 252B - i5, Sandy Bridge without any other discrete card. 4gb ram.  No SSD yet but I will.

It is all mobile type components a la Mac mini.

I can playback Bluray from disc or rip, and 720p DVDs from disc or rip, without ANY issues.  I am rolling ROHQ with custom setting to send the audio to an M-Audio Transit (usb-to-toslink) then on to the Yamaha 5.1 receiver.  No bitstreaming and Im not even sure what that means.  I use the toslink output to my DAC

Suffice it to say, if you aren't interested in gaming, any build with an i3 or i5 sandy bridge will do you just fine.

I cant speak to 3D or gaming as I do neither.

My PC is 99% a source for my Naim DAC.  A few videos now and then are nice.  No problems in any way with my new htpc.

Scored it for $590 on newegg.  Open box.

The diff between an i5 and an i3 is like $60.  If you are building your own get an i5.

DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I know very little about computers (on this level).

Cheers!
Patrick

[texneus]

"I can playback Bluray from disc or rip, and 720p DVDs from disc or rip, without ANY issues."

What about 1080i broadcast material?  IME 1080p from BRD really isn't a challenge.  1080i has the added need to deinterlace and IVTC, both of which have caused me much consternation in the past.

[pcstockton]

Don't know on that one.  For me video is far too complex and confusing not to use a Cable Box with DVR for my "TV" needs.

[texneus]

I can appreciate that!  I've built 3 HTPCs over the years and video has always been by far taken the most significant effort to make work right.  Sometimes something as simple as a driver revision makes or breaks everything .  I do appreciate the feedback though!

[Audioseduction]

After a bit of learning curve I managed to setup my HTPC to play back both DVD & Blu-Ray with same excellent picture quality as my dedicated BD player.  

UDATE UPDATE UPDATE!

[pcstockton]

So the obvious question is...... especially with bluray players becoming small and cheap...  why doesn't someone put an ACTUAL BluRay player in a PC?  Not a BluRay optical drive, but a full fledged player with its own video and audio outs??

I have always wondered this since DVD drives came into the computer world.

-patrick

[Sparks67]

I don't think the PC technology is not there yet in matching video quality with a med to high-end BD player. After configuring a HTPC using one of the fastast nvidia card a GTX 580 I feel it's still no match for my BD player. I just won’t sacrifice high quality video for convenience.

Depends on which software player that you are using.  I have built 3 HTPC, and actually my first HTPC with the ATI 4890 did better in terms of video quality than my Nvida.  My first one was in 2008, but audio quality was the main problem for viewing movies.  Nvidia is developing some new video cards that should be better in the future.  Although, I admit that my system now has 3 Sony 7000ES blu-ray changers, and HTPC server. The problem was that audio quality was a major issue (HDMI) with the video cards in the past. 

[Audioseduction]

I have the Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 TI which is performing excellent for both video and sorround sound audio. I guess my BD player will end up with a bunch of cobwebs now doing nothing. 

[InflatableMouse]

How much of ROHQ uses GPU hardware accelleration?

I own a ASRock ION 3D Series, as far as I'm concerned it plays ROHQ with CPU to spare. I'm not sure how to check if its dropping frames, but I think I'm quite sensitive to things like that; video seems to play as smooth as it does on normal and with other applications.

Quick Specs:
* Intel® Atom™ D525 Dual core Processor
* Mobile Intel® ICH8M chipset
* 2GB DDR2 800MHz
* NVIDIA® GT218-ION Graphics, NVIDIA® 3DTV Play Capable
* 7.1 CH HD Audio with DTS

[Audioseduction]

My new HTPC I just setup yesterday. Just rocks!  

Custom DELL XPS 8500

• 3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3770 processor 3.40 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.90 GHz
• 16GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
• 1TB SATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM
• Blu-ray Drive
• EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Superclocked Video Card - 1280MB GDDR5
• Ultra X4 750-Watt Modular Power Supply
• Windows 7 Pro 64bit OS

2 Drobo s each populated with 5 3TB 7200 RPM Hard Drives. Drobos are connected to the HTPC via USB 3.0 ports. Each Drobo unit is setup as RAID5 and are mirrored for backup purpose.

[Scolex]

I get by just fine with:
C2D e6600@3GHz
8800GT (DVI to HDMI)
4GB of DDR2 800
Appears to be just as smooth as when using standard. I have checked for dropped frames and there are a few but I have never noticed and they may be induced by other things that are going on in the background that is unrelated to MC or RO.

[dean70]

I've read all the threads I can find and I think it's all very confusing.  The lack of minimum requirements makes it very very difficult to plan a future build that will play RO HQ but is also as low a power as possible at idle without a huge amount of trial and error.  Two specific questions...

Does anyone know if something like an Intel Atom or AMD Zacate if paired with an nVidia GT450/550 -ish card will play 1080i / 1080p RO HQ successfully?

Does anyone know if one of the faster Sandy Bridge or AMD Llano without an added video card will play 1080i / 1080p RO HQ successfully?

I have an AMD Llano A8-3850 APU and it struggles with RO HQ - lots of dropped and delayed frames (particularly with 1080i). RO Std is smoother (0 dropped frames) and I really cannot tell any difference with video quality. CPU utilisation is also much lower.

[dean70]

I have an AMD Llano A8-3850 APU and it struggles with RO HQ - lots of dropped and delayed frames (particularly with 1080i). RO Std is smoother (0 dropped frames) and I really cannot tell any difference with video quality. CPU utilisation is also much lower.

With a bit of tweaking - allocating dedicated ram for video in the BIOS (1gb), disabing the de-interlace function in MadVR and use the display drivers de-interlace function, I am able to get 0 dropped frames for 1080i 29.97fps & 1080p 23.976