[xexe]

Sorry for yet another what CPU thread but there are just so many semi-conflicting reports.

I know the recomemnded CPU is a E8400 but i have read alot of people saying a E7200 works just fine.

There are variuos deals on the go this now for a "HP Pavilion S3631 Slimline PC" that whilst not the prettiest is hugely convenient and very very cheap.

The relevant specs are:

Intel® Core™2 Duo E7200 Processor
3GB DDR2 RAM / 500GB Hard Disc Drive
Chipset NVIDIA® nForce™ 630i chipset
Hard Drive 500GB SATA 3G Hard Disk Drive (7200 rpm)
Fast Ethernet
Graphics Processor NVIDIA® GeForce™ 9300 GE with PureVideo® HD
Dimensions (WxDxH) 10.7 x 35.2 x 27.6 cm
HDMI + coax surround


So im looking for a show of hands of people that have real life first person E7200 with 1080p success or failure stories.

Thanks in advance :0


p.s. i am on IRC as xe almost all the time if you want to catch em there.

[ashlar]

It *should* work for normal h264 content, bar some really tough spike here and there.
I don't know if the motherboard would offer any opportunity for an overclock. Even a mild one should suffice to cover everything flawlessly.
I'll try to lower my E2160 from 3GHz to 2.53 and see how it perform. Will report back

Also, you know that the PureVideo HD stuff is out of reach for XBMC, right? No hardware acceleration is possible, currently, with XBMC.

[xexe]

Thanks for the post. Yeah I know about GPU etc. Im a n00b forum guy but ancient irc dude.

I know this might not be the best box in the world but a small not ugly pc that can be delivered for only £100 more than a E8400 alone costs is quite attractive as a medium term solution.

Also when GPU accel comes in whatever timecale the box would suddenly become quite a bit over specced.

I suppose i could use the extrernal loader patch but i try to stay pure SVN if i can.

[ashlar]

I suppose i could use the extrernal loader patch but i try to stay pure SVN if i can.

External player is in SVN, even though there's work being done off-SVN to iron out some problems.
Anyway, if DVDplayer does all you're looking for, no reason to look at external players, I concur.

[LaTropa64]

...

Also when GPU accel comes in whatever timecale the box would suddenly become quite a bit over specced.

...

Actually from my experience testing with a player that does support GPU offloading (MPC-HC), only one of the four sample files that I tested offloaded flawlessly. See: http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=268254&postcount=9

I think you are always going to want a powerful cpu because there are a lot of encoding techniques out there and not all of them can be offloaded to the GPU.

[xexe]

LaTropa64 thats extremely useful information. I had made the assumption that offloading was 100% reliable. If it is not and could potentially mean many hours farting about tweaking things then it doesn't excite me at all.

I am still researching but one factor will be if people post saying that the E7200 doesnt do almost all 1080p with a few uber exception like Planet Earth I think i will bin the idea.

I think this will still be useful for people who have an E7200 already but based on responses still to come it might be folly to spend considerable money on a system that will only play some 1080p.

Responses will tell i hope.

[supernoman]

I have the E7200. It play almost all 1080p stuff for me. It still stutters a bit at the killa sample but it's not like I watch that every day.
I even overclocked it from 2.53 to 3.15 and it still stutters, albeit barely noticeable. For regular 1080p stuff, I think it's sufficient for my needs.

[wilburyan]

This is slightly OT... but does relate to playing 1080p content. I was having a few issues with audio sync on 1080p content... so I installed vista ultimate, and CCCP. I can play 1080p x264 movies now... with Windows Media Centre and cpu utilization sits around 85 - 90%.

CPU is a E4400 (2.0Ghz dual core) running at stock speed.

Now if only I could get the same performance in xbmc, I'd be in business

[xexe]

I have the E7200. It play almost all 1080p stuff for me. It still stutters a bit at the killa sample but it's not like I watch that every day.
I even overclocked it from 2.53 to 3.15 and it still stutters, albeit barely noticeable. For regular 1080p stuff, I think it's sufficient for my needs.

I have my doubts about the killa sample fo 2 reasons:

1. my q6600 test setup easily plays my entire 1080p collection but stalls at the killa.
2. the hardest bit to play of killa is the opening few secs which is where i believe most people drop frames. It just feels as if there are more fators at play in these first few seconds that skew the results of "can play killa" and "cant".


OK so i might be totally wrong but my test rig according to killa drops frames but can play 100 other movies easily.... so lets use real life content as the benchmark in this thread i would say

[Evanrich]

It *should* work for normal h264 content, bar some really tough spike here and there.
I don't know if the motherboard would offer any opportunity for an overclock. Even a mild one should suffice to cover everything flawlessly.
I'll try to lower my E2160 from 3GHz to 2.53 and see how it perform. Will report back

Also, you know that the PureVideo HD stuff is out of reach for XBMC, right? No hardware acceleration is possible, currently, with XBMC.

Technically this should work at 2.53 ghz, because I'm running a Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz, even undervolted, and i can play ALL 1080p videos i've thrown at xbmc, even up to 20Mbps without a glitch. Given this is a quad core, however we all know XBMC only uses 2 cores, so basically i have a software-limited Dual Core chip running at 2.4Ghz, and no issues.

Cache level may or may not have any bearing on this, but I'm just letting you know that a 2.4Ghz Q6600 runs it just fine.

[ashlar]

Ok, did some testing.

CPU is an E2160, 2GB RAM. I'm almost positive it has less cache than both the E7200 and the Q6600 (that could make a positive difference for you).

I did the test with Planet Earth episode 2, where the killer sample is taken from. By the way, I noticed that the killa sample that's downloadable has probably been "cut" very roughly, missing some key frame or something, because, at the beginning it loses 8 frames where the whole episode doesn't.

In any case, that scene, even in the full episode, peaks at about 41.29 Mbps.

With the CPU at 2.56 GHz it lost 11 frames. Definitely watchable but somewhat annoying.

With the CPU at 2.7 GHz results were mixed. The first time it lost 3 frames, another time it lost one. Going back and forth, for other 4 times it played back the scene without losing any frame. This is why I say that, maybe, a processor with more cache could perform better.

At 3GHz no frames are lost.

Bear in mind that that scene is really, really at the top of the scale.

[Dwolf]

Ok, did some testing.

In any case, that scene, even in the full episode, peaks at about 41.29 Mbps.

At 3GHz no frames are lost.

Bear in mind that that scene is really, really at the top of the scale.

I can agree to this; I too have a nice 1080p rip of planet earth that I use as a benchmark for performance. (also true the killa sample is cut poorly, perhaps I should upload a recut version for use)

I have used a 7200 previously, before i upgraded to my e8400 (and on my second system a e8600)

while the 7200 was very capable; and played most things without noticable drop, it wasnt enough grunt for everything you can throw at it.

as said before a c2d @ 3ghz is the sweetspot for flawless playback of 1080p x264 vids. One can use less and be fine 95% of the time, but there will be encodes with higher bitrate scenes, and then that lower spec cpu will choke.

until gpu acceleration gets added to xbmc, for those that want trouble free playback, look at the e8400. If you feel that just 720p rips are good enough, then buy less.

[xexe]

A new cut of the killa sample would surely be useful to many users as IMHO as said previously the current one is not spot on.

I am going to price up a system based on E8400 and compare it to the E7200 system off the shelf today.

I get the general impression that a E7200 can play 90%+ of 1080p so it comes down to aesthetics and cost premium.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

[ashlar]

xexe, bear in mind that, depending on the motherboard you choose, mild overclocking is pretty much safe (obvious disclaimer: if you damage your PC I won't be held responsible ).

I've kept my E2160 (stock 1,8GHz) running at 3GHz for the past year and a half with zero problems. Although I bought an aftermarket cooler for it (XP-120 with 12cm Noctua fan).

Also, with many motherboards you could mildly overclock your E7200 only when the extra processing power would be needed and maybe even manage to do that without rebooting. Running at stock for 90%+ of the time, but having the option to get some extra hump.

[xexe]

I dont want to fork my own thread but since were still talking about E7200....

I have no experience of overclocking as for business servers (where i spend my life) its not normal practice.

I have to say I have thought about it but for the sake of a few tenners and the feeling of better stability and the predictability of heat and power I dont think I will.

I will however be using those fans.! If there is any interest i can post my intended build in a new thread. It wont be to everyone taste but it may help. Shout if i should; would more than welcome some expert advice.