Hello All, I am in the market for new hardware for my HTPC. The old stuff did its job but is outdated now. Want to be able to do a lot of 4K streaming and 4K file transcoding with it. On the upper floor I have a nVidia shield on one tv, a Fire Cube on another, these TVs are 1080p, and run off my network with my HTPC & Plex. My HT Cave has a 65" 4K Sony Bravia and my current HTPC hooked up to it. I would like to re-use my m-ATX case. Looking at AMD & Intel based products. Will I need a GPU or may there be a good iGPU out there to accomplish the desired tasks? Would like to keep the MoBo, CPU, RAM under $1K CDN, if a GPU fits in that price or a couple hundred over I'm fine with that. Reccos are welcomed....thanks!
Just get a AMD 8xxxG CPU (or AMD 5xxxG if you want to spend less). If you want to spend even less, a cheap Intel N300 MB (with a soldered CPU), would be more than enough for HTPC use.
Ironically I see your name and have been looking at a couple of Acer Gaming Desktops, but all of them in my area are display or used units. Acer Nitro N50 Gaming PC - Black (Intel Core i5-13400F/512GB SSD/8GB RAM/NVIDIA GTX 1650 or Acer Nitro N50-640-ER13 Gaming Desktop Computer - Intel Core i5-12400F - 512 GB SSD - 8 GB DDR4 Pretty good $$
It depends what you want. If it's mainly for video 4K a Nvidia external card is overkill, and given an HTPC is usually turned ON h24 (or for many hours) the power consumption in idle is important as well, surely an Amd iGPU consumes less than a Intel CPU + a Nvidia card (the AMD8xxxG should have about the same performance of a GTX 1060) card, the N300 has minimal consumption, for sure is not a gaming CPU, but is perfect for pure HTPC usage So for pure HTPC I don't suggest the above configuration. The above is good for gaming, not at the top settings or not at 4K, if we talk of AAA games. This lacks something the 12400F has no integrated VGA, so I guess there is something wrong in the quote
Acer Nitro N50-640-ER13 Gaming Desktop Computer - Intel Core i5-12400F - 512 GB SSD - 8 GB DDR4 This lacks something the 12400F has no integrated VGA, so I guess there is something wrong in the quote yes it has the same GPU as the other one. I'll look for something you have suggested. Thanks.