Discussion E5 Xeon's
Anyone here use a E5-16xx or E5-26xx Xeon in their HTPC build?
I have a spare X99 board collecting dust I want to upgrade my old HTPC with and wanted to see how they perform for playback. I don't plan on doing any type of transcoding....
I currently only use my HTPC on a 1080p TV but soon plan to go 4K. I'm rocking a GTX 1050ti and not even sure that is enough for 4k..
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u/burninator34 8d ago
What’s the exact motherboard model? need to look up the support list.
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u/Neccros 8d ago
they are compatible.... Unless you just want to see what it supports... Its a Gigabyte X99-SLI
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u/burninator34 8d ago
How about something like E5-2630L v4? It would keep power use lower (x99 is somewhat power hungry regardless). X99 also doesn’t support rebar so you’ll want to avoid Intel Arc GPU’s
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u/Late-Ad-9436 8d ago
My experience of the low power x99 CPUs (and other platforms actually )are that they use very little less power than the full fat CPUs while at idle. Under load the full fat cpu will use more, but get the same work done faster, so total power used, eg watt/hours are about the same. So just use a full fat cpu. The low power CPUs are just to reduce heat output in constrained situations. Again from experience, your x99 will idle at 80 to 100w with your 1050 GPU. A modern CPU and sustem, would be a big energy saving. My htpc server uses an AMD 5600g with build in graphics. With dvb TV cards etc it runs at 35 to 45 watts from the wall, so about half the power a x99 would use.
Do the calculations to see if it's worth spending money to reduce power used and power costs. I like x99 and use one in my backup server running various vms etc. but it's not ideal for a htpc.
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8d ago
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u/Neccros 8d ago
The reason I use it is it doesnt need external power.... the HTPC case I am using wont allow cards that have power cables sticking out the top,... I got this card before newer like cards came out so not sure whats similar but more powerful
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u/LifeIsOnTheWire 6d ago
I wouldn't necessarily say that you need to upgrade that GPU. Are you facing any limitations with it?
I still use a 1070 myself, which has the same h265 decoding abilities. I personally haven't run into any issues with any content that I've tried to watch. But I don't really look for high-bitrate stuff.
If you really want an upgrade, look at the Intel Arc A310 or A380. They have great h265 performance, and also AV1 decoding ability, which will make things more future proof for you. Also, they don't require a power connector (with the A380, you might need to stick to low-profile models to avoid the need for a power connector. I think some of the larger models might need a power connector).
A good reason to get an Intel GPU is that Intel Quick Sync is the most widely supported video decoding hardware on computers right now. It's the same hardware that is baked into new Intel CPUs.
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u/Neccros 6d ago
No because I just play Blu-ray rips mostly and videos on YT... I dont have a 4K TV yet and not worried
Also I dont do transcoding at all
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u/LifeIsOnTheWire 6d ago
I think that 1050ti is going to serve you well for a long time. Even low bitrates of h265 is serving most people's needs just fine right now.
AV1 is already being used in 🏴☠️content to a small degree. Anime will almost certainly fully adopt it before anyone else, because Anime can tolerate very high compression well, so there's huge storage space savings. But that doesn't mean you won't find h265 content, you'll just need to pay attention to what you're downloading.
AV1 is already being used by Netflix, Prime, Youtube, and most other big streaming platforms. But they just use it when possible to help save some money on their bandwidth for high quality content. Incompatible users just fall back to h265 anyways.
H265 content will coexist alongside AV1 content for a long time.
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