Building a workhorse, advice?

[dknight99]

Hi everyone.

I have a very large collection of Blu-rays and DVDs that I'm going to archive and eventually use with a HTPC running XBMC. I will also want to encode any titles I buy in the future for my new system. I've had access to an 8-Core Mac Pro for the past 9 months, which has been chomping through my collection just fine. However, it is a borrowed machine and will need to go back to its owner in a few months time.

My current main computer is a MacBook, which isn't suited to large encoding tasks (mostly due to its poor heat management.) I've got this old 2.0ghz single-core AMD machine kicking around, which in its current state can barely browse the web, let alone encode HD video content.

I just wanted to know - does handbrake take advantage of any graphics cards that are installed on the system? Can I simply whack a honkin' great graphics card onto this old machine and roar through all my encoding tasks? Or should I upgrade the MOBO/CPU/RAM instead? Literally, this machine will run linux and be used solely for encoding video.

Advice?

Thanks everyone!

Dan

[TedJ]

Handbrake does not utilise GPU assisted encoding... it's all down to CPU power. Aim for a quad core Intel CPU, preferably with hyper-threading as your system base.

[dknight99]

Thanks mate! That's good to know.

It looks like the new Intel CPU's are definitely the way to go, despite being more expensive.

[TedJ]

While there's nothing wrong with AMD's solutions, especially on a bang for buck basis, they simply can't touch Intel's offerings for encoding performance.

[Kebast]

While there's nothing wrong with AMD's solutions, especially on a bang for buck basis, they simply can't touch Intel's offerings for encoding performance.

Does this statement include the 6 core AMD chips? I'm building a new machine in the next couple months too and was planning on going with AMD.

[TedJ]

I'd suggest looking through the benchmarks forum for more information, but anecdotal evidence suggests that a quad core Intel CPU performs on par or better than AMD's hex core offerings.

[Kebast]

I-7 is about $100 more than the 6 core AMD. If performance is on par I'll definitely go with AMD. From quick glance at the benchmark forum I didn't see anyone with data for a 6 core AMD chip. I'll dig deeper later. Thanks for the reply.

[Deleted User 11865]

I-7 is about $100 more than the 6 core AMD. If performance is on par I'll definitely go with AMD. From quick glance at the benchmark forum I didn't see anyone with data for a 6 core AMD chip. I'll dig deeper later. Thanks for the reply.

Anandtech has useful benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/27
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/28
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/53
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/54

They're not 100% reliable (e.g. in benchmark 54 the i7-880 is slower than the i7-870 even though it shouldn't). Also, CRF (Constant Quality) performance isn't benchmarked; while you can combine data for the first and second passes, it won't necessarily reflect CRF performance accurately.

Here's a comparison between similarly-priced processors (6-core AMD vs. 4-core Intel i5, –$210):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/ ... 7.28.53.54

If you're willing to add an extra 90 bucks, you can get the latest 4-core i7 Sandy Bridge:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/ ... 7.28.53.54

Though as I understand it, an Intel-compatible motherboard may be slightly more expensive.

[Kebast]

Wow, thanks for all the links!
I'd say the 2nd pass is the important one to look at. I normally do CRF, or only single pass CBR encodes for iphone streaming. That i7 chip does have a larger advantage over the X6 than I had expected, and yet the X6 slightly edged out the i5. Maybe the Turbo Core tech on the 3.3GHz X6 going from 6 cores to a boosted 3 makes a larger difference than the Intel Turbo Boost on the 3.3GHz i5 in the sample video they used for these benchmarks. You're right though, the motherboard + RAM costs for an i7 machine are slightly more costly than the AM3 board/RAM for the AMD chip.

I usually buy in the middle price range of technology, so my choice will probably be the AMD chip. Considering that I'm using an Intel E6500 now, any of these options will be a great improvement!

Very helpful information though, I'll be sure to post benchmarks after I build mine .