Asrock CoreHT 252B HTPC Review

User Comments: 8

1. July 14, 2011 8:36 AM
   

   Burty117, TechSpot Chancellor, said:

   Not gunna lie, i would still build an ITX PC as it is cheaper and you can even get confiurations which enable discrete graphics cards. the CPU seems like a real money drain considering what this machine was designed for.

   Reply
2. July 14, 2011 9:11 AM
   

   LNCPapa said:

   I really want one of these - if it were in the $6xx range I'd be asking my wife for forgiveness. One thing not covered in the review is if it does proper 23.976, 24, 29.97, and 30 Hz playback. I'd assume things are similar to how they are on the desktop SB side. I know it's only about 1/1000th of the frames, but sometimes my OCD gets the best of me.

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3. July 14, 2011 11:25 PM
   

   Kibaruk, TechSpot Paladin, said:

   I agree with Burty, besides this is an odd and expensive configuration for an "HTPC".

   Reply
4. July 15, 2011 6:02 AM
   fpsgamerJR62 said:

   One of the AMD quad-core Llano APUs would probably be a better option for this type of PC. Depending on which APU model is used, you can even add a relatively cheap AMD discrete graphics card to boost its graphics prowess and still keep the costs below the price of this Asrock HTPC.

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5. July 15, 2011 2:39 PM
   Guest said:

   As far as power consumption goes the AMD numbers are based off a 850 watt power supply which is just wasteful. Its amazing how many sites will plug a igpu/cpu system into a 750 or 850 watt supply and claim power consumption isn't very good.

   Reply
6. July 15, 2011 7:02 PM
   Staff
   

   Steve said:

   Actually I also tired a low powered 200w unit and got the exact same numbers. Since then I have tried quite a few sub 400w units and none have been more efficient under lite loads than the OCZ ZX. So yes we are aware of the issue when using high-end power supplies, just cannot find anything that is better.

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7. July 18, 2011 2:54 PM
   Guest said:

   Great review! Seriously considering getting me one of these, when they are available in The Netherlands

   Two questions:

   - It seems the wireless chip is the Atheros 9287 which doesn't appear to support 5GHz 802.11n. Can you confirm this?

   - Does this machine support Intel's Virtualization VT-d (in addtion to VT-x)? The CPU supports it according to the Intel website, but it is hard to find information about the chipset (and whether it is enabled in the BIOS). This would be relevant if you for instance want to use it with VMware ESXi (or Linux+KVM) for direct hardware "passthrough"... There would not be much hardware to pass through, but still :-)

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8. September 23, 2011 10:55 AM
   Guest said:

   Yes, according to intel this CPU supports VT-d: http://ark.intel.com/products/52229

   Whats interesting to me, and what this review doesn't mention at all, is Sandy Bridge accelerrated transcoding ("Quick Sync" , thats the real advantage of these chips in an HTPC.

   Reply

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