GT 240 vs GT 520

[sonigaurav2006]

Hi,

I built a Sandy Bridge (P67 based) hackintosh last year and plan to build one more.

Target : HTPC (using GA-H61N-USB3) motherboard, Silverstone SG05 or FT03 Mini casing
and an i3-2120 or similar.

I'm troubled between graphics cards specifically, the GT240 and the GT520.

While both may seem great, I've heard GT240 is a faster card than GT520, whereas the GT520, is much easily available and Dx11 compatible (odd bit of gaming on windows expected)

I also understand that both of these cards are supported by Lion as of making this post.

The target is to build a pc fast enough to play the largest mkv files, surfing, browsing, multitasking (etc etc)

Which would be the better card .. ?

Thanks (cheers)

 

[Gordo74]

While both of those cards are fast enough for HTPC (even full 1080p Blu Ray rips) and all of your other needs, neither of those cards will game well at all.

I would suggest getting an i3-2125 or 2105 and just use the integrated HD3000 graphics.

 

[sonigaurav2006]

and the HD3000 would be ohkay for full BluRay 1080p rips? I just need enough power for these, and possibly more for a little headroom.

Thanks!

 

[Jamesbond007]

and the HD3000 would be okay for full BluRay 1080p rips? I just need enough power for these, and possibly more for a little headroom.

Thanks!

There is no hardware acceleration from the HD3000 on Mac OSX, so it solely depends on the processing power of the CPU for 1080p blu ray rips. The CPU should be fast enough.

Note that if you want to run Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard as well, then you will need a separate video card such as the GT240. If you will only run 10.7 Lion, then you can just use the Core i3-2125 with its HD3000 graphics.

 

[goober296]

gt 240 ddr5 is actually a fair entry level gaming card in windows. Craigslist is your friend. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam ... 107-7.html

 

[Gordo74]

and the HD3000 would be ohkay for full BluRay 1080p rips? I just need enough power for these, and possibly more for a little headroom.

Thanks!

I run fully uncompressed Blu Ray rips (1080p, 60GB files) on the HD3000/i3-2105 with zero problems.

 

[sonigaurav2006]

Thanks alot Gordo74 and everyone else

Now that really puts things into perspective.
Build log coming soon

(cheers)