ASRock's High-End Vision 3D 252B HTPC Review
by Ganesh T S on May 7, 2012 6:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Sandy Bridge
- HTPC
- GT 540M
- NVIDIA
Before proceeding to the business end of the review, let us take a look at some power consumption numbers. We measured power drawn at the wall when the unit was idle, one hour after subjecting the unit to Prime95 and Furmark simultaneously and when playing back a 1080p24 Blu-ray movie from the optical drive with HD audio bistreaming. In all cases, the Wi-Fi was active (no wired Ethernet). A wireless keyboard and mouse was also connected to the unit.
| ASRock Vision 3D 252B Power Consumption | |
| Idle | 20.1 W |
| Prime95 + Furmark (Full loading) | 109.2 W |
| 1080p24 Blu-ray Playback using CyberLink PowerDVD 12 | 33.2 W |
We are a little worried about the full loading power consumption being more than what the power supply is rated for, as this was not something we observed in the review of the first generation Vision 3D. [Update: Many readers have pointed out that the efficiency of the PSU has to be taken into account. If the efficiency is lower than 82.4%, then, the observed consumption numbers are fine]. That said, it is highly unlikely that users will stress the unit to that extent in day-to-day usage.
The thermal solution used in the Vision 3D 252B is the same as the one used in the Vision 3D 137B. We had already covered the thermal performance in detail in the previous review, and I found no discernible difference in the actual performance of the two units. Full loading produces less than 35 dB of noise, and this is as good as what one can get with an actively cooled system.
We have had the Vision 3D 252B review unit in-house for more than five months, and it has actually served as a testbed in a number of our reviews. ASRock's units have always been reliable in my experience, and the Vision 3D 252B has been used as the primary HTPC in my setup ever since it came in. From this standpoint, the Vision 3D 252B deserves our recommendation as much as the original Vision 3D 137B.
So, why did we have this inordinate delay in publishing the review of the Vision 3D 252B? Simply put, ASRock had made us set our expectations quite high after the Vision 3D 137B. Instead of delivering on the same scale, what we have with the Vision 3D 252B is just an evolutionary update. This is further weakened by the fact that the GT 540M and the first generation's GT 425M belong to the same family, with the former just being an overclocked version. The memory type and bus width are also the same, as is the number of shaders. Increasing the primary disk drive size (from 500 to 750 GB) and the amount of RAM (from 4 to 8 GB) was just keeping up with the latest industry standards. In addition, to really get excited about the Vision 3D 252B, SSDs as primary disk drives or at least as a caching drive should have been utilized. When Zotac can introduce a mSATA SSD in their low-end offering (ZBOX Nano XS), it is not clear why ASRock didn't go in for something similar.
In conclusion, the ASRock Vision 3D 252B is an ideal alternative to the Vision 3D 137B, but the updates are not revolutionary enough for us to give it the same plaudits as what we gave to the first generation version. That said, if ASRock can get the pricing down on this to somewhere around the $750 - $850 range, the system would definitely win in the price-performance aspect. We hope ASRock builds upon its solid foundation to deliver a more attractive system down the line. With Ivy Bridge and Kepler, things are looking good. Now, it is just up to ASRock to design a HTPC oriented motherboard for the next generation version later this year.
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ganeshts - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
I agree that the necessary information is spread out over multiple sites / reviews. We will work towards maintaining a database for easy access to all the information from a central point.ggathagan - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
There's already an extensive guide:http://imouto.my/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/
http://imouto.my/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva-c...
An alternative to MPC-HC is a Korean product called Pot player:
http://imouto.my/configuring-potplayer-for-gpu-acc...
I've used both players with a GTS 450, an AMD 6950 and an AMD 5670 without issue after following the guides.
aliasfox - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
First off, I skimmed the article, so forgive me if this is really obvious. Second, I have an admitted Mac bias, so that's where this is coming from. So here goes:With the exception of the Blu-Ray drive and USB3, is there really much that makes this worth so much more than a Mac Mini? I'm thinking the $799, i7, Radeon 6670m equipped model.
$100 to load Windows onto it (if that's your flavor), and $200 should get you a blu-ray player - that leaves that set up $100 cheaper than the ASRock...
The Mac mini does dual display, has HDMI out, and has an optical audio output as well. Admittedly, the SD Card reader on the back is less easy to get to than a reader on the front, and the base HDD is smaller (500 GB).
Different strokes for different folks?
lenkiatleong - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
But Mac mini does not bitstream HD audio to AV as far as i know. And this is the most critical point in my opinion for HTPC.philipma1957 - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
1.2k for 1.2 k I can have a 2500k cpu a crucial 256gb ssd a 2tb hdd a blu ray from asus 8gb ram a mobo from asus the catch is I need a 14 by 14 by 7 inch case.Any real hi end ht has amps, larger speakers ,large tv. Some subs not one sub.
A gear rack and hiding a case the size of 14 by 14 by 7 on a gear rack is easy.
This is for a design freak with tiny little bose speakers and a wall mount led flat screen.
while that ht is costly ie hi end it makes poor quality sound.
ganeshts - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
This is a HTPC for the high end home theater. Nothing prevents you from routing the HDMI output from the Vision 3D 252B to an amp / pre-amps and use that to drive the large speakers.aliasfox - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
Or potentially it's for people who are limited on storage rack space. My five level rack currently houses my blu-ray player, receiver, and dedicated stereo amp, as well as my cable modem and router which live on one shelf.If I were to replace my receiver (currently acting as my pre/pro) with a dedicated pre/pro and another amp to do surround duties, I wouldn't have another entire shelf for a big box htpc - I'd only have the space next to the modem and router to share.
zerorift - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
Maybe I'm just not seeing this in the review, but what software did you use to record the graphs of power usage?ganeshts - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
The graphs are from HWInfo. The software is capable of much more than just simple graphing. Here is another screenshot (and the link to the software):http://www.hwinfo.com/images/HWiNFO32_1.png
www.hwinfo.com
nsparadox - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
I used to build HTPCs back in the day to record shows as a glorified DVR. There's no bundled tuner. What's the point of HTPCs nowadays, assuming you're not using them as a DVR?I can do pretty much all of these things this machine can do with a Blu-Ray player, Google TV, integrated TV software, a Roku box, or just an HDMI out to an existing tablet or laptop PC. And the prices for these approaches ranges from free to $200 depending on what equipment you already have?
Even for massive movie hoarders who want to stream their collection, you can do that with most of these devices.