MotherBoard & inbuilt video card (1 Viewer)

[stowaway]

Im slowly building up the hardware for my HTPC. (buying a peice a week so it doesnt hit the pocket at 1 go)
so far ive got :

Western Digital 1TB SATAII 7200 rpm HDD [hard drive]
DVico FusionHDTV DVB-T Pro [tunner card]

Next I was going to buy
Antec Fusion Black HTPC Desktop Case - Black LCD with IR receiver 430W PSU [case]

What im not sure about is the mother board & video card.. (remembering im trying to do it cheaply)

I was thinking about using the
Asus M2N-VM-DVI F7050/nF630 DDR2 VGA DVI PCIEx16 SATA2 RAID GbLAN mATX
This one has Integrated Geforce®7Series graphics

OR the
ASUS M2A-VM-HDMI AM2 690G PCIEx16 DVI VGA RAID SATA2 GbLAN SND mATX
this one has Integrated ATI Radeon X1250-based graphics.


Will this Have enough graphic processing power to run media centre. considering it will be a dedicated media centre, the only other use it will get besides recording, and playing tv/movies is perhapes the occasional game of Fifa. But i can always get an older version of fifa if 07 doesnt run.

Can i please have everyones opinions on the motherboard and intergrated video? or suggestions on a different model

 

[tompa]

Hi!
Im using the Asus M2NPV-VM with Nvidia decoder, and Im very pleased with it
I dont think this mobo is suitible for HD TV though(?).

Best od luck!
/tompa

 

[Nemulate]

Having used the Asus board you are looking at I would say you're better off going with the Gigabyte version of the same board as it seems much more stable and I'm glad I swapped! I think there is a newer AMD htpc motherboard coming out in january based on the 790 chipset which you might want to wait for?

Thanks

 

[rtv]

Both have an awful sound chip - do yourself a favour and buy a 6150/430 board with realtek's ALC88X audio onboard.

 

[Spragleknas]

Gigabyte has started using the 889A integrated chip, which is supposed to be quite good. (Well, thats what I read, anyway).

I got the Gigabyte 690G - which is a excellent mobo, EXCEPT that there is issues with reflections with drivers (before 7.2 - does not display the - after 7.2 -> MP locks up).

 

[Nemulate]

Yes your right the Asus uses Realtek ALC883 while the Gigabyte uses the better ALC889A. Catalyst 7.12 drivers are out any day now so will be keen to see if they've resolved the issue with MP!

 

[stowaway]

HD tv

not that ill really be watchin much HD stuff. but incase i do want too. do i require a better video card?

 

[Spragleknas]

Depends on CPU. If you use software codecs, like CoreAVC and FFDShow, then all work is done by CPU --> gfx does not matter (except fro PQ?).

If you want hardware acceleration done by gfx (does not make CPU go bananas) then you need to upgrade gfx.

I ran 720p material (using CoreAVC) on a 1.7 PentiumM, 1GB + 6200 with no problem....

 

[Nemulate]

I have a ati 2600xt plugged into my board to help with HD video and because of the X1250 catalyst 7.11 problems! Runs great at 1080! Don't get Spragleknas started about X1250 and Catalsyt drivers though! LOL

 

[Spragleknas]

No...please don't
Anyway: Nemulate, can you see if you are able to force 1080p @ 50 Hz? I only get stupid options like 43Hz, 54 Hz... blah, blah...
Btw: Me an ATi