Need Advice on new HTPC hardware (1 Viewer)

[osxfreak]

Well after 6 months of using my MediaPortal HTPC. My old Dell died. It was a Dell Optiplex GX280
The machine started getting a yellow light when powering up and the fan would rev up to Launching speeds.

So I've been with out an HTPC for some time and it's driving me insane. I loved Media Portal and miss her so. lol lol
Anyhow I just received some info and have been looking for a cheap replacement.

I'm looking at the below mother board:
GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview - GA-MA785GM-US2H (rev. 1.0)

Also looking at the below
AMD Processors for Desktops: AMD Phenom?, AMD Athlon? FX, AMD Athlon? X2 Dual-Core, AMD Athlon?, and AMD Sempron? Processor

I currently have a HD4550 Video Card ( will this be needed with this MB?). I was using this video card to connect up to my 42 plasma via HDMI

I also have the WinTV HVR-2250. Will this work with this Proposed Motherboard?

As for power supply the system comes with 450W, and 2gb of ram which I will upgrade to at least 4gb

Thanks for any info on this set up you can offer

chip

 

[wagenveld]

You might want to have a look here:

Guide to Building a HD HTPC - Page 85 - AVS Forum

 

[Gixxer]

if its just a htpc, you dont need 4gb, but then again...memory is cheap nowadays.

 

[etheesdad]

I'm looking at the below mother board:
GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview - GA-MA785GM-US2H (rev. 1.0)

Also looking at the below
AMD Processors for Desktops: AMD Phenom?, AMD Athlon? FX, AMD Athlon? X2 Dual-Core, AMD Athlon?, and AMD Sempron? Processor

I currently have a HD4550 Video Card ( will this be needed with this MB?)

Depends on what processor you;re using and what you want to play. There's not a lot of discussion around about the 785G and MP because its so new, but there was a lot of talk about the 780g and its need for a fairly hefty processor in order to play 1080i. If you're not playing 1080i then maybe no need for the HD4550, however I dont really understand why you would buy a board with an inferior on-board chipset when you already have a good HTPC GPU?

I also have the WinTV HVR-2250. Will this work with this Proposed Motherboard?

They are pci-e 1x, arent they? If so, then, Yes. (the short slot to the right of the blue pci-e 16x slot)

As for power supply the system comes with 450W, and 2gb of ram which I will upgrade to at least 4gb

Agree with above post - 4gb is overkill. Mp will run well in a gig or less. Two is plenty. No performance improvement from 2-4 on a dedicated HTPC.

With TVserver recording one show in HD and a 1080 video playing simutaneously, I still have 1.24GB physical ram free on my machine with 2GB. Adding ram over 2gb wont yield any result running MP.

I guess it depends what else you're doing with the machine tho