which best motherfboeard + Cpu for HTPC

[djsmallz]

hello guys

id ilike some advice on which best motherboard to use forsome sort of high end HTPC and which process is best. however still keep it on a budget..i will be constantly recording stuff so i believe a good processor and ram are the way to go.. therefore i need some ideas please. i saw a review which is quite old for this motherboard - fatal1ty_f-i90hd_motherboard

however i think since there been much better motherboards for htpc..

also I take it it's best to have a seperate hd video card rather than iusing a motherboard hdmi right?

please guy is really need your help.

 

[Sihastru]

My idea of a HTPC:

Silverstone SG05 (300W SFX)

Zotac 9300 MITX WiFi (has DVI/DSUB/HDMI)

Intel Q8200 or E8600

4GB DDR2

8800GTS 512 (insert your preference here, I just have one lying around) for occasional 720p HD gaming

BR/DVDRW combo

WD Scorpio 500GB or Black 1TB

Wireless KB+Mouse

If you need a TV Tuner then you should either drop the discrete GPU or buy something else.

 

[djsmallz]

Hey boss

Thanks for being the only one who cares enough to reply

That's a good suggestion however, why that zotac mainboard?

Im not sure if a motherboard with hdmi/hd incorporated would deliver the FULL 1080P so maybe it's best to rely on a seperate graphic card? what do you think?

 

[Kojak71]

It depends what sort of duties your HTPC will be doing. Recording over the air TV, such as Freeview, is not going to tax any low-end CPU (something like a Intel's E5200 will be more than enough). Quantity of RAM is probably better than having highly clocked RAM with tight timings. If you are running Vista, I would turn off aero and all the other wiz bang things, as these suck about 1/2Gb of RAM.

Back to your queston. It comes down to how many cards you'll be installing (and whether their PCI or PCIe based) and whether or not you go for ATX or mATX, and integrated or discrete graphics. Also do you want to playback high def. content (e.g. H.264 downloads or Blu-Ray).

As eventually everything will eventually go down the H.264 route, if I was building a system today, and on a budget, I would go down the integrated route.

For Intel 775 socket, go for something with Intel G45 chipset (Foxconn, Asus and Gigabyte based ones range from £84-£97), or nVidia 9300/9400 (Gigabyte do a 9400 one for £118). AMD AM2+ route (which should run with any AM2, AM2+ or AM3 cpu) there's either the AMD 790G based boards (running from £75-£115) or nVidia's 8200/8300 range (£50-£80).

If though you are going for a discrete graphics card solution, then that opens up a whole wealth of options too numerous too mention. Stick to the named brands, make sure that they have at least Japanese solid capacitors. If it's going to be a in cramped HTPC case with poor airflow, make sure that the chipset and vrm have heatsinks. Foxconn/Asus/Gigabyte have products that tick all these boxes and come with long warranties.

 

[nunzio]

Well I was going to go with an ATI 790G mobo. Either the DFI JR one, or an Asus one, As my new system has a nice DFI DK version of the 790g I am leaning in that direction. Just with a lower end cpu.

Mine is mainly going to be setup for dual DBA tv recording and HDplayback running windows vista 64 with 4gb of ram. I don't know if i will be running the onboard vga or a PCIe card and using hybrid crossfire, as I do want to use it to play some games.

 

[Sihastru]

I chose that Zotac because it has the full 16x PCIe 2.0 slot. It has 4 phase power for the CPU and it can take any Intel CPU except the Extreme 1600FSB versions. It is also mini-ITX, so you'll get the smallest box that will allow for a dual slot PCIe video card, and that is the Silverstone SG05. The optional bundled PSU is SFX (smaller then ATX). Some have used that same PSU/Case to power A Phenom X4, 4GB DDR2, HD4870 512MB. So it can take it.

The integrated nVidia 9300 should be able to playback full HD 1080p content, provided that you'll use a decent CPU. Something from a E5200 upwards. If you're on a budget the E5200 can be easily OCed to 3.33GHz at least.

If you're not interested in casual gaming, then the PCIe slot can be used for a TV Tuner / Capture card.

But if you need a TV Tuner / Capture card AND a better video card, then you'll best be looking for a mATX/ATX system. that has more then 1 PCIe slot.