Best Graphics for HTPC

F

fasterthanlight

Gawd
Joined
Nov 22, 2005
Messages
677
I am going to assume that ATI is the best for this purpose because of the ease of sending audio over the HDMI right out of the box. I know with nVidia you have to jumper the audio to the card. What is the best card to set up in a HTPC environment that is quiet (prefer silent) and is not overkill.

Also, any mobo's with HDMI from ATI that someone could recommend?
 
What do you plan on doing with your HTPC? Just DVD and/or HD playback, do you want to play video games? If all you want is video playback, you could look at the 780g chipset, I use it with a 4850e and it plays blu-ray back nicely. For games though I doubt it would be the best, maybe good for flash games.
 
4830 is a good start, pretty much any 4 series ATI will do the job just fine.
 
I plan on using it as an "extender". I have all my dvd's setup on NAS. I want this to run Vista Media Center only with the DVD Library feature. I will also rip blu ray for hopeful playback on Win7 MC if it does that feature. I will have it hooked up to a Sony Bravia 52" @ 1920x1080. I need the audio to come from the card or HDMI IGP so my receiver will play it.
 
Nvidia chipset with the onboard 7*** series with built in HDMI out is my favorite :). Does the job and then some for a media pc. No problems with Blu-ray playback or anything else.
 
crawlgsx said:
Nvidia chipset with the onboard 7*** series with built in HDMI out is my favorite :). Does the job and then some for a media pc. No problems with Blu-ray playback or anything else.
Click to expand...


Does your board do 2.0 or 7.1 audio from the HDMI? That is important.
 
TheAmerican said:
Does your board do 2.0 or 7.1 audio from the HDMI? That is important.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't use the HDMI for audio just because I use the Logitech z5500 for my surround so I use 5.1 analog jacks. But I am 90% sure it does At least 5.1, if not 7.1

I would have to look the board back up, If I can find the exact board without opening my media PC I will post back.
 
It is the 630i chipset. With proper drivers it does support 5.1/7.1 audio via HDMI.

I go the one with the 7150 on board (some only have 7100, doubt it makes much of a difference).

IN73M2-UHG-VT is the board I use, By Jetway. It uses theNV7150+630I, supports FSB1333/1066/800 Quad,Dual-Core LGA775 CPU. It supports DDR2-800 (up to 4GB). The internal graphics uses 7150. On the board, there are connectors for D-SUB, HDMI and DVI.

Audio wise u can use analog 8ch HD surround or HDMI 2.0-7.1
Also supports RAID 0,1,5,0+1
Gigabit lan

Can't beat it for the price IMO, and it has every feature I needed for my HTPC.



Just be careful because their ARE different 630i's, the lowest end doesn't offer nearly as much. But I got my "high end" 630i for around $70 :).
 
The Nvidia 8200/8300 or 9300/9400 motherboard chipsets are going to be the best ones to go with. They support 1080p/24 and 7.1 LPCM over HDMI with full hardware decoding of the various HD video types. Nvidia is also enabling support for non-compliant HD video streams to be decoded on-chip via CoreAVC's next release. There's also VDPAU support for linux now. It pretty much leaves ATI in the dust as of right now.
 
I am running the 9300 chipset in my HTPC and it works great. I have the Audio going over HDMI into the TV and Optical from the TV to the Receiver.
 
TheAmerican said:
really?? both audios are working?
Click to expand...

When you say Both Audios, are you thinking HDMI and Optical from the HTPC?

My system, audio from the HTPC goes to the TV via HDMI.
To get the sound to my receiver, I use the optical out on the TV to the optical in on the receiver.
 
Zepher said:
When you say Both Audios, are you thinking HDMI and Optical from the HTPC?

My system, audio from the HTPC goes to the TV via HDMI.
To get the sound to my receiver, I use the optical out on the TV to the optical in on the receiver.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is what I thought, both at the same time. I wasn't sure if Windows would pump out both at the same time.
I really only want to have the HDMI sound, and have it be 7.1 LPCM. W1retap said the board above will do that. That is probably what I am looking for.

What do you all think then...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141015

the reason I thought of ATI was because this joker says there is no audio over HDMI. He might just not know how to use the control panel though.:D
 
TheAmerican said:
Yes, that is what I thought, both at the same time. I wasn't sure if Windows would pump out both at the same time.
I really only want to have the HDMI sound, and have it be 7.1 LPCM. W1retap said the board above will do that. That is probably what I am looking for.

What do you all think then...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141015

the reason I thought of ATI was because this joker says there is no audio over HDMI. He might just not know how to use the control panel though.:D
Click to expand...

That board should be fine, it is the same price and chipset of my Asus board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top