Gigabyte or MSI Media Live Diva?

S

sbiswas

n00b
Joined
Nov 30, 2008
Messages
10
I'm trying to build an HTPC and I really have no experience in this area. I'm looking at the following mobos:

MSI Media Live DIVA 5.1 AM2+/AM2 AMD 780M HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130206&Tpk=MSI Media Live DIVA 5.1
189.99

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128360&Tpk=GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM
79.99

These boards seem to be almost the same. The MSI has 3 PCI Expressx1 slots while the Gigabyte has only 2 PCI slots. The MSI has S/PDIF Out coax instead of fiber as on Gigabyte. The MSI has S/PDIF in while Gigabyte does not. MSI has 5 audio ports while Gigabyte has 6.

Are these differences worth the extra $110 for the MSI? Am I missing something?
 
Welcome to [H]ard|Forum. Please utilize the search.

But I can point you in the right direction.

The price difference is due to the fact that the MSI board includes a proprietary designed audio amplifier card and the motherboard also has an OCUR licensed design with it. That will enable CableCard support.

If you don't care about that, go for the Gigabyte. It supports LPCM audio via HDMI as confirmed by many members here, and it's an all around solid board for HTPC use.
 
The MSI board also has 128MB of sideport memory. Should help improve BD and HD playback.

The audio on the MSI board is fantastic. I am using it right now and replaced my Denon AVR with it. No regrets on my end at all.
 
Thanks guys.

w1retap, I didn't see anything on OCUR licensing when I searched. But I do keep getting distracted with all the links ppl post and I just have to follow up...

Javabri, good point about the sideport memory. I got confused with

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM-DS2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128341&Tpk=GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM

So then I would either go with this Gigabyte or the MSI once I figure out my audio requirements (for example, could I somehow connect wireless rear speakers with the MSI or would I need another audio receiver which supports wireless speakers in which case maybe the Gigabyte would suffice).

Javabri, I recall reading that you had the silent flux cpu cooler. Are you using the AMD 4850e? 45W cpu or 9xxx 65W (I've seen you recommend both). I ask because I wonder if the 45W would even need any cooling. Also, where did you buy your silent flux? Very difficult to find.
 
w1retap said:
Welcome to [H]ard|Forum. Please utilize the search.

But I can point you in the right direction.

The price difference is due to the fact that the MSI board includes a proprietary designed audio amplifier card and the motherboard also has an OCUR licensed design with it. That will enable CableCard support.

If you don't care about that, go for the Gigabyte. It supports LPCM audio via HDMI as confirmed by many members here, and it's an all around solid board for HTPC use.
Click to expand...

Don't listen to people like him, they're assholes.
 
lol.. anyhow..

If you have the extra money to burn, the MSI Diva is a good choice. There are one or two other people on here besides Javabri that own the board and said they really like it. I don't recall who they were though.

Otherwise, the Gigabyte board is the main board that dozens of people here have used, and it has proven to be solid.

For your speaker setup, it all depends what you have and how you want it hooked up. The Diva has four options I can see.. (1) integrated audio amp via pci-e card. (2) multi-channel output that goes to receiver. (3) HDMI to TV/Receiver. (4) Coax digital to receiver.

For cooling, a 65w or 45w processor can be passively cooled depending on the case and heatsink you choose. For my build, I used a Antec NSK2400/2480 case, and I'm passively cooling my 5000+ with a Scythe Mini Ninja. Since it has no fan, the CPU heatsink is totally silent. It remains under 45c, even during HDDVD/Blu-ray playback since the graphics card/chipset does mostly all the work.

The AMD X2 4850e is really the ideal processor for HTPC use. It's 45w so there's less heat in your case, thus silent cooling, and it also has plenty of power to playback HD video assuming you follow my guide in the sticky thread at the top of this forum. With HDDVD/Blu-ray playback, you don't have to worry about the CPU much though, since the graphics chipset on either motherboard will take care of all that.
 
For the Silentflux cooler, you could get them at Directron

http://www.directron.com/slsfmedia.html

However, it says they are currently out of stock.

I am using the 65W quad core, works great with plenty of CPU horsies left over. As for 45W, never tried to passively cool one so not sure what is possible there.
 
w1retap said:
Welcome to [H]ard|Forum. Please utilize the search.

But I can point you in the right direction.

The price difference is due to the fact that the MSI board includes a proprietary designed audio amplifier card and the motherboard also has an OCUR licensed design with it. That will enable CableCard support.
Click to expand...

Not to hijack the thread, but does that mean we can start building our own Cable Card ready HTPCs and not have to buy Dell?
 
No, it just means you corner system builder can build an OCUR solution if they are MS certified.

No OCUR for DIY community just yet.
 
Javabri said:
No, it just means you corner system builder can build an OCUR solution if they are MS certified.

No OCUR for DIY community just yet.
Click to expand...
How do we know this since the board is already OCUR ready as listed on MSI's website? It does not require a special version of Vista as already stated by CrimandEvil in another thread. Thus if you hook up the CableCard Tuner and plug in an activated CableCard from your cable company, it should work, correct? What's missing?
 
There is a table that needs to be included in the BIOS that hold's the integrators OCUR PID (product ID). Most off the shelf boards do not have this table in the BIOS.

MSI is saying that this board supports this table so the integrator can program their PID into the BIOS to support cable tuners.

Therefore, unless you have both a tool and an OCUR PID (Provided by MS), you cannot simply plug in a cable card tuner and cable card and expect it to work.

Chris Lanier over at Green Button covered this in a recent thread.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top