If you could choose any motherboard for a HTPC, which would it be?

So, as far as the hardware decoding goes, the 3200 is capable of decoding just as well as a more powerful GPU? What CPU would you stick in there?
 
jdraughn said:
So, as far as the hardware decoding goes, the 3200 is capable of decoding just as well as a more powerful GPU? What CPU would you stick in there?
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Pretty much. The 780G was pretty much designed to meet exactly that expectation...being able to decode 1080p for hidef material.

As for the CPU....I'm not quite sure myself actually. If you buy too little a CPU, you will lose responsiveness while playing video and possible dropped frames. If you buy to much, it is just wasted money and excess heat. If I were to looking into my crystal ball, I would probably pick up a 4400/4600 AM2 and down clock it. However, a decent semp should do the job as well.
 
i love my 5000+ BE at 2.0ghz stock vcore and stock cooling in my htpc, which i use to play games as well, vegas 2 and bf2.
 
Aivikrames said:
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128090

This would be my choice, simply on the basis that it can handle the hardware decoding of HD with the onboard video, AMD chip prices are very affordable for all budgets, and the microatx form factor, even in a large case, leaves room to work with.
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I have this mobo and I got the 4850e cpu to go with it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103255&Tpk=4850e

So far its been great.
 
Well then, unless someone has any other opinions, I don't see any reason to not go with it. I kind of wanted to stick with my core 2 duo setups so my CPU's would be swapable to each other, that way as I upgrade I still have a use for much of my hardware, but this is will be so much cheaper, I don't see how my original intention of keeping socket 775 all around makes any sense.

Thanks much for all the input guys.
 
Nvidia 8200 because of 7.1 LCPM through HDMI. It just came out so I'm waiting for the drivers to get fixed because a lot of people are having problems getting all the advertised features to work. In a month or so the G45 will be coming out and that too supports 7.1 LCPM through HDMI.

The 8200 will also be available in Intel MBs in a few weeks.
 
Grievear said:
Nvidia 8200 because of 7.1 LCPM through HDMI. It just came out so I'm waiting for the drivers to get fixed because a lot of people are having problems getting all the advertised features to work. In a month or so the G45 will be coming out and that too supports 7.1 LCPM through HDMI.

The 8200 will also be available in Intel MBs in a few weeks.
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This has been a subject of debate and semantics over the past year. With certain words being interchanged with others..it might just be my confusion.

I know that the 8200 (as well as the 780) still does not support pass through for TrueHD/DTS-HD (the article linked by w1re indicates that as well). So, is there software now that can decode the DTS-HD/TrueHD streams from the disc and then re-encode them onto the HDMI cable for the LPCM format?
 
More BR disks now are coming with LPCM tracks. But what we're doing now is doing re-encodes of the movies and taking the TrueHD/DTS-HD track out and converting it to FLAC and outputting PCM from there. =)
 
Hi there,

Anyone used a Jetway JNC62K with Windows Vista Media Center?
I have one, trying currently. Mostly works excellently.

However - can't seem to get it to retain power on the USB ports during S3 - it de-powers them. Tried all the usual Windows settings for that, and can't find a BIOS setting that works.

Any help appreciated,

Regards
 
You'll probably have to go into the device manager properties and go to your USB controller properties and check the option for allowing that device to wake the computer.
 
Would the GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H be able to handle dual monitors whereas one is connected via HDMI at 1080p and one is connected via DVI and running at 1440x900?

This would be a great solution to my problems and save me so much money.
 
Bones117 said:
Would the GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H be able to handle dual monitors whereas one is connected via HDMI at 1080p and one is connected via DVI and running at 1440x900?

This would be a great solution to my problems and save me so much money.
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Yes it can handle dual monitors. However check to see what's the max resolution possible with the Gigabyte's onboard video. I know it can't do 2560x1200.
 
I was under the impression that the boards could do dual monitors but they were still limited to one digital video output and one analog video output; this was at least true with the 690 boards. Did that change with 780G?

Also, regarding the "lower processor speed could result in dropped frames and low responsiveness," that is true, but it's so low as to not be an issue. Check out this page from SPCR's 780G review:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article807-page8.html

1.5Ghz was the lowest clock speed that would smoothly play back all our clips. This was a fantastic result as the lowest clocked X2 on the market is 2.0Ghz.

So clock speed is not an issue for playback.
 
Thanks, after some research it does not seem to allow for both digital outputs to be used at one time. :(
 
"You'll probably have to go into the device manager properties and go to your USB controller properties and check the option for allowing that device to wake the computer."

Yes I did that early on, it's standard and required thing to do certainly in XP. But the BIOS seems to ignore all this and de-power the ports anyway.
 
needmorecarnitine said:
Have you used it to play Bluray or other HD material? Any dropped frames?
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yeah I've used it for both and its been great. I've also used the external xbox 360 hd-dvd player and its all worked with no dropped frames. Sorry for the delay in responding, been outta town.
 
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