Motherboard for HTPC between 2

[Automiketic]

Ok Im thinking about building my first HTPC. it is going to be used to play the hundreds of videos I have on my harddrive. Most of them are xvid and the rest are x264. i dont plan to buy a grfx card and plan to use the onboard video. i am going to be using a vga to svideo to plug it into a standard def tv. im down to two mobo choices and i just want to be sure i wont be leaving myself short. i have an e2200 and 4 gbs of ram. the mobos are this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186110) and this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131229R). I guess I should also mention that i dont plan to overclock or play bluray dvds. thanks in advance guys.

[SPARC]

Personally, I would go with the ASUS. I built a HTPC with that board a while back and it worked very well. The only boards I use in my HTPC come from either DFI, Gigabyte, or ASUS.

Good Luck

[Mr.Guvernment]

anything beside Intel integrated you are fine, get the geforce one, integrated intel video sucks for anything above xvid really, so to be safe for future and get the GeForce 7100

[Automiketic]

ok well due to something that just came up im going to keep my current mobo that doesnt have onboard video. will a 8800gts be enough to do what i need?

[SPARC]

A 8800GTS will be more than able to handle all of your HTPC needs. If you don't have one, you may want to look into a good sound card so you'll get a quality sound to match your excellent output.

[Automiketic]

thanks for the help guys. ill put some consideration into a sound card but not until i get some better speakers the ones i have atm are nothing special so i dont think there is much a soundcard will do yet.

[Mr.Guvernment]

yes it will work fine, the 8800GTS, now is thie the 512mb GTS, i beleive it can handle HD offloading of mkv files... but the 320 and 640 can not.

does your HTPC dump out to a stereo or do you have speaker hooked directly to it.

if your using S/PDIF out a sound card is useless vs onboard since it si dumping out a raw signal either way.

[Neuromancer]

8800gts can handle DXVA just not VC-1 I thought?

Serious overkill for an HTPC. A nice 3450 or 3650 would be great.

As for the motherboards mentioned above, I would not use any IGP that does not support over/underscanning for an HTPC. Intel does not not sure about the nVidia board.

Awesome DXVA writeup (http://ranpha.wordpress.com/page-1/)

[Mr.Guvernment]

ati and nvidia onboards are HTPC gods right now, at least in newer AM socket and 775 boards.

[LandShark]

just keep in mind ATI (IGP or video card) still having 1080p/24 problem IF it matters you!! (both Intel's G45 and any nVidia solution are not!)

[Automiketic]

ok well the 8800gts is a g80 640mb with the a3 core. i know its prolly a bit over kill but its seasier than selling the 8800gts and buying a 3650 or what not plus given shipping and everything else i might as well have the better vid card.