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motherboard advice..

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sirtoby

Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2002
Location
Finland
okay.. so I've started to think about building a HTPC/Server computer ..

and I need to find a motherboard with

a) good integrated sound (digital 5.1 if possible)
b) integrated graphics w/ tv-out (possible integrated with additional tv-out bracket)
c) should take ddr memory
d) onboard lan

It can be a full sized atx, planning on buying one of those Antec Fusion desktop cases.

I haven't completely decide AMD or Intel.. so you could give suggestions for both.. right now I'm leaning towards AMD though because of price..

What will this puter do?

It will serve multiple purposes.. it'll become the gateway for my network (have ICS) it will possibly also run as a webserver/ftpserver (whatever use I might find). It will play dvd/divx movies and music. So basically it will be a HTPC/Server computer..

Now I thought something along the lines of a 1700+ Tbred for CPU (yes I know.. there are durons but the 1700+ is not really more expensive).. or if I'd go Intel probably a 1.7 GHz Celeron

but anyways.. do you know of any good boards? I've been looking at nForce2 boards but none of them seems to come with the tv-out feature for the integrated gfx card?
 
I have an Asus P4GE-V pentium board and its doing good so far...
- SoundMax Audio
- on board video (no tv out though)
- on board LAN
- ddr333

its a good OCer too...
got my 2.4B to 3.06 with default vcore
 
I'd need that tv-out though, so either a board without integrated graphics, but preferrably a board with integrated graphics and tv-out
 
hmm.. think I have found what I was looking for

MSI K7N2G-L, nVidia nForce2, D/TB/xp ATX
PCI 5, AGP 1, ACR 1, Dimm 3 DDR400, dma133, Graphics, TV-out, Audio6, LAN, 2.7Ghz(-)





AMD Duron/Thunderbird -motherboard MSI K7N2-L
SocketA - Only DDR-DIMM
- nVidia nForce2-IGP chipset.

6x USB2.0. Integrated 6-ch sound, LAN andv Graphics card with Composite and S-Video output!

CPU: AMD 600-2700 Mhz or higher, SocketA.
Bus speed: jumper free mode 100-200 MHz and FSB 200/266/333MHz.
Palomino ready.
Multiplier x - x, 0.5 increments.
PCI: 5
ISA: 0
AGP: 1, supports 4x/8x only 1.5V
ACR: 1
DIMM slots: 3, Only DDR-DIMM max 3.0Gb, PC1600-PC3200
SIMM slots: 0
Bios: PhoenixBios, ACPI, DMI.
Suspend-To-RAM/Disk.
Keyboard input: PS2
Mouse input: PS2

Hardware monitoring.
PC Alert(TM) 4, LiveMonitor.
2x Ultra DMA33-133, 6xUSB2.0, USB header, EEP/ECP port, Serial Port1, IR, Wake-Up on-LAN/Ring/USB/Keyboard, SMBus.
Front Panel Audio 2x5pin header.

Graphics:
Integrated nVidia nForce2 AGP graphics controller.
Integrated TV-out encoder, through external bracket.
Composite out (rca) and S-Video out (mini-din).

Soundcard:
Integrated Realtek ALC650 6-channel CODEC Audio Controller.
Gameport, mic in, line in, line out.
SPDIF S-Bracket header for optional SPDIF S-Bracket.

LAN:
Chipset integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet/Fast Ethernet.
RJ45, 10/100 Mbps.

Does anyone have any experience with this motherboard, perhaps some review somewhere?

Also, does anyone one know what the tv-out quality would be like?
 
sirtoby said:
Also, does anyone one know what the tv-out quality would be like?

TV out quality largely depends upon the quality of the TV and if it has an adjustable refresh rate. General TV's by large have a refresh rate which is different to that of a monitor and as such picture quality suffers a great deal usually.
 
The TV-out quality has been good (even great) from my ti-4200 so I guess I could assume similar results with this..
 
Your best bet is the k7n2g-l. It overclocks very easily and has integrated gpu with tv out. Haven' t tested out the tv out part though. For about $100 this is a great buy.
 
yup.. sure looks like I'm getting one of those. I'm not really interested in o/cing for this one though.. as it will be a HTPC and I really want to keep the noise down.. will try to get some fans that are <20 dB
 
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