Mobo

[cdn_Madrach]

I'm looking at getting this matx Abit board for a htpc. Any comments or recomendations would be appreciated:) Keep in mind though I don't want to spend a fortune lol.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ABit

[sswilson]

I was looking at this board on a local site just the other night.

Not too many onboard video boards out yet that have an actual HDMI out, but a quick look reveals one glaring issue......

There's only one PCI slot, so forget running a second TV card (Unless you pick up an AIW, and I'm not too sure they're making them with the newer vid cards), or a high end sound card, or a PCI wireless nic, etc........

I don't think I'd buy any motherboard that was going to have all of its slots filled the second I installed it in the case.

[cdn_Madrach]

Good points Wilson...but I was considering pcie tuner cards:) They do make them(pcie tuner cards)now don't they?

[sswilson]

I've yet to see any cards that run off of the PCIe X1 slot.

That doesn't mean that they don't exist, but I haven't seen or heard of anybody using one......

[sswilson]

Well, what do you know.........

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...ture=VistaView

A little pricey though...........

The Saber's a good card though. It's Vista compatible (go figure) and doesn't actually put out that much heat. I ended up with an ATi Theater 650 anyway since my mATX board in my HTPC has its PCIe slot taken up by the video card.

Still if you don't already have this mobo, I would look at the Biostar 690G. Solid little board. Put together a system for my friend around this mobo.

[cdn_Madrach]

Thanks Misoprostol...but I need a socket 775 board. That is a nice board and just what I'm lookin for but AM2:( Oh well I'll keep looking for a bit. The only thing holding me back from ordering the Abit is that like Wilson said it only has 1 pci slot....but since there are pcie tuner cards hmmmm.....decisions, decisions lol.

[grinder]

any time you can avoid using ATI and HTPC in the same box, please do.

that is my only suggestion.

[Cheator]

Originally Posted by grinder

any time you can avoid using ATI and HTPC in the same box, please do.

that is my only suggestion.

Can I ask why that is? My ATI 550 pro works great, and when I had the x1600pro in there, it had incredible image quality (and i bought it for 30 bucks!). The only downside is that you can't run it with LinuxMCE.