Micro ATX motherboard with sp/dif

I need to replace my aging pc which was used for basic word processing, browsing and most importantly to channel HD video and audio to a projector and AV amplifier. The amp is old but has optical and coax inputs for spdif. I won't be upgrading it for one with hdmi pass through as I'm really happy with the sound it provides. Ideally looking for a micro atx mobo which can handle HD video output and has optical/coax audio output. Going for micro atx as the new build needs to be portable between house and man cave. Need to keep quite cheap. Any suggestions? Many thanks.

Many would also add a soundcard with the desired output format if the motherboard did not have it.
I take it your looking at an HTPC type specification? Music or Movie? Stereo or surround?

What video inputs has the projector got that you prefer to use?

Anything your recycling from the old PC? What sort of budget are you considering as cheap?
What CPU, memory, PSU etc do you already have?

Really hard to say what motherboard without seeing what you had, and how you configured and used it I guess.

AMD may be cheaper, as could shopping around. But to put it into context, years ago I only used PC's for music, but decided to build an HTPC gaming system, the best choice for gaming then was a dual core CPU and 4gb of ram.
That E8400 CPU with a passive Silverstone cooler, Asus Maximus Gene, 4gb Dominator GT, with a silent no fan HD-5750 GPU, 450w psu, BluRay drive, various HDD's sat in a Silverstone GD02 case for years and was my primary BluRay player, audio replay, and occasional gaming system, near silent but occasionally the case cooling let the system down, the Samsung BR drive would overheat, and it ended up requiring a few small fans for gaming.

Most of that old kit will still perform well enough to be used for BluRay and high res music.

Maybe your old system could simply be revamped? A sound card and video card, with an SSD or such, maybe new quieter case etc?

Gigabyte H81M-HD3 has an spdif out but requires an 1150 socket cpu, Pentium would be fine. Gigabyte H170N-WiFi is another option, but yor looking north of £100 in most cases with newer models.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Case & Super Flower 450W FX 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply Bundle= £53.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Mini ITX Motherboard= £116.99
• 1 x Asus Z170I Pro Gaming Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Mini ITX Motherboard= £139.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming-5 Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £143.99
• 1 x MSI Z170M Mortar Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £104.99
• 1 x Intel Pentium Dual Core G4400 3.30GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £53.99
• 1 x Intel Core i3-6100T 3.20GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £101.50
• 1 x Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - White (BLS2C4G4D240FSC)= £32.99
• 1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow UV400 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SUV400S37/1= £39.95
• 1 x Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (ST1000DM003)= £42.95
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit DVD - OEM (MS-KW9-00139)= £86.99
• 1 x LG UH12NS40 12x Blu-Ray Combo Drive SATA (OEM)= £42.95

I never realized so many features were being dropped in motherboards, even this old system below has HDMI and SPDIF output.

Asus P5QL-VM EPU motherboard
Intel E8400 CPU
Corsair XMS2-6400 2x4GB DDR2
Corsair VS350w PSU
Samsung DVD/RW optic drive
Fractal Core 1000 Micro ATX case

Thanks for the reply. Think I'm going to keep it simple and build a simple machine with a sound blaster added on.

Well what was wrong with your old hardware? What do you connect to the projector with? I would really consider listing your old system hardware just in case it only needs a few upgrades.

I take it by HD you mean 1080p?

Around £30 gets you a card with spdif output, but are you looking for PCM stereo or specific Surround options? But that is a huge chunk of motherboard money?

Sadly you would have to shop around, but there are Micro ATX motherboards in limited supply with spdif output and all you need is a Pentium CPU. Unless your current system has components you can re-use, you are going to need at least a CPU, motherboard, and memory.

That Fractal case is really nice and small, and prety good value with that PSU. The rest I just threw in to give you something to mull over, by you lack of information I guess it may be all too much?

A lot of my early stuff was just that, simple PC's connected to a projector and spdif to a DAC. Not sure if it gets more simple than some of the spec above.

Gigabyte H81M-HD3 is a £55 Micro ATX motherboard, it will require a CPU cheapest is £42, and memory, a single 4gb stick will be £17 roughly.

It may or may not suffice.

But that little P5QL system I listed, if I connect a BluRay drive and old 5750 gpu, will play and stream HD content and PCM stereo quite happily.

Thanks so much for all your help. Really appreciated!

I've gone for the fractal case...that is a good find!

Have gone for the Intel Core i3 but slightly faster at 3.70GHz.

The RAM you suggested looks good to me.

In terms of mobo I have found this one at Scan which I like the look of in terms of video and audio output and negates the need for separate sound card: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/H170M-A-PRO.html#hero-specification

Once again, many thanks!

Henry