Best Mobo for HTPC?

the_rmg · 7 Sep 2008 at 00:36

Hi All,

I am planning on building a HTPC, and would like some suggestions on a mobo for it.

It needs to have HDMI to connect to either my TV or AV amp, so ideally should send the audio signal as well as the video signal.

I am assuming that Intel chips are still running riot over AMD, so would prefer an intel board, but I am open to suggestions.

My budget is around the £100 mark, but am flexible.

Cheers,

Ross.

lee87 · 7 Sep 2008 at 09:01

For a HTPC it's better to get a AMD system.

I'd get a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H with a 4850e cpu.

This has onboard HD3200 graphics which will be fine for running 1080p videos, it will also send sound over hdmi.

mc6701 · 7 Sep 2008 at 13:48

Sorry to hijack your post but need the same info......

Planning to build a bluray based HTPC and have been looking at a Asus P5E-VM as this has a HDMI out and also think it will carry sound.

Why is AMD better for a HTPC???? Is it a heat issue....do they run cooler?

Also what is the most important to get great video playback?? Will be playing BluRay disc and also downloaded content. It will be feed to my pioneer 427xd plasma which will play 1080i/p and via coax digital sound to my Sony 5.1 decoder. Will the Asus mobo cope with this?

Will be using a E6400 which is currently in my gaming rig o/c to 3.2ghz as looking to replace this with a E8500.

Any help that is offered will be truly appricated.

Thank

MC6701 :cool:

doggo · 7 Sep 2008 at 14:28

mc6701;12451180. Why is AMD better for a HTPC???? Is it a heat issue....do they run cooler? MC6701:cool:[/QUOTE said:
I believe that is the the answer, they run a bit cooler than the Intel's so you don't' need to get a big beefy cooler

Atom · 7 Sep 2008 at 14:46

lee87 said:
For a HTPC it's better to get a AMD system.

I'd get a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H with a 4850e cpu.

This has onboard HD3200 graphics which will be fine for running 1080p videos, it will also send sound over hdmi.

I just built this exact system this morning. AMD 780G chipset decodes hd material on board and so takes some load of the cpu.

amkan13 · 7 Sep 2008 at 14:48

Why is AMD better for a HTPC???? Is it a heat issue....do they run cooler?

1) platform power consumption is low
2) on-board graphics WITH hardware decoding of HD content (less cpu used)
3) as HD is offloaded to onboard gfx, low power cpu can be used, that, if you have certain htpc cases can be cooled passively.

Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI is the cheapest 780g mbob at oc'uk. combine with a 4850e or the newer Phenom X2 GE-6600, 6500 and 6400 (2.3, 2.1, 1.9 ghz respectively) [not released yet though] and you're on the right track.

note that over hdmi you've only got 5.1 surround sound which is not HD sound. add a Asus Xonar HDAV1.3/X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 to the setup later and you got a complete 7.1HD system for a pretty cheap price.

AbsenceJam · 7 Sep 2008 at 17:35

Intel G45 has proper support for 7.1 LPCM over HDMI, 780G is only S/PDIF over HDMI. Intel will also continue to develop and fix the G45 platform.

the_rmg · 9 Sep 2008 at 13:21

Thanks for the info guys. Interesting that the opinion for HTPC is to go for AMD CPUs rather that Intel.

The suggestion of Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 sounds very promising indeed. It looks like a stonking add on card to get to be honest. I think that I will base the system on the card and get some AMD gear as well.

Would an AMD Dual core be suitable enough for ripping Blu-Ray discs and for playback from the hard drive, or would I be better served by a Quad (e.g. Phenom)?

And would memory speed be important in this type of a setup, or is it more of a case of the more RAM the better?

Bomag · 9 Sep 2008 at 13:51

Most of the time both my HTPC (Phenom 9500, X2 6000+) stay at the lowest Q&Q setting (1.1Ghz and 1.0Ghz) even when decoding 1080p HD-DVD/Blu-ray. Memory speed does not seem to be important - I get the same performance with PC6400 memory as PC8500.

Unless you have a very good 7.1 speaker system and a HD enabled amp I would suggest the "Dolby Digital live" would be of more use. This will split all sound into 5.1, for other systems it is likely that stereo sources will on be played in stereo.

AbsenceJam · 9 Sep 2008 at 14:31

Every BD disc will use just about no CPU as the decode is offloaded to the GPU (DXVA), the 4850e (or another overclocked) is only needed for x264 encodes some of which don't work with DXVA.
You don't need fast RAM or lots of RAM.

And as I pointed out with the Intel G45 board you have support for 7.1 LPCM so you don't need a Xonar HDMI.

CraigN · 9 Sep 2008 at 14:55

G45 has proven to be superior in the recent reviews.

Bomag · 9 Sep 2008 at 15:50

AbsenceJam said:
And as I pointed out with the Intel G45 board you have support for 7.1 LPCM so you don't need a Xonar HDMI.

As far as I can see no G45 board will do DD Live, some do DTS connect which is not quite as good. Also the graphics on the G45 is not seem quite as good as either the nvidia or ATI embedded G/C. From a few sources it seems that the intel drivers are also less helpful when fiddling round with settings to get 1:1 scaling, particularly on 1366*768 sets.

AbsenceJam · 9 Sep 2008 at 16:25

DD Live/DTS Connect are of no relevance at all to HT use, nor does the power of the IGP. DD Live & DTS Connect are effectively for getting surround sound from games that don't have DD/DTS tracks that can be passed by S/PDIF.

Bomag · 9 Sep 2008 at 17:46

AbsenceJam said:
DD Live/DTS Connect are of no relevance at all to HT use, nor does the power of the IGP. DD Live & DTS Connect are effectively for getting surround sound from games that don't have DD/DTS tracks that can be passed by S/PDIF.

Really, I must tell myself that intelligent 5.1 output of non native 5.1 TV and CD content is actually of no use to me

Also the quality of the IGP does matter; both for the picture quality and the amount of CPU off load. I am told the former is not as good on Intel integrated chipsets and they also have a history of bugs.

AbsenceJam · 9 Sep 2008 at 17:52

If you're odd enough to want stereo stuff in 5.1 you can do it on your receiver or through a multitude of other options. DD Live / DTS Connect vs. full resolution audio from HD-DVD/BD is no contest......

G45 IQ as as good as any other IGP, it offloads the same amount of decode as any other IGP and Intel are going to continue to work on this platform whereas the AMD and nVidia ones get released and then abandoned.

JSW · 9 Sep 2008 at 18:03

Think I would choose the J&W board with it built in 128mb sideport memory

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Bomag · 9 Sep 2008 at 20:52

AbsenceJam said:
If you're odd enough to want stereo stuff in 5.1 you can do it on your receiver or through a multitude of other options. DD Live / DTS Connect vs. full resolution audio from HD-DVD/BD is no contest......

G45 IQ as as good as any other IGP, it offloads the same amount of decode as any other IGP and Intel are going to continue to work on this platform whereas the AMD and nVidia ones get released and then abandoned.

Thanks for the insult - and no I don't think that I am odd. I use my HTPC for other things than watching HD-DVD/BD; in fact I spend 90% of the time watching or listening to other formats. I therefore, think that a system which can expand 2.0 to 5.1 without merely duplicating the channels is going to be used a lot more than HD sound playback.

Having listened to several setups unless you have a high end system (£2000+ of speakers) there is little noticeable (except, perhaps, if you are so board with a film and take more notice of the output of individual speakers than the overall viewing experience).

Maybe the reason why Intel have a more extensive history of developing products (i.e G35) is that ATI/nVidia tend to work better when introduced?

the_rmg · 9 Sep 2008 at 22:38

Thanks for the feedback guys. I will be hooking the pc up to an AV amp:
http://www.yamaha-uk.com/av_amps_receivers/?product_id=208

With some lovely speakers:

http://www.mjacoustics.co.uk/MJ_Acoustics/Product_html/XENO_5_1.htm

Hence the reason for wanting to pass the video/sound digitally, as the amp has a multitude of inputs including HDMI, and a good enough on board decoder to deal with anything that gets thrown at it.

It is quite nice listening to stereo stuff in surround as well, as you can get even more immersed in the music.

Really, I guess any board that can send the sound and video via the HDMI will be fine, then I can build the setup around that.

Bomag · 10 Sep 2008 at 00:14

With that setup the xonar would be be perfect. The realtek chip on the G45 board may be OK but it is still a realtek - you either love them or hate them.

AbsenceJam · 10 Sep 2008 at 04:26

Bomag said:
Thanks for the insult - and no I don't think that I am odd. I use my HTPC for other things than watching HD-DVD/BD; in fact I spend 90% of the time watching or listening to other formats. I therefore, think that a system which can expand 2.0 to 5.1 without merely duplicating the channels is going to be used a lot more than HD sound playback.

Having listened to several setups unless you have a high end system (£2000+ of speakers) there is little noticeable (except, perhaps, if you are so board with a film and take more notice of the output of individual speakers than the overall viewing experience).

Maybe the reason why Intel have a more extensive history of developing products (i.e G35) is that ATI/nVidia tend to work better when introduced?

Good for you Bomag, but I think every other person aside from yourself would prefer to get 7.1 lossless audio at full resolution rather than just DD/DTS tracks.
If you want to expand stereo to surround there are a million ways to do it on your receiver or on your PC which beat the low bitrate real-time DD/DTS encoders. You can for example upmix to 7.1 at 92Khz\16bit on your PC and output the whole thing.

You really don't know what you're on about...

Bomag said:
With that setup the xonar would be be perfect. The realtek chip on the G45 board may be OK but it is still a realtek - you either love them or hate them.

The Realtek or Intel HD audio codecs (board dependant) have nothing to do with the HDMI output, they are for the analogue outputs and S/PDIF, and every S/PDIF output is the same, not that you need it with HDMI.