Motherboard with DVI and optical out?

tophee · 20 Sep 2008 at 21:12

Hi,
I'm in the process of getting a component list together for an upgrade to my current media centre. I think I'll be using an e8400 as the processor as I'm looking to reduce my consumed wattage. Well, it's going to be much lower than the Pentium D @ 3ghz I currently am using.

After trawling a fair few websites, I thought I'd ask you guys what motherboard you would recommend. What I am hoping for is a 775 motherboard with hopefully either a DVI or HDMI onboard (Nvidia graphics), optical out and at least 3 pci slots for several tuner cards, so that limits me to an ATX board (probably).

Narrows the field a bit? Yeah I know. Sorry. That's why I'm asking here though!

The only board I've seen resembling my wish list is a MSI P6NG Neo-Digital and that's in the states and doesn't have an optical out.

Anyone got any recommendations or suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them.

Thank you.
Chris

netheo86 · 20 Sep 2008 at 21:52

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

the aboves come pretty close - hdmi, dvi and optical but you better check wheather it's video or sound or both. the board's not bad for the money bought one for my dad a few months back.
bit lacking in the overclocking dept'ment though

hope it helps

tophee · 20 Sep 2008 at 22:13

Thanks netheo86,

That's board is quite a good match. It appears to tick most boxes, yet only two pci slots as it's mATX - I really need three minimum. I may go with this option failing all else, but any other suggestions out there... Gratefully received.

Ta.

Monkeynut · 20 Sep 2008 at 22:43

An intel G45 board would be just as suitable, why do you restrict yourself to Nvidia only?

Reality|Bites · 21 Sep 2008 at 18:14

WHy more than one tuner card?(I take it you mean a TV tuner?)

Big.Wayne · 21 Sep 2008 at 18:18

Why are you speccing up a system that uses lots of legacy PCI Slots, the way forward is now PCI-E!

PistolPete · 21 Sep 2008 at 21:51

Because he doesn't want to spend out even more than he needs to on 3 new PCI-E tuner cards??
Although I can recommend the Black Gold 6 in 1 PCI-E tuner....
2x DVB-T, 2x DVB-S, 2x Analog...technically it's 8 input as it has 2x S-Video too......http://shop.blackgold.tv/product/3540.html

tophee · 22 Sep 2008 at 10:22

Ah, it's been a busy weekend.
Well, for several reasons I want legacy pci - because as Pete rightly says, but mostly I don't want to have to re-buy my tuner cards. I ahve two nova-t's and a nova-t500. The reason for so many cards is the pc is a full time media centre end nothing else.

As for Nvidia, my media centre runs a Linux media centre (knoppmyth) and nvidia are extremely well supported, though the Intel G45 (or other G incarnations have Linux support from the manufacturer) I'm not such a Linux guru as to know how to go about compiling my own kernal.

However, in the not too distant future I will be wanting to upgrade to receive freesat, and many tvcards / freesat cards are still on pci.

Regards
Chris

tophee · 22 Sep 2008 at 10:28

Oh, and I've seen this (not sold here unfortunately) motherboard which may ok, but as I said just above, the kernal needs compiling with the drivers for it. (This looks like a post for the Linux board.)
However, any other offering... coz I'm not buying today nor am I convinced this necessarily is the motherboard for me.
C

3dcandy · 22 Sep 2008 at 17:49

i'd stick with nvidia in your case mate, much better hardware support. however i'd think about getting rid of a tuner and going m-atx will save you a packet in motherboard costs alone!

Monkeynut · 22 Sep 2008 at 17:52

tophee said:
Ah, it's been a busy weekend.
Well, for several reasons I want legacy pci - because as Pete rightly says, but mostly I don't want to have to re-buy my tuner cards. I ahve two nova-t's and a nova-t500. The reason for so many cards is the pc is a full time media centre end nothing else.

As for Nvidia, my media centre runs a Linux media centre (knoppmyth) and nvidia are extremely well supported, though the Intel G45 (or other G incarnations have Linux support from the manufacturer) I'm not such a Linux guru as to know how to go about compiling my own kernal.

However, in the not too distant future I will be wanting to upgrade to receive freesat, and many tvcards / freesat cards are still on pci.

Regards
Chris

3dcandy said:
i'd stick with nvidia in your case mate, much better hardware support. however i'd think about getting rid of a tuner and going m-atx will save you a packet in motherboard costs alone!

Phoronix have a Linux review of the G45 here:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_x4500hd&num=5

Seems to perform surprisingly well.

tophee · 22 Sep 2008 at 18:19

@Monkeynut, that seems like an interesting article. I shall read more thoroughly when I have a moment. I am not adverse to trying to compile my kernal, I just am a bit of a linux noob.

@3dcandy, that's what I thought about going with nvidia. However, why get rid of tuners? I like the fact I am able to record more than one programme at once, coz sometimes there are scheduling clashes.

C.