CPU M/B Combo for HTPC

[optimus]

I'm gonna build myself a HTPC for home, for storage instead of my Gaming \ Work rig, and to play 1080P Blu-ray HD\DVD on.

Any suggestions on CPU \ MB combo, without spending a fortune?

I've got a Passive HD3650 to go in there.

Must have good RAID capacity.

Cheers

 

[fobose]

Well if you want it to be cheap, the AMD 780G chipset would be a good start, and you wouldn't need to use your HD3650 as the onboard graphics is more than capable of 1080p, even with a very low end CPU. For AMD I would go with the Athlon 64 X2 4050e (2.1GHz), 4450e (2.3GHz) or 4850e (2.5GHz) CPU as they are only 45w.

Do you want a mATX board? The new Intel G45 chipset boards have a X4500 HD onboard graphics which is meant to be able to play 1080p content fine, but the boards are expensive and not to mention the CPU's are not exactly cheap either.