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Dual core Celeron for media centre?

I have a Celeron G530 with a GT 430. Plays back everything fine. You could probably use the G530 by itself as long as you use DXVA2 but it doesn't support 23.976 Hz playback properly (you'll get a dropped frame every few minutes). nVidia GPUs like the GT 430 allow for custom refresh rates to avoid this.
 
Will you be needing 3D Playback or just 1080p "2D" video playback?

If it is just 2D then I would recommend an AMD Fusion E-350 or E-450 board. These boards are more than powerful enough to play 1080p video (like Blu rays and video files) smoothly while also offering very low power consumption, small size and little (if any) noise.

As has been mentioned, if you went for a sandy bridge CPU and relied on the onboard GPU then you would have the issue with the framerate and an occasional dropped frame.

If you also want the system to be able to play 3D blu-rays then an AMD Llano system (based around something like an A6 APU) would be my choice - as it offers more graphics power than an E-350/450 (enough to happily decode 3D blu rays)while also being pretty cheap and only drawing a maximum of 65W.
 
I'll only be needing standard blurays nothing 3D.

Would this do the job? All id be adding to it would be a decent HDD, the bluray out of my main rig, 4gb Geil RAM and a PCI-E tv card
 
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Looking at getting the G530 for my HTPC to go with my GT440. Any recommendations as to what board I should get?
 
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