HTPC for HD - fill in the spec gaps

[Goatboy]

Will be housing six hard drives (which I already have), not bothered about capability for Blu-Ray/HD-DVD but a bonus if that's covered. Will be solely for media purposes and connected to two displays. Obviously I want it to play all the media content that's around at the moment (H264 and the like).

So far:

Silverstone Lascala SST-LC17 HTPC Case (Black)
Tagan TG500-U25 500W ATX2.0 Dual Engine
Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit
Windows XP Home OEM
Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM (don't need a RW)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2)


Which leaves the graphics and motherboard, looking to spend as little as possible but have no budget set.

Have looked at the MSI K9NGM2-FID which has a 6150 chipset which seems a good option at £60

If not that then which graphics card/mobo combination will give the best bang for my buck?

Thanks

 

[pcoltrane]

I have the socket 939 version of that motherboard in my HTPC and it is fantastic. The on board gfx are more than good enough for media center.

Assuming they haven't changed anything apart from the socket i can't recommend it enough. Worth checking out though whetehr they have changed anything - you know what these motherboard manufacturers are like!

 

[squiffy]

That looks fine, I use 6150 Asus CSM onboard, 3700+ single core and that plays WMV HD no problems. You don't need a seperate card (I tried a ATI X1700 128MB and roughly 5 less CPU load) You also need a remote/IR receiver.

oh how are you connecting audio to amp? analogue or digital? Do you need bit perfect digital audio?

 

[Goatboy]

Glad to hear people think the MSI board will do the job as it's such a cheap option.

I have an HDA mystique for sound.