HTPC Mobo

easyrider

easyrider

easyrider

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Been looking at the P5Q-EM any other suggestions for 1080p HTPC


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Also Asrock G43Twins-FULLHD
 
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dont know to much about that board, do the G45 do hardware decoding

780G motherboard do the hardware decoding on board, so you can use a very slow cheep AMD processor.

GA-MA78GM-S2H is a good one (a much cheaper option)

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but only 2 channel audio over HDMI. this is ok for me as i dont have a souround soud set up, you can get 8 channel using optical or jacks.

best bet might be to get a cheaper motherboard and us a ATI HD**** card, im treating this as an upgrade when/if i need it
 
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that an expensive board and i dont think it does hardware decoding, so its going to be need a more powerful CUP.

if you can't use optical sound out and must use HDMI

then best bet would probably be a very cheap motherboard and a ATI card (whcih does the hardware decoding) and will give you 5.1 sound form the card. but its 6 of one and 1/2 and dozen of the other.

but if your doing the ultimate set up, you going to want one of these sound cards ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3, so on board sound is irrelevant anyway
 
are you stuck with micro-ATX, looking at your other posts you want to put it in a rack case??

then just get a nice but cheap full-ATX board (£40-60) AMD or Intel.

then pick up a 0db ATI HD**** card like this one

GX-162-AS_400.jpg


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-162-AS

£60.94 inc VAT, so you looking at £100 to £120 lay out. that board is £103.49 inc VAT

full hardware decoding, 5.1 sound via ATI HDMI adapter, and probably good performance. also should be good in games if you ever fancy a it.

you also will be left with more space for cards, PCI and PCIe. so that could be more tuner cards or even a nice raid card for storage.
 
crazyDAJT said:
that an expensive board and i dont think it does hardware decoding, so its going to be need a more powerful CUP.
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It does, even says so on the website:)



its the board i'd buy for HD playback if i didnt already have a p35 i could use.

for reference you dont need hdmi audio for 5.1 output. its really only nessesary if you want 7.1 lossless and have some tasty audio gear to make use of it. Although it is conveniant having it all done over one cable, thats for sure.
crazyDAJT said:
but only 2 channel audio over HDMI. this is ok for me as i dont have a souround soud set up, you can get 8 channel using optical or jacks.

best bet might be to get a cheaper motherboard and us a ATI HD**** card, im treating this as an upgrade when/if i need it
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only 5.1 over optical and if he were to use analogue he'd also need to fork out for a decent analogue card pushing the price well over that of a g45 and entry level c2d :)
 
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james.miller said:
It does, even says so on the website:)
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I stand corrected :o

but comparable in price to a motherboard and an ATI HD**** card setup, which if he can stretch to an ATX board space wise will probably be better in terms of flexibility and expansion

but even with a ATI card you are stuck with 5.1 sound, so if your looking for 7.1 in the future maybe not the one you want.....

I wish i wasn't renting, then i could get a good cinema set up and not have to dream about it so much
 
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I want the simplest option available.

6 SATA PORTS.
HDMI 5.1 AUDIO
1080P ENCODING.

Has to be C2D as I will probably use a e5200.

I have a xfi extreme music gathering dust... but I just want simple wires etc...

HDMI out both for video and audio into my Yamaha DSP-AX863SE sounds dandy...

What do you think?
 
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but even with a ATI card you are stuck with 5.1 sound, so if your looking for 7.1 in the future maybe not the one you want.....
Click to expand...

no, its 7.1 lossless (LPCM) over HDMI for both the G45 chipset and Ati 4x cards:)

What do you think?
Click to expand...

like i said, its the board i would go for (i was actually going to buy it a week ago) if i didnt already have most of the hardware sitting in a case ready to be used. so i went silly and bought an ati 4830 instead :p
 
james.miller said:
no, its 7.1 lossless (LPCM) over HDMI for both the G45 chipset and Ati 4x cards:)



like i said, its the board i would go for (i was actually going to buy it a week ago) if i didnt already have most of the hardware sitting in a case ready to be used. so i went silly and bought an ati 4830 instead :p
Click to expand...

Currently I don't have a P35 or P45 mobo as My main is in bits.

So I may go for this mobo as it seems to tick all the boxes for a HTPC.

Wish it had 12 SATA ports though.:p

6 x 1.5 TB is only 9TB
 
780g mobo is the way to go every time if its just going to be a HTPC and nothing else.

I've got one, it does on-board decoding and its brilliant.

Streaming full 1080p no probs with the cheapest energy efficient AMD chip.
 
Hi mate,

i've had this board pretty much since they came out. Its absolutely amazing.

I had a 780g before this G45 and in terms of features and ability, this Asus makes most 780g boards look like some PIII machine.

Losless audio is nice to have too if your hitting the AV (as will TrueHD) with it and its great to have it all in one package. I settled for this board for a few reasons. Its looks (lol), its power consumption through CPU and the expansion slots. I can have my GFX later if I want some serious gaming, I can have my Asus Xonar later if I want uber sound, I can have my 6 in 1 Black Gold TV card and a wi fi card too if I really need it. But I don't.

Best thing I've found so far running the scythe mini ninja is its ability to run fanless with just a chunky heatsink. It never hits above 40 degrees even under load and with my heat pipe PWM PSU this HTPC is actually silent.

boardrd0.jpg


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Also, it comes with an eSATA bracket :)
 
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Very good board, had mine a few months as well, powering a desktop/HTPC/Home-Server, main reason I got it was the ridiculous amount of BIOS options and it seemed the best all-in-one does everything motherboard ever made lol, good low power option for those low running costs, also full overclocking options for the HTPC/Video Editor build

My Northbridge get damn hot when overclocking so made up the 120mm Fan chipset mod (also cools southbridge and memory!).

The P5Q-EM won't be everybodies cup of tea, not many people have been able to hit high FSB's with it, but then again the average person looking at this board won't be seeking kit for 3D-Mark benching! :o

Still getting polished though easy with BIOS updates and GMA/IGP driver updates, nearly there!

p5qemtest01ab9.jpg
 
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