On board graphics / C2D

fezster · 12 Feb 2007 at 15:50

Hi everyone, new to the board, but been lurking for a while.

I wanna build a SFF pc to use as a Media Centre. Ive been out of touch with hardware, but recently been reading up on C2D cpus / mbs.

In the past, an nForce MB with Nvidia on board graphics would be fine for a Media Centre. However, for C2D it seems the best MBs are those with the Intel chipset. So my question is, would the Asrock Conroe945G-DVI on board graphics be ok for running Vista and for playing back 1080p h264 HD content ?

Also, does this MB have SPDIF output ?

Thanks.

fezster · 17 Feb 2007 at 11:21

Found out there's no SPDIF, but still not sure about the on-board graphics ?

Can anyone help ?

Thanks.

Christo · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:16

I am pretty sure that it wont run Aero as the onboard card just doesnt match the Nvidia 6100/50 which justabout runs Aero. It will however run Vista, but I am not sure about HD playback as I dont know much about that.

Indy500 · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:19

You could try getting a board with the G965 Express chipset. Apparently it is more powerful than any other integrated solution out there (has 8 programmable shader units). Problem is these cost about ~£60.

Christo · 19 Feb 2007 at 17:42

sr4470 said:
You could try getting a board with the G965 Express chipset. Apparently it is more powerful than any other integrated solution out there (has 8 programmable shader units). Problem is these cost about ~£60.

Can you get an mATX G965 chipset board? (I hope you can :cool:

)

Indy500 · 19 Feb 2007 at 19:06

Chrisp7 said:
Can you get an mATX G965 chipset board? (I hope you can )

Yes, theres quite a few. I would stick with these: Asus P5B-VM, Gigabyte GA965GM-S2, MSI 965GM.

duncan888 · 19 Feb 2007 at 21:29

The only MATX core2duo motherboard with onboard SPDIF on the backplate is the Foxconn G9657MA-8EKRS2H. Fantastic board in my opinion if your not looking to overclock.

Also has onboard graphics Intel X3000 which is Aero compatiable.

fezster · 21 Feb 2007 at 22:34

Nice one, thanks for all replies. Will look into the above boards to see which will be best for my needs.

CaDLoN · 22 Feb 2007 at 10:53

There is that new Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD which sould be out in a couple of days.

Would be worth a look, should retail @ about £70

jellybeard999 · 25 Feb 2007 at 08:56

Don't bother with onboard tbh, it just isnt good enough for media playing.

Get a geforce 6200 / 7100.

Its £25, and saves a lot of hassle. I thought my 6100 would have been fine for my HTPC, but as I and others on TheGreenButton found out, it isnt.

Stephen B · 4 Mar 2007 at 10:44

jellybeard999 said:
Don't bother with onboard tbh, it just isnt good enough for media playing.

Get a geforce 6200 / 7100.

Its £25, and saves a lot of hassle. I thought my 6100 would have been fine for my HTPC, but as I and others on TheGreenButton found out, it isnt.

not true from where I'm sitting

msi g965m with e6600, 2 gig ram and onboard graphics, currently running vista ultimate, aero desktop working fine [windows score 3.9], and playing x.264 .ts etc up to 1080p no probs [well a little required in vlc player tbh]

just waiting for another e4300 to arrive and I will swap out the e6600