NextPVR Forums

Hi,

I'm thinking about building a new HTPC, and i think the Silverstone LC11M is a nice one. But this one needs a micro-Atx (mAtx) mainboard.

What is the best mATX mainboard, or chipset for a HTPC? It'll contain a PVR350, so should i stay away from Via? I think i'll put a Sempron in it, so it has to be socket 754.
The only chipsets i can find are:
- ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 Chipset
- VIA KM800
- nForce3 250 (but these ones are hard to find)
Which one is the best?

or should i stick with Socket A and search for an nForce2 board?
or should i save a little more money and search for a 939 with nForce4

Thanks.
Remco

I had that case...loved it, but needed to change machines in a hurry.

I used a biostar board. It wasn't perfect, but had nForce and AC3 audio, and if you're clever, a s/pdif pins you could connect to so you could connect via optical or coax to receiver w/.

Other than that, it's unremarkable, and the nVidia HW conflicted w/ earlier drivers for the 150/remote.

Remco Wrote:Hi,

I'm thinking about building a new HTPC, and i think the Silverstone LC11M is a nice one. But this one needs a micro-Atx (mAtx) mainboard.

What is the best mATX mainboard, or chipset for a HTPC? It'll contain a PVR350, so should i stay away from Via? I think i'll put a Sempron in it, so it has to be socket 754.
The only chipsets i can find are:
- ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 Chipset
- VIA KM800
- nForce3 250 (but these ones are hard to find)
Which one is the best?

or should i stick with Socket A and search for an nForce2 board?
or should i save a little more money and search for a 939 with nForce4

Thanks.
Remco

Personally I'd give the Sempron (with it's limited cache) a miss, get hold of an nForce2 socket A board while you still can, and get a Barton chip, preferably a mobile. Yes the Sempron offers an upgrade path to a skt 754 AMD 64, but that is really overkill for a PVR. The Skt A may have limited life left, but I can't see the skt754 getting support for very much longer.
Try this mobo:
http://www.rlsupplies.co.uk/products/pro...sp?id=4678
You could use the on board gfx, but if you want tv out it has an AGP slot anyway.

If at some point you intend to watch HD content from your PVR I'd advise you to get a motherboard with no less than an AGP 8x slot. I'm having one hell of a time getting HD quality content to play through my 4x slot even though my video card is more than adequate.

My 2 cents...

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm going to try to find myself a nForce2 with Soundstorm.

Remco