2006-01-13, 02:38 AM
Having spent a bit of time shopping around for micro ATX boards with tv-out built-in, I've come to the conclusion that there's not many out there, especially if you want more than two PCIs slots to play with.
Anyway, just in case anyone is looking for the same type of mobo, I thought I'd share a couple of helpful links and hints. My search was based on using an AMD 64 CPU and boards capable of using the AMD Cool'n'Queit thingy. I also narrowed the search to socket 939 boards as the on-board memory controller makes them better than the alternative socket 754.
The Radeon ATI Xpress 200 (not the 200P, though!) appears to be the main chipset in use for integrated graphics on small mobo's, but be careful in your choice. Many of the boards claiming to have on-board tv-out have a tv-out header on the mobo to which you can optionally connect a bracket. The bracket then takes up one of the card slots in your case so using it may prevent you from putting another card in. To me this loses the advantage of integrated tv-out, so best to download the manufacturer's mobo manual if you want to be certain of what you're getting.
The ATi website gives a useful list of mobos using this chipset and an overview of their specs.
The other main chipset supporting tv-out on a mTAX board is the nVidia GeForce 6150.
One of the most useful resources I found in tracking down the right mobo for me was AMD's pages on recommended motherboards. I started from here, entered my requirements and then researched the options it came up with.
My eventual choice was a MSI RS480M2-IL. True integrated tv-out, svideo and spdif, a PCIe x16 slot and 3 PCIs. The right choice for me because I wanted to keep everything in the case and not have any USB boxes dangling off it.
Anyway, I hope this is of use to someone.
Anyway, just in case anyone is looking for the same type of mobo, I thought I'd share a couple of helpful links and hints. My search was based on using an AMD 64 CPU and boards capable of using the AMD Cool'n'Queit thingy. I also narrowed the search to socket 939 boards as the on-board memory controller makes them better than the alternative socket 754.
The Radeon ATI Xpress 200 (not the 200P, though!) appears to be the main chipset in use for integrated graphics on small mobo's, but be careful in your choice. Many of the boards claiming to have on-board tv-out have a tv-out header on the mobo to which you can optionally connect a bracket. The bracket then takes up one of the card slots in your case so using it may prevent you from putting another card in. To me this loses the advantage of integrated tv-out, so best to download the manufacturer's mobo manual if you want to be certain of what you're getting.
The ATi website gives a useful list of mobos using this chipset and an overview of their specs.
The other main chipset supporting tv-out on a mTAX board is the nVidia GeForce 6150.
One of the most useful resources I found in tracking down the right mobo for me was AMD's pages on recommended motherboards. I started from here, entered my requirements and then researched the options it came up with.
My eventual choice was a MSI RS480M2-IL. True integrated tv-out, svideo and spdif, a PCIe x16 slot and 3 PCIs. The right choice for me because I wanted to keep everything in the case and not have any USB boxes dangling off it.
Anyway, I hope this is of use to someone.