HTPC mobo

[runninkyle17]

I just bought the Silverstone LC03 HTPC case and I am going to be building my own rig.

I also just purchased an eVGA 7900GT KO w/ Zalman cooler. I want a solid motherboard that will allow me to run a quiet, efficient system. I would like to maybe have an SLI board but that is not a requirement.

Here is the big stuff:

- I want a mobo that will allow me to have at least 3 useable PCI slots even if I have a 2 slot video card
- I plan on using this board for at least 3 years so it needs to be solid
- I will be purchasing either a E6400 or E6600, so it needs to be an Intel board
- I have a couple of IDE harddrives and IDE optical drives, so I need a board that doesn't require all SATA like the new Intel chipsets (I am a little confused about this, so if someone can explain it I would be very appreciative)
- Quality onboard audio would be a huge plus

Please help me out. I am anxious to learn about building my first system!

 

[runninkyle17]

ttt, please guys I know there are plenty of motherboard geniuses out there. Please help!!!

 

[Peter]

3 PCI slots AND a fat graphics card means you need a fullsize ATX board.

The general advice on HTPC is, don't overdo the performance. For purely 2D media, I've used weaklings with 1200 MHz Durons and integrated graphics, and they still don't go over 50% load, ever.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Peter
3 PCI slots AND a fat graphics card means you need a fullsize ATX board.

The general advice on HTPC is, don't overdo the performance. For purely 2D media, I've used weaklings with 1200 MHz Durons and integrated graphics, and they still don't go over 50% load, ever.

correct.

my HTPC specs:

ECS 741GX mATX
AMD XP2500+ cpu
768 megs DDR 333 ram
MSI FX5200TDI128 video card
Sapphire Theatrix tuner
SoundBlaster Live 5.1
160 gig HDD
LG 16x DVD player
3.5 floppy disk drive
Logitech Z640 speakers
MS cordless keyboard/mouse combo
Antec SLK1650B case

with quiet fans for airflow: 120mm rear, 80mm front and Arctic Cooling HSF

my system looks cool and is very quiet.

All this is hooked up to my 27" Toshiba crt and runs MS WinXP MCE 2005 with MS remote.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: runninkyle17
I would like to maybe have an SLI board but that is not a requirement.
- I want a mobo that will allow me to have at least 3 useable PCI slots
- I will be purchasing either a E6400 or E6600, so it needs to be an Intel board
- I have a couple of IDE harddrives and IDE optical drives, so I need a board that doesn't require all SATA like the new Intel chipsets
- Quality onboard audio would be a huge plus

You're asking for a lot. Unless it's gonna be your primary gaming rig and hooked up to a monitor with higher resolution than a 1080P LCD, then forget about SLI. What do you need 3 PCI slots for? 2x TV tuners, wireless card... you ask for onboard audio so no PCI sound card needed. TV tuners are available for PCI-E 1x, and IIRC there are also dual tuner cards taking one PCI slot only.

You want Core 2 Duo yet the most popular boards are the 965P chipset which does not have any native EIDE ports. Heck even the not-so-new chipsets have only one EIDE port these days. On the AMD side the more recent 5xx series Nvidia chipset only have one EIDE port.

What are you going to be using this HTPC for? Perhaps if we knew what your plans are, we can make a more specific recommendation.

Also, no need to bump your message more than once a day... heck some people don't even visit these forums once a day.