HTPC Time! Help me pick out a video card! HTPC GURUS I NEED YOUR HELP :)

[evident]

My HTPC Setup is :

Abit NF7-S v2.0 w/
Athlon XP-M 2500+ can be overclocked to 2.5ghz
1 gig of ram
I have a 30" CRT HDTV, and had a 9800pro hooked up to it but gave it to a friend, since its still a formidable gaming vid card and I had no need for it in this computer.

I was thinking about upgrading my motherboard and cpu to the MSI mb with the NV6150 chipset with a A64 3200+, but decided that this proc can still handle HD very well, it just needs a good vid card to offload some HD video processing, like a 6600gt or x1600.
so the question is, which one would you recommend?
My HDTV does NOT have DVI or VGA inputs: i'm going to be connecting to my tv via component cables. I still have the ATI dvi to component connector thing, and the nvidia 6600gt board i am looking at (leadtek px6600gt) comes with svideo to component dongle.

I was all ready to purchase the 6600 gt but i read the article on anandtech where the x1k series with their recent drivers have totally trumped nvidia in this section.

So fellow HTPC builders may i ask what types of experiences do you all have with these two cards HTPC wise? how much noise do they both produce? how is standard def dvd playback on either card? Pricewise, they are both in the same ballpark so at this point that isn't an issue.

aand most importantly, what would you recommend? If you recommend some other card, remember AGP only

I know there have been threads about this in the past, but I would like to resurrect this topic in light of the new ATI drivers and have most recent experiences as possible.

once again i am NOT going to be using these cards for gaming at all so that doesn't matter!

Thanks!

 

[Steve]

I have the X1600 Pro AGP in my HTPC, but it's not fully set up yet so I haven't really tested it. When it is I'll check back in and see how this thread is going.

 

[Wreckage]

I have a 6600GT in my HTPC and like it a lot. Also the Purevideo decoder for H.264 supports more players than the current ATI one. The TV support in the NVIDIA drivers is excellent.

 

[evident]

Do any of you guys have experience using the component video output? i'm just worried that the quality between thsoe cards may vary. The output on the 9800p was pretty decent, although it was a pain setting up all the text to display at a readable manner in such a high resolution

 

[evident]

I think i'm going to pick up the Sapphire X1600 Pro AGP next week after i take care of some bills. I'll post my observations as I use it.

 

[evident]

so i've been using the Sapphire X1600 Pro for the past month or so, and I must say, image quality rocks with HD playback. it's a pain in the ass toset up font size and stuff while working with just the TV though, but i don't think therei s aw ay to get around that.