Intel mATX board with PCIe2.0 and RAID0?

[Banderon]

I'm putting together an HTPC, and I'm having a lot of trouble finding a motherboard.

I need a mATX mobo for a Core 2 Duo w/ 1x PCIe2.0 x16 slot and 2+ SATA ports that support RAID0 (or even just JBOD).

I've looked around, and AMD has some very nice mATX boards, but there doesn't seem to be as nice a selection for Intel CPUs.

Any help is appreciated. I'd really rather not have to go with an ATX board...

 

[lopri]

If you're planning to use onboard GPU, look for G45 boards or GeForce 8200/8300. If you're going to add a discrete GPU, Q35/Q45 is probably the way to go since those usually come equipped with ICH9R/ICH10R for RAID.

 

[tcsenter]

Save yourself a few bucks:

BIOSTAR TA790GX XE HDMI Micro ATX

AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 45W Dual-Core

Of course, you would have many more options if you gave up PCI-E 2.0, since there would be zero benefit over PCI-E 1.0 for HTPC purposes.

 

[Banderon]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Save yourself a few bucks:

BIOSTAR TA790GX XE HDMI Micro ATX

AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 45W Dual-Core

Of course, you would have many more options if you gave up PCI-E 2.0, since there would be zero benefit over PCI-E 1.0 for HTPC purposes.

I understand that the AMD route would be a much better option for a vanilla HTPC, but I also want to be able to game on it, too. I'm aiming to play mostly in 1920x1080, or at least as high a 16:9 res as I can while still getting decent framerates at mid/high quality in most games. So yes, definitely discrete graphics. I'm currently trying to choose between a HD4870 1gig, and a GTX 260 Core 216 (they're both in the $170ish range)... so any advice on that front would also be appreciated.

 

[Banderon]

Originally posted by: lopri
If you're planning to use onboard GPU, look for G45 boards or GeForce 8200/8300. If you're going to add a discrete GPU, Q35/Q45 is probably the way to go since those usually come equipped with ICH9R/ICH10R for RAID.

I've actually been looking at the ASUS P5Q-EM. It has what I need, but it's a bit overkill. I guess it's nice to have room for expansion... but I'd still prefer something a little cheaper and toned down, just as long as it satisfies my immediate requirements since I'm not really planning on upgrading this system down the line.