Need a motherboard recommendation

[Audiofight]

Here's what I want to build:

mATX mobo (AMD or Intel)
cpu (1.4 GHz or higher)
512MB DDR
160GB hdd (IDE or SATA)
16x DVD-Rom

Here's what I want it to do:
- TV-out w/ onboard graphics a plus
- HDTV-support (may come later)
- Digital audio output (Coaxial or optical)
- Play DVDs
- Play MP3s
- Surf the net
- Passive northbridge cooling a huge plus

I know that an HDTV card is required to achieve one of the options I want, but otherwise I am just looking for a good mobo that can handle as much as possible with on-boards options. I already have a mATX case that looks good and fits all the rest of the hardware easily.

What brand/model motherboards do you guys recommend and what chipset?

 

[mechBgon]

How about an Asus A7N266-VM/AA plus one of these plug-in DVI/TV-out things? Add a 1.6GHz Duron, a Speeze FalconRock heatsink with 80mm low-noise fan, there you go. It has the same Soundstorm audio as found on full-fledged nForce2 boards, it has passive cooling, it has both optical and coax S/PDIF's included, and it'll even take bolt-down coolers like an Alpha PAL8045. I've had good experiences with the two that I've owned and the 36 down at the office.

If you want an A7N266-VM/AA, get it while you still can. They disappeared off Newegg and MWave but Newegg has them back for the moment. There's also a Chaintech nForce2 board with an S-Video jack, but it has no S/PDIF and doesn't have the hardware audio processors of a board with an MCP-D or MCP-T southbridge either.

Hope that helps

 

[Audiofight]

Thanks for the reminder about the ol' nForce1 board.

I owned one of those about a year ago, it made a great little file server. But, I have since moved up to a nice dually rig to handle my workload.

I may go back to it, never realized that the DVI/TV-out cards were available for the A7N266-VM. Hmmmm....

Now, the only question to ask, is there a better sound card on the market for any reasonable price? I think not, but I have been using integrated audio for a couple years now (first with my P4B533, A7N8X DLX, P4P800 now). They all sounded nice, so I think the A7N266-VM is the choice for me. Add a tv-out card like you suggest and I will be all set.