Which Processor and Motherboard for HTPC?

[andypress]

I bought a Via motherboard with a soldered on 1.2 gigapro, with intentions to use it in an htpc that I'm building into a stereo reciever. The only problem is that Divx playback stutters on fast motion scenes. I also have a 733mhz P3, which was pulled with a motherboard from a dell. I also have the matching PSU. Besides that the VIA will run without a fan on the heatsink, are there any other negatives to using the P3?

 

[thorin]

I was reading recently on mini-itx.org or somewhere like that, you can now buy PCI Divx decoder cards, that'd beef up your VIA mobo/sys.

Personally I plan on using one of the VIA's next gen mobos for a HTPC, something with the CN400 chipset (or better) and their next scaled down CPU (0.09um er whatever ... passive @ 1, 1.2, 1.4'ish).

Thorin