Choosing HTPC Motherboard
The centre of your creation, your motherboard
When choosing a motherboard you have to remember what aims you have for your hardware, maybe you require a raid controller for your Hard Drives or onboard Graphics with HDMI?
What Do I Need?
One motherboard is only superior to another because of it’s on board controllers, here are the factors you need to keep in mind when looking for that perfect board:
- RAID controller
- Graphics Controller
- CPU Socket
- Memory Type
- Reliability
- Size
RAID Controller
As mentioned in a previous post about your HDD purchase you may wish to use a RAID solution for redundancy. Many boards have on board controllers however, it is always worth checking it can perform raid to your needs. For more information about RIAD setups look here.
Graphics Controller
OK so rather than install an extra card you want to use an on board graphics card, great it saves power and heat. A few boards have a HDMI socket while most will have none or VGA/DVI. The most popular on board graphics controller seems to be the AMD 780G chipset this is the equivalent of an ATI HD 3200 graphics card and is HDCP compatible.
For more information about HTPC graphics visit here.
Size
The size of your board has to bought in relation to your case. The most popular size for a standard PC is called ATX, however these can be quite big for a HTPC and restrict your case choice, so allot of builders opt for the smaller Micro ATX, imaginative name huh? In an attempt to cut down on size there are normally less interface slots. This can mean that you cannot fit all those extra bits like two TV Tuners and sound cards into your Board so choose wisely.
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