MATX, Micro ATX for HTPC

[anders@dac.se]

Im going to build a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) to connect to my projector. And im going for the MATX form factor since there's some really nice looking PC cabinets for these models.

I want onboard VGA, Lan and audio. Spdif output is really important since i want to watch DVD and AC3 Divx on my DOLBY Digital system.

My PC hardware supplier has some diffrent MATX boards in store,

i found some really cheap and intresting Microstar boards,



MS-KM2M-COMBO-LB (MSI MATX KM266 SOCKET A BULK LAN)

this card has VGA, LAN, and Audio.
The audio is specs is,

"Front Audio supported. • Chip Integrated. - Realtek ALC 650 codec. - 5.1 channel AC'97 software Audio."

it does not say anything about Spdif, does anyone know if this is optional?


MS-KT4M-L-BULK (MSI MATX KT400 SOCKET A DDR BULK LAN)

this is the more expensive card and the audio specs,

Audio RealTek ALC650 6-channel audio, 1 3-pin SPDIF connector (Optional).

Here it says that the Spdif IS optional, does anyone know if its a standard connector on the motherboard for
Spdif or if each manufacturer as its own connection (my supplier does not sell these).

So my question is if its goign to work with Spdif on any if these two cards..

/Anders

[Xayd]

If you go with AMD then there's no reason not to have an nForce board in your setup, imo.

Not only does it have the digital out onboard but it will remix all non-surround audio output to 5.1 on the fly (and pretty well at that) as well.

I'm not a fan of AMD in general but the sound setup on the nForce boards I admit is very good.

[anders@dac.se]

I'm going for an amd Duron 1.3 Ghz so, yes im using AMD, but the cheapest Nforce2 card is 2x the price of an KT266 (im trying to keep the HTPC under $140). Besides my Dolby Digital decoder has a feature that it can make DB Prologic out of all 2 ch sound, so i dont need the Nforce2 for that reason.

So if anyone know if theres a standard to the Spdif brackets, that would be good...

[anders@dac.se]

I found a pretty cheap Nforce220D card from Asus $50,

ArtNr: A7N266-VM SE/LAN (Asus MATX nForce220D SOCKET A LAN VGA)

Here is the entire specs,

Built upon the advanced nForce chipset architecture, the A7N266-E features powerful GeForce2 level 3D graphics, Dolby digital 5.1 audio and integrated LAN for an all-in-one solution with unmatched performance and value...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor Socket A for AMD® Athlon™XP / Athlon™/ Duron™
Chipset NVIDIA nForce 220-D NVIDIA IGP-64 and NVIDIA MCP-D
FSB 266/200 MHz
Hardware Monitoring ASUS AS99127
Memory 2 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 1.0GB PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC DDR SDRAM memory Expansion Slots 1 x AGP 4X (1.5V only) 3 x PCI
VGA Integrated GeForce 2 GPU (Graphics Processor Unit)
IDE 2 x UltraDMA 100 / 66 / 33
Audio Integrated APU (Audio Processor Unit) in MCP-D built-in Dolby Digital (AC-3) Encoder Realtek ALC650
LAN Integrated MAC in MCP-D RealTek 8201L PHY
Special Features Power Loss Restart CPU Throttle STR (Suspend-to-RAM) support DVI & TV-OUT via add-in card
Board Size microATX Form Factor: 9.6" x 9.6" (24.5cm x 24.5cm)
Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x Parallel 1 x Serial 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x VGA 1 x Audio I/O 1 x Game / MIDI 1 x RJ45 2 x USB 1.1

Internal I/O Connectors 1 x USB 1.1 connector support additional 2 USB 1.1 ports CPU / Chassis FAN connectors 20 pin ATX Power connector IDE LED connector, power LED connetor Chassis Intrusion, SM Bus, SIR CD / AUX audio in Front Panel Audio connector
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Do anyone know if this is software AC3, or if it has real Spdif output?

Thanks in Advance, Anders

[downloada]

hi,

if you really want to connect your htpc to a projector, you won't be too happy with those crappy onboard-vga-cards. they all have bad vga-signal-quality. if you want really good quality vga-out, you should buy an ati- or matrox-card, they're supposed to have the best signal-quality around.
but the signal-quality is very resolution-dependant. resolutions of up to 800x600@60hz (for ntsc) or @50hz (for pal) look good an most video-cards, even on those onboard-thingies. above that, i would really suggest a real agp-card (ati or matrox), you will see the difference!

cu

[Xayd]

I would recommend against a Via board just on principle honestly.

Was their PCI latency problem ever fixed that caused drive corruption and sound corruption? It existed in full force on the last board I had, and the heavy disk usage in a HTPC just amplifies those little Via bugs that no one likes...

[anders@dac.se]

my projector has a res of 720x576 and optical switch between 16x9 and 4:3, thats to elimate the problem with resize (on NTSC it needs to resize). Anyway its under 800x600 so it shouldnt be anyproblem?

/Anders