Vista Media Centre Build

[Valo^]

I've finally managed to get the cash together for my new Media Centre build. This is what I've settled on:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13 GHz
Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD Motherboard
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD)

I already own this from my old HTPC:

Nova-T 500 TV Card
2GB Geil DDR2 RAM
250GB Hard Disk - Only for basic use, the unit will be connected to my network and my TB File Server for content

Questions:

The Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD Motherboard uses onboard graphics (ATi X700 Graphics) will this be enough to drive Vista and Vista MCE or should I invest in a low end dedicated Graphics Card? I do want to playback HD Content.

I use Vista x64 Ultimate on my main rig, I know x64 will allow me to use 4GB RAM if for whatever reason I want to upgrade. Is there any point of using x64 on this build or should I just stick with 32bit (x86)?

Any help/views welcome

 

[badbob]

I had problems with ATI X700 in Vista, running ATI 7.7, with FFDSHOW scaling to 1080p. Fine with onboard 6150.

No problem in XP with ATI X700 (or onboard) I didn't disable Aero, perhaps that might have solved it?