Which Mobo + CPU

[Iccz]

I've posted several times in HTPC and nobody seems to bother replying to my posts on there...

I'm building/planning on building a HTPC, I want to use the ATi HD4850.

Will be using Vista 64bit and have 4gb of memory...

I'm open to suggestions for mobo / cpu - £200 / 300 max for the pair.


My HTPC will be used for some gaming... WoW, Sims3 etc nothing too heavy.
Playing ISO images of DVDs, some MKV's.

First off i'm not sure of wether to get AMD or Intel...
And which chip...
Then which motherboard...

Anyone got any input on this, would be really appreciated, cheers!

 

[Andy98765]

Stick with a 780G Motherboard from Gigabyte with a 5050e AMD processor and for WoW and Sims ditch the 4850 should not need it and it will be too nosiey for a HTPC, if you need a boost later add a 4550 card which would silent.
Add 4gig of ram with Vista Home Premium 64bit.

 

[booyaka]

personally intel all the way.

Any P45 chipset board and either a dual core like E8500 (dual core) or Q8200 (quad core)

Asus P5Q SE/R, iP45, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/1200(OC)/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX - Scan.co.uk

or

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3, iP45 Express, S775, PCI-E 2.0x16, DDR2 1066/1200/800, SATA II, ATX - Scan.co.uk

plus

BX80580Q8200 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.33 GHz, 1333MHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 7x, Retail - Scan.co.uk

or

BX80570E8400A - Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 3.0 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache, 9x Multiplier, Retail - Scan.co.uk

well under budget.

you will most certainly need a 4850 to play WOW!!! no way any on board gfx would copy with it

 

[Iccz]

Stick with a 780G Motherboard from Gigabyte with a 5050e AMD processor and for WoW and Sims ditch the 4850 should not need it and it will be too nosiey for a HTPC, if you need a boost later add a 4550 card which would silent.
Add 4gig of ram with Vista Home Premium 64bit.

As Booyaka said I know already that I need the card, i've had a couple of people kindly install and test WoW on their HTPC's and only got around 20FPS, nowhere near what I want... noise etc isn't an issue for me, just counter it with volume on the TV

 

[Andy98765]

Still I would stick to 780G set-up but in your case add a card then, but doing that way if you ever get a problem with your graphics card you just unplug and run the on board graphics, they use the same drivers.
There is a more expensive version of the 780G board design to take the high power Phenons processor that could also be a worth while investment.
My son uses that setup with a 9850 AMD processor and 4870 graphics and boy it is very fast, runs Crysis with everything switched on smoothly. The Motherboard he uses is Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H, AMD 780G, AM2+, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX - Scan.co.uk this case Eclipse Computers - Product Details with 650watt Corsair power supply.
BUT it is not quiet and every part "JUST" fits in.

 

[Iccz]

Thanks Andy, like I said noise isn't really an issue for me here and i'll be using a tower for this, so the size isn't going to matter either, gonna be a lot of hard drives spinning themselves crazy in there too!

I think the idea of using the board incase of issues with the card/drivers might be something to think about, but there isn't going to be any sort of conflict with these is there?