I can't decide between these 2 motherboards.

[mcravenufo]

The ASUS M3N78-VM and the GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H.

I have a Bluray player for disc play. These will only be for playing content from the hard drive. Right now I only have a receiver that accepts optical (no HDMI). My TV is new and will be used with HDMI for video.

I am only going to use the onboard video. It looks like the Gigabyte is newer and a little better (DDR3 etc..). I realize the 785 does not do audio through HDMI so I figure I will buy a dedicated video card if I need it. I keep going back and forth between the 2 boards.

 

[krupted]

i wonder how good that via sound is on that asus. i know the realtek 889 setup on the gigabyte is goods... but i like the 8200 video better with the asus. edit- ur using optical i see, soundcard type shouldnt matter then

 

[CrimandEvil]

Why do you keep going back and forth? The Asus board is the better buy. AMD CPUs don't benefit from DDR3 so your buying a board that uses things that don't exactly helps performance (which hardly matters for an HTPC anyways) but it doesn't have feature partiality with the Asus board. It lacks important HTPC oriented features compared to the Asus.

 

[krupted]

nvidia is a better buy i agree, but all amd motherboards are lackluster imo. i just built an htpc for good value/performance and i ended up with a dfi lanparty 9400 board and an e5200. i must say, its awesome. i intended to go with the new 600e, because i love that chip, but i couldnt find a motherboard that wow'd me like this dfi did.

 

[mcravenufo]

Why do you keep going back and forth? The Asus board is the better buy. AMD CPUs don't benefit from DDR3 so your buying a board that uses things that don't exactly helps performance (which hardly matters for an HTPC anyways) but it doesn't have feature partiality with the Asus board. It lacks important HTPC oriented features compared to the Asus.

I didn't realize that about DDR3 and AMD. ok, I'm leaning more towards that board now.

 

[ryken]

Either one should do you fine. I'd go with the ASUS just in case you want to use the hdmi audio out down the road.

As far as that sound quality is concerned, it's very good. I've had the board for 6 months and it's been fantastic.