Six AMD 780G HTPC Motherboards To Choose From
I always get asked the question about which platform is right for building a HTPC. Almost all of the time the choice come down to either AMD or Intel.
With AMD’s 780G Chipset having been out for a while now is the perfect time to think about building that HTPC or to give your system a refresh of its hardware.
What makes the AMD the perfect choice for building a dedicated HTPC is their included onboard graphics on their 780G chipset motherboards.
With a dedicated graphics solution onboard it is easier than ever to build a HTPC that you can be sure will work and no more hunting around for the right graphics card to fit inside you HTPC case.
Below I have listed some of the motherboard manufactures which currently have products on the market which are using AMD’s 780G Chipset all of the boards listed below are Micro-ATX.
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Biostar TF7150U-M7
Overclockers Online have posted their review of the Biostar TF7150U-M7 “I haven’t had much experience with LGA775 motherboards but the Biostar TF7150U-M7 has not failed to impress. By combining a nice set of features with an attractive price, Biostar’s T-Series will be getting another recommendation from Overclockers Online. HTPC enthusiasts will be pleased with this board thanks to its integrated GeForce 7150 chip which features HDMI output.
Though the 7150 leaves a lot to be desired in terms of gaming performance, it should be able to deal with video and multimedia just fine when it comes to using it in a HTPC.
All things considered, I would highly recommend the Biostar TF7150U-M7 if you are looking for the best value.”
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Asus M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe
APH Network has posted their review of the Asus M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe “It’s definitely nice to see that there’s such great motherboards made for AMD CPUs at this point. While we haven’t had entirely great impressions with NVIDIA chipsets on the Intel platform in the past, my personal experience with NVIDIA chipsets for AMD CPUs has always been excellent — ranging from the original Newcastle and Clawhammer Athlon 64 days, to Winchester, Venice, San Diego, and eventually Manchester and Toledo on Socket 939 with the nForce4 Ultra/nForce 4 SLI, the M3N-HT Deluxe with the 780a SLI chipset on AM2 continued this trend — I am still pleased with this NVIDIA chipset and AMD CPU combination. Great things like Hybrid SLI and support for 3-way SLI is also implemented on the Asus M3N-HT Deluxe, thanks to the NVIDIA 780a SLI chipset. In terms of layout, there are certainly room for improvement, most notably the odd placement of floppy connector and a lack of connectors at the back I/O. Performance is fairly consistent — anything poor you see in our charts previously, is really because of the relatively weak CPU we’ve used as seen in the 3DMark06 scores. Overclocking is also decent on the M3N-HT Deluxe; pulling a sweet 3.0GHz out of an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane at 300MHz FSB. Generally speaking, if you’re looking for a Socket AM2 motherboard at this time, the Asus M3N-HT Deluxe is definitely worth considering.”
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ASUS Crosshair II Formula
Elite Bastards has posted their review of the ASUS Crosshair II Formula “Without laying the rhetoric on too thickly here, it seems safe to say that, as far as NVIDIA and AMD’s motherboard chipsets go, what we’re seeing here is the future. With power saving becoming an ever more important selling point of new hardware, and these two company’s graphics expertise and investment in Hybrid SLI and CrossFire from a marketing standpoint, the launch of the nForce 780a marks out the future of the high-end motherboard chipset as shipping with an on-board graphics core to enable this new functionality. Of course, for all its benefits this progression also brings us fresh nightmares of vendor lock-in - We already have to buy an NVIDIA motherboard to enjoy SLI, and now owners of NVIDIA graphics boards will have to plump for an NVIDIA motherboard to enjoy Hybrid SLI too, while AMD graphics board buyers will have to stick solely to that company’s platform for Hybrid CrossFire. Will Intel trump them both when Larrabee emerges by pairing with their own integrated graphics offerings? Who knows.”
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ECS A780GM-A Black Series
Motherboards.org has posted their review of the the ECS A780GM-A Black Series “The 780G chipset is the most powerful integrated graphics chipset on the market today. Ati is soon to release the 790G chipset which will bring even more performance to the integrated graphics chipset market. Integrated graphics are great for the person wanting to build a inexpensive system as you only need the memory, hdds, case drives and you have a cool system that plays every game out there, with lowered resolution or setting but it still can play those games with the full visual fidelity that playing the games with a high-end card would do. The ECS board is a little slower than the Gigabyte board that has the same chipset and components. I would attribute this to the differences between two motherboards using the same chipset and not worthy of mention except that it is across the board. ECS’s board is on the web for around $80, making it a good board to purchase for those wanting an inexpensive yet functional computer system.”
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Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI
Techware Labs has posted their review of the Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI “M3A78-EMH HDMI provides a very nice home theatre environment as it has the HDMI cable and supports 1080p. Only downfall of using it as a home theatre pc is that if you do not want to using the audio output from the HDMI cable, then you are going to have to purchase a discrete sound card because there is no coaxial or optical output on the motherboard. A plus is that the new AMD 780G supports AMD Live, which is where you are going to get the majority of your home theatre experience. Overall this mircoATX motherboard will fit into your home theatre case with no problem and offer amazing performance.”
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Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH2
Overclockers Club has posted their review of the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH2 “I went into this review with a mindset that this board is geared to being used in a workstation or Home Theater PC and at that, it does very well. In the science benchmarks, the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH2 pulls off some impressive numbers compared to competing boards using the same chipset. The Gigabyte board has an array of features and capabilities that would make any system like this drool for more. I liked how Gigabyte included all three video ports for this board because if you are like me and lose adapters easily, you will not be left out from using them down the road. Another feature of note i absolutely loved is the number of USB headers available. For a media PC or workstation, that is a great move. I am always using USB for my external drives, keyboards, mice, Thumb Drives, and all sorts of things, so it is nice to have the ability to add more ports without having to buy expansion cards to do it. It would have been nice to have included a bracket or two to use the headers, but that is a personal preference. I also like that Gigabyte went with the mATX design, which makes this a great board for those cramped HTPC cases.”