CPU/Mobo Nvidia chipset mobo

[rajil.s]

Hi,
My trusty Asus M3N78 serving my htpc died. I am specifically after Nvidia chipset motherboard because I don't need to buy a graphics card separately.
Additionally I need two PCI ports, 1 onboard serial and an hdmi port.

Any recommendations?

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Getting a Socket AM2 board now is very difficult. Check if your processor is compatible with the newer AM3 socket.

 

[rajil.s]

The processor I have is an AMD Athlon II X2 250 socket AM3 3GHz.

 

[vivek.krishnan]

It is compatible with AM3+ boards. Get a new 880G board.[DOUBLEPOST=1383914598][/DOUBLEPOST]I am not sure whether a serial port comes now a days - but you can get a USB to Serial converter or PCI card which will do the same.

Any reasons for needing the PCI slot? I guess the serial port is for infrared remotes.

 

[rajil.s]

I need a serial port to hookup the APC ups. Serial port is much more stable than the USB port for the UPS .

The PCI slots are needed for the PVR 500 tv tuner cards.

 

[vivek.krishnan]

You will have to look at 790 GX boards which can be DDR2 based, or 880G ATX boards. AFAIK, these come with serial ports.

 

[rajil.s]

Thanks. If I were to start from scratch, what mobo/cpu would you suggest?

I need atleast 2 cores and 64 bit support. The main cpu load is when I am doing video encoding (which I do a lot) on this htpc. Also, I only run Linux and need something which is well supported. The requirements of serial/2 pci/hdmi still remain.

 

[vivek.krishnan]

If you do video encoding, I would suggest getting a i3/i5 based machine anyways.

Afterthought : Use Handbrake with Quicksync [Windoze wonly ]

 

[rajil.s]

What motherboard do you suggest with an i3 cpu?

 

[vivek.krishnan]

B75 chipset if Ivy Bridge. If Haswell, then B85 chipset. As far as brands, ASUS or Gigabyte.

 

[topgear]

a motherboard with rear panel I/O serial port may not be available but some motherboards with serial port header are available ... btw, there's a H61 motherboard on FK from digilite with serial port and HDMI port.

 

[anfjavid]

@ OP - Think you can go with the M4A88T motherboard from Asus. I heard its good and the it has onboard HD4250.

 

[rajil.s]

Unfortunately, I want to avoid anything Ati. They are very poorly supported in Linux. I can only go with intel or Nvidia chipsets.