The motherboard is the most important component of a HTPC, especially when choosing a motherboard with built-in graphics chip and audio, therefore choosing the right one is crucial to avoid disappointment.

The following article was written to help anyone not so experienced with HTPCs and Linux to choose a well suited motherboard for their HTPC. It also includes a complete example HTPC build:

http://www.linuxtech.net/features/best_linux_htpc_motherboards.html

I hope it might be of some use to someone!

If you have a HTPC with any of the listed mobos it would be great if you could post your experience with it and Linux here in this thread.
Any comments are welcome! :)

I have the Zotac GF9300-D-E ITX and it's working great in mythbuntu.

The motherboard is the most important component of a HTPC, especially when choosing a motherboard with built-in graphics chip and audio, therefore choosing the right one is crucial to avoid disappointment.

The following article was written to help anyone not so experienced with HTPCs and Linux to choose a well suited motherboard for their HTPC. It also includes a complete example HTPC build:

http://www.linuxtech.net/features/best_linux_htpc_motherboards.html

I hope it might be of some use to someone!

If you have a HTPC with any of the listed mobos it would be great if you could post your experience with it and Linux here in this thread.
Any comments are welcome! :)

I realize I'm pretty low on the Linux HTPC experience scale, but after my experience with an 8200 mobo, and reading about the heat issues with 9300/9400's (moreso on the osx86 forums), at least in the uATX space, its not clear to me that an IGP mobo offers any thermal (ie. cooling, and thus case size) advantages. (for mini-ITX, it does appear one can use IGP to gain significant size advantage)

Generally speaking I think one can then (easily) buy a non-IGP (or ignore-it IGP) mobo + (more powerful) PCI GPU at less cost than the 9300/9400 mobos.

Dunno.. this could be one of those religious (ie. Intel vs. AMD) issues, in which case ignore me :)

If you're using an ATX case, the ECS GF8200A at under $80 works great for me. And while the 8200 chipset gets very hot on all these boards, it has a chipset fan header and a 60mm fan can easily be added to it. Running at 1800rpm brought the temp down to 40C from about 70C. That was with 7 tuners in it. Personally, I think separate video cards for a media sever is a waste of a PCIe slot. I've got a dual tuner card in the 16x video slot and singles in the 2 1x slots.

For another frontend only box I'm using the Zotac 8200 board (under $60). I wanted an ECS GF8200SM-M3 but couldn't find any for sale here in the US.

I'm running a 9400... WHAT heat issues?

:confused:

The best HTPC motherboard- easy.

It's always the one you *don't* have :D

I have the impression that those people that you see complaining about heat issues on forums, either have chosen very badly ventilated cases or are using some badly designed aftermarket cpu HSF (or maybe have overclocked the FSB).

When mobo manufacturers design mobos they test ventilation of the IGP or north-bridge with the AMD or Intel boxed fans. Some of the aftermarket cpu HSFs are better at cooling the cpu quietly, but they direct the airflow differently than the Intel/AMD boxed fan and therefore the IGP or north-bridge heatsink doesn't get enough ventilation anymore.

If the 9400 was too hot to be placed on a mATX mobo, how can it be placed in an tiny Acer Revo plastic case then? (the ION is basically a 9400).

And while the 8200 chipset gets very hot on all these boards, it has a chipset fan header and a 60mm fan can easily be added to it. Running at 1800rpm brought the temp down to 40C from about 70C.

70C is actually not that much for a NVidia GPU, when I look a the Nvidia thermal monitor for my passively cooled NVS290 (8400GS equivalent) on my desktop PC here, it's always around 55-60C and the temperature graph is still in the green zone. The slowdown threshold is set by Nvidia at 115C!

The best HTPC motherboard- easy.

It's always the one you *don't* have :D

Very true! :D

But the target group of the article is primarily people who are considering building their first HTPC, not experts like you all here.

70C is actually not that much for a NVidia GPU, when I look a the Nvidia thermal monitor for my passively cooled NVS290 (8400GS equivalent) on my desktop PC here, it's always around 55-60C and the temperature graph is still in the green zone. The slowdown threshold is set by Nvidia at 115C!

It was running 70C+ without using any video assist. I don't know how hot it gets running video assist, but I know it would get a lot hotter. I had a 60X25mm fan anyway and running it at 1800rpm is virtually silent. I like things as cool as reasonably possible. And this is my server on 24/7. I haven't put a fan on my other 8200 system yet as it's only on about 6 hours a day. I haven't even checked its chipset temp yet but will when I start running video assist on it.

I have now finally been able to replace the oldish 65nm "Athlon X2 5400+" with the new and much better 45nm "Athlon II X2 240" in the Example HTPC Build (http://www.linuxtech.net/features/best_linux_htpc_motherboards.html#example), as Asus has finally released a new BIOS for the M3N78-EM that supports the X2 240.

I had intended to recommend the Athlon II X2 240 from the beginning, but as Asus didn't support it yet with its BIOS, I wasn't able to until now.

Due to several feedback emails I received, asking for a recommendation of a IR remote for a Linux HTPC I have now also added one to the example build in the "Best Linux HTPC Motherboards" article.

I have the impression that those people that you see complaining about heat issues on forums, either have chosen very badly ventilated cases or are using some badly designed aftermarket cpu HSF (or maybe have overclocked the FSB).

When mobo manufacturers design mobos they test ventilation of the IGP or north-bridge with the AMD or Intel boxed fans. Some of the aftermarket cpu HSFs are better at cooling the cpu quietly, but they direct the airflow differently than the Intel/AMD boxed fan and therefore the IGP or north-bridge heatsink doesn't get enough ventilation anymore.
Not true. My Asus P5N7A-VM's 9300 burned like fire, even when not decoding video, until I put on it a Thermalright HR05-IFX with thermally-controlled fan. But no one listens, so I've given up trying to tell ppl. Their IGP will just burn up.

Not true. My Asus P5N7A-VM's 9300 burned like fire, even when not decoding video, until I put on it a Thermalright HR05-IFX with thermally-controlled fan. But no one listens, so I've given up trying to tell ppl. Their IGP will just burn up.

I listen to you, qs, I just don't buy Intel. ;)

I listen to you, qs, I just don't buy Intel. ;)

You may not.. but your best mobo article is recommending that other ppl do...

Not true. My Asus P5N7A-VM's 9300 burned like fire, even when not decoding video, until I put on it a Thermalright HR05-IFX with thermally-controlled fan. But no one listens, so I've given up trying to tell ppl. Their IGP will just burn up.

Just because the northbridge feels burning hot to the touch that doesn't mean it's running out of spec. Chips have quite different average and maximum temperature specifications and most Nvidia GPUs are designed to run at high temperatures, their cut-off is around 115C!
Even some cpus are like that, remember the Pentium-M, it had a normal operating temperature of 70-75C and a cut-off around 100C.

I'm not saying that a better heatsink is useless, but it's certainly not required.

Also by replacing the factory-fitted northbridge heatsink you risk invalidating the motherboard warranty.

Poking around newegg this morning and I happened to see this motherboard

DFI LP JR GF9400-T2RS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136064)

Here is a link comparing it to the ASUS P5N7A-VM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=Property&N=2010200280&StoreType=-1&CompareItemList=N82E16813131348%2cN82E16813136064&PropertyCodeValue=1256%3a45253%2c1256%3a46230&bop=And)

very similar board but several things that I like better

Geforce 9400 vs 9300
2 ps2 ports (for keyboard and mouse)
3 PCIE slots vs 2
Looks like a better chipset cooling with a heatpipe to additional fins close to where the exaust on most cases would be.
**edit** one more item I just noticed in the manual is that you can set the temperature the CPU fan turns on and the temp it hits max speed. This would be useful for minimizing CPU fan noise.

As far as negatives, I do not have experience with this brand (not as well know to me as ASUS) and it cost $20 more.

Any thoughts or experience with this board?

Yes it appears to be a very nice board, but I didn't include it in the article as it was even more expensive than the excellent and very popular Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H (which now sadly has been discontinued).

Yes it appears to be a very nice board, but I didn't include it in the article as it was even more expensive than the excellent and very popular Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H (which now sadly has been discontinued).

Reading the reviews on newegg and Tweaktown (http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2972/dfi_lanparty_jr_gf9400_t2rs_matx_motherboard/index12.html) (not seen this site until today) it seem fairly average. Tweaktown reviews the Nvidia GeForce 9300 chipset using the ASUS P5N7A-VM (http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1635/nvidia_nforce_730i_geforce_9300_chipset_review/index14.html) and rates it much better.

I'll probably just keep with my plan on buying the ASUS unless there is some crazy sale on the DFI board.

+1 for the 8300 M3N78-EM. Works out of the box for ubuntu.

Reading the reviews on newegg and Tweaktown (http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2972/dfi_lanparty_jr_gf9400_t2rs_matx_motherboard/index12.html) (not seen this site until today) it seem fairly average.

I'm not very convinced by the level of expertise of that reviewer, some comments he makes seems to indicate to me, that all he can do is install windows and run some off the shelf windows benchmarks on it, so I don't think that review means much.
OTOH I have no experience with that board so I can't really judge it either, but if it was 30 dollars cheaper I would take it into serious consideration.


I'll probably just keep with my plan on buying the ASUS unless there is some crazy sale on the DFI board.

Exactly my thoughts.

Northbear be advised that I've run the ASUS P5N7A-VM for 5 months, and it does run beautifully, although you should put an aftermarket heatsink on the IGP like I did. (HR05-IFX)

HOWEVER twice since I've run it, I've had two events of catastrophic filesystem destruction on my SATA drives. The first time I blamed it on my use of BTRFS, but a couple days ago it destroyed my JFS on RAID10 array. I am quite sure now that it's either a hardware problem or BIOS bug, and am giving serious consideration to the Gigabyte board with 9400 (and hopefully AMD).

HOWEVER twice since I've run it, I've had two events of catastrophic filesystem destruction on my SATA drives. The first time I blamed it on my use of BTRFS, but a couple days ago it destroyed my JFS on RAID10 array. I am quite sure now that it's either a hardware problem or BIOS bug, and am giving serious consideration to the Gigabyte board with 9400 (and hopefully AMD).

That doesn't sound good although I doubt it's a BIOS bug, as Linux doesn't make use of the BIOS during operations.
I would be interested in more details about what exactly happened, but it might be best to start a new thread for that.

(dammit, I can't make my psychedelic signature to work... I guess images aren't allowed, pfff)

What happened was I turned on the projector this week to find my HTPC frozen, and the drive light on solid. Nothing I did could unfreeze it, so I reset. Poof, it couldn't mount the array for /home (with 1.7TB of videos): bad superblock.

After much tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth I found that jfsutils had somehow been deinstalled. When I reinstalled it I again had access to the array. Fortunately no damage. I hadn't done anything remotely related to maintenance lately, so it's an infuriating mystery. Maybe I could have fixed BTRFS similarly, but I was too freaked out.

This is why I am moving toward a storage server for the garage, although this has shown me that RAID10 may not be the answer. I was shocked to find my filesystem unavailable, against everything I'd understood to be true about RAID10. I am alarmed, and looking for other options.

Poof, it couldn't mount the array for /home (with 1.7TB of videos): bad superblock.

After much tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth I found that jfsutils had somehow been deinstalled. When I reinstalled it I again had access to the array. Fortunately no damage.
So I assume you run a fsck.jfs which fixed it?
The frozen state your PC got into could have been cause by anything, power spike, PSU problem, RAM problem, cpu problem, mobo problem, anything really, the fact that the filesystem needed repair in such a situation is not uncommon but no inidcation that the issue was related specifically to the mobo.
(Although that doesn't exclude that your mobo might be defective, but is certainly no indication of a general flaw of the P5N7A-VM)
Also I guess JFS proved it's reliability by not losing you any data. :)


This is why I am moving toward a storage server for the garage,

Yes, having at least 2 separate copies of all important data is always a good idea, a raid only protects you from disk hardware failure.

Response over here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17415162#post17415162), as it has more to do with my SAN.

...
The frozen state your PC got into could have been cause by anything, power spike, PSU problem, RAM problem, cpu problem, mobo problem, anything really, ...

Yeah could be anything, but I would definitely be running a long brutal RAM test if I encountered an event like that. RAM just seems to be the problem more often than the others followed by power supplies (at least that's been my experience).

And if the RAM test Passed I'd be running Prime95 for several hours to give the CPU a good workout.

I wish I had a way to test power supplies, but without the right equipment there's not any good ways to test them.

Hm, I have more confidence in my RAM than anything else. Top-of-the-line Micron chips (Crucial). I guess it's worth checking when I have a block of time not recording. But these failures have happened months apart, so not much hope.

^^^ Well, depending on your perspective and on the exact type of failure a "RAM" failure might actually be the motherboard's fault. For instance, if you're having timing issues, is it the RAM or the MB?

But, you'll probably never know for certain so it's much more likely you'll buy new memory sticks and try to find a set that work reliably rather than buying a new MB.

Anyway, as you said, it's really easy to run memory tests which is why it's the first thing I always try after a failure like that.

Just a note about ram. I had a box that screwed up ever time mythcomflagg ran. Running memtest passed the ram every time. I had just installed this ram no more than a month before so I started checking the bios. Voltage was at 1.8v. After finding the specs on the ram, it was rated for 1.9v. Increasing the voltage to 1.85v cured the problem. So I can tell you for a fact that memtest doesn't stress the system enough, so if your system is failing under stress, then memtest may not to find ram problems if that's the problem.

IGP GeForce 9300 and 9400 are identical. The only difference is the factory default speed. You can overclock a 9300 to a 9400 clock speed on the Asus mobo if you want. But there is no reason to do so, as 9300/9400 are not powerful enough to do Advanced 2X deinterlacing on MythTv and both can fly through Temporal 2X deinterlacing.

I use ASUS P5N7A-VM with this CPU heatsink. No additional, aftermarket IGP heatsink is required. It is pretty huge and cool the IGP chipset as well. Temperature of the IGP is 54 degree.



http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/049/sczp2000-detail.html

I'm running the ASUS M3N78-VM, which (I assume) is very similar to the M3N78-EM.

I'm in the process of getting myth installed on it. I tried a few months ago and gave up, because I could not get S3 suspend to work, using kubuntu 9.04.

I'm now running 9.10 on it, and suspend works, so one hurdle has been cleared...

Looks like my plan to purchase a HTPC motherboard sometime after Thanskgiving backfired.

I was going to go with the Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H but that was discontinued / unavaliable around the beginning of October.

Now it seems that the Asus P5N7A-VM is discontinued / out of stock everywhere I can find. :mad: My own fault for waiting I guess.

That seems to leave the ZOTAC GF9300-A-E LGA (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500019) and the DFI LP JR GF9400-T2RS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136064) as the only mATX motherboards with the geforce 9XXX series IGP on the market?? I had the feeling that there would be more 9XXX motherboards over time but they seem to be dwindling!

Any thougts or other options? Some (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17242620#post17242620) have already told me (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17278696#post17278696) to go with the 8xxx series AMD board which I am reconsidering (again (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17286776#post17286776))

Any news on new a new IGP from nvidia or a replacement from asus or gigabyte for these motherboards? I have looked but found news of such.

I'm hoping they will make a 2xx series IGP, after all they do them for notebooks, but OTOH I read somewhere Nvidia is giving up on the AMD/Intel chipset business altogether (other than the ION)... :(

The ZOTAC GF9300-A-E should be fine if you don't mind the somewhat noisy fan (that's why I didn't chose that board for my article) on the chipset (and the heatsync seems low grade, that's why it gets quite hot), but I guess you can always replace the heatsync with a good aftermarket one (at an additional cost...).

Otherwise any decent mobo with a N210-MD512H (http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=130&prod_no=1923) graphics card could be a good solution, if your case has the space for a graphics card.
The MSI card has the advantage that it's VDPAU Spec C which means it does even more video decoding in hardware than the 9 series and it's the only 2xx series card that I know of that is passively cooled.

I had the feeling that there would be more 9XXX motherboards over time but they seem to be dwindling!

Any thougts or other options? Some (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17242620#post17242620) have already told me (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17278696#post17278696) to go with the 8xxx series AMD board which I am reconsidering (again (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17286776#post17286776))

Any news on new a new IGP from nvidia or a replacement from asus or gigabyte for these motherboards? I have looked but found news of such.

I also noticed in a recent search that there appear to be fewer IGP solutions out there.. but I still, personally, do not favor IGPs unless a very compact system is the main objective. I place too much importance on the ability to switch PCI GPUs.. which certainly you could still add to any IGP mobo, but I figure why pay twice as much for the mobo and limit my mobo choices at the same time.

Other than CPU, I would still buy the same components I bought 9? months ago... except that my mobo is apparently now in rev 2 with an ethernet controller poorly supported in Linux (per the info at newegg)

Thanks for the suggestions. I searched a bit more tonight and found it at superbiiz (http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-P5N7AVM) for a decent price so I went ahead and got it. Never ordered from there before but had a decent www.resellerratings.com rating so I thought I would give them a try.

Still confused on why there are not more of these 9300/9400 boards out there. Maybe something better is just around the corner but I didn't feel like taking that chance.

Thanks for your effort to put this list together, tux99! Being somewhat new to Linux, it helps to know what works and what doesn't before you buy. But since 4 out of the 5 motherboards listed are no longer available, would would be the best Linux-friendly "substitutes" based on current production/availability? Either "all-in-one" motherboards (with built-in HDMI, S/PDIF, etc.), or basic motherboard + good HTPC video card combo?

The two boards mentioned by northbear ( ZOTAC GF9300-A-E and DFI LP JR GF9400-T2RS) seem good all-in-one alternatives still available, although the DFI is a bit expensive and Zotac has the drawback of the chipset fan as mentioned above.
Personally I would go for the Zotac GF9300-D-E ITX mentioned in my article, but of course if you need multiple expansion slots for tuner cards then it's not suitable.

Most mobos (without on-board GPU) are suitable for Linux, these days it's relatively uncommon to end up with a problematic on-board audio or network chip.
With regards to video cards the MSI N210 card mentioned above is a good choice, the on-board hdmi audio chip isn't supported yet as it's brand new, but that will likely be sorted out soon.
Otherwise you can't go wrong with a 9500GT with spdif pass-through header.

I might re-write a new version of the article sometime, once a new generation suitable of boards becomes available, right now unfortunatley the best boards are unavailable without equivalent replacements.

The ASUS M3N78 is available on newegg.com.

I will be helping my brother build a machine with an Asus M4N78 next week. I'll post an update about how well the board works with Linux for HDMI audio/video out. It's a little more expensive than the M3N78-VM, but it has the GeForce 8300.

I will be helping my brother build a machine with an Asus M4N78 next week. I'll post an update about how well the board works with Linux for HDMI audio/video out. It's a little more expensive than the M3N78-VM, but it has the GeForce 8300.

I'm using the M3N78-VM with Kubuntu 9.10 and Mythbuntu. Works well, although the nvidia driver causes problems w/ suspend.

Let me know if you need help - I can send you my xorg.conf.

Any recomendations on the best way to stress test the Nvidia 9300 iGpu once I get the board.

I want to know if my board has any heat concerns quantumstate keeps (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17268857#post17268857) talking (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15197793#post15197793) about (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15122963#post15122963). ;)

Any recomendations on the best way to stress test the Nvidia 9300 iGpu once I get the board.


Don't know if there is a better way, but I guess playing back a high-bitrate 1080p bluray backup should be a good test.

I have updated the article (http://www.linuxtech.net/features/best_linux_htpc_motherboards.html) slightly by replacing the Zotac GF9300-D-E ITX with the newer rev.3 PCB version which now is called Zotac GF9300-G-E ITX.

It's essentially the same board, but Zotac has added a 3rd sata connector and finally enabled S3 wake-on-USB.

Given that most other boards are discontinued, and given the improvements on this Zotac board, this now makes it even more so an excellent choice for a Linux HTPC.

Do we meet any of these mobos in Heaven? :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_People_You_Meet_in_Heaven

I asked for this thread to be made sticky, for obvious reasons...

I'm using the M3N78-VM with Kubuntu 9.10 and Mythbuntu. Works well, although the nvidia driver causes problems w/ suspend.

Let me know if you need help - I can send you my xorg.conf.

Yeh i got the VM instead of the EM as well and it seems that the nvidia driver is causing a lot of problems and the screen keeps flickering. Can you send me your xorg.conf

thanks,

Yeh i got the VM instead of the EM as well and it seems that the nvidia driver is causing a lot of problems and the screen keeps flickering. Can you send me your xorg.conf

thanks,

Here you go. You'll need to ignore the modeline, as they are specifically for my HDTV.


Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
HorizSync 15.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 58.0 - 62.0
Modeline "1280x720" 74.400 1216 1365 1405 1650 677 703 708 750 +hsync +vsync
Option "ExactModeTimingsDVI" "TRUE"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Option "DPI" "90x90"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x720"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Option "ModeValidation" "NoEdidModes"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
# inserted in attempt to fix suspend; didn't help
# Option "NvAGP" "1"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "DontZap" "False"
EndSection

I will be helping my brother build a machine with an Asus M4N78 next week. I'll post an update about how well the board works with Linux for HDMI audio/video out. It's a little more expensive than the M3N78-VM, but it has the GeForce 8300.

DOes the 8300 do VDPAU or other tasks better than the 8200? Other pros/cons on the 8300 vs 8200 IGP's? Heat?

DOes the 8300 do VDPAU or other tasks better than the 8200? Other pros/cons on the 8300 vs 8200 IGP's? Heat?

I remember reading that in some respects, the 8200 should be preferred over the 8300, but I don't remember where I read it, or what the advantages are.

Might try some google searches and/or wikipedia.

DOes the 8300 do VDPAU or other tasks better than the 8200? Other pros/cons on the 8300 vs 8200 IGP's? Heat?

That's a good question. I based the preference for the 8300 on Tux's write up (with the M3N78-EM preferred due to the 8300). Would be good to know if there is a reason to prefer the 8200. . .

The M4N78 that we put into my brothers build has been problematic, with the board refusing to boot at times - we're still trying to work out the problem. So it has been hard for me to compare the performance of the 8300 to the 8200 I use on my system.

The 8300 has a shader clock speed of 1500 MHz while the 8200 is 1200 MHz.

Shader speed influences deinterlacing performance so could make a difference if you intend to watch lots of 1080i material (broadcast HDTV) on it, but as long as you select a simple deinterlacing method (Weave/Bob) they both are fine, it's only with the advanced deinterlacers where you might see a difference.

See here for a good overview too:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU

I'm running the ASUS M3N78-VM, which (I assume) is very similar to the M3N78-EM.

I'm in the process of getting myth installed on it. I tried a few months ago and gave up, because I could not get S3 suspend to work, using kubuntu 9.04.

I'm now running 9.10 on it, and suspend works, so one hurdle has been cleared...

S3 suspend doesn't work right on M3N78-EM under Linux. Mine will suspend ONCE then reboot the 2nd Time I try to suspend. Nope it's not fixed in 10.04 beta2. Is your 9.10 the 32 or 64 bit version?

S3 suspend doesn't work right on M3N78-EM under Linux. Mine will suspend ONCE then reboot the 2nd Time I try to suspend. Nope it's not fixed in 10.04 beta2. Is your 9.10 the 32 or 64 bit version?

64 bit

I should add that while suspend does work for me, it fails after installing the nvidia driver. With the nvidia driver loaded, I get the "suspend once, fail after that" behavior.

I've worked around this by turning the machine off when it's not being used, and having it wake for scheduled recordings via hardware timer.

I wonder if anyone has suspend working fine with the Nvidia drivers, I have 2 PCs and a laptop with Intel IGPs where suspend works fine, but it doesn't work on my PC with Nvidia graphics card and Nvidia drivers.

I wonder if anyone has suspend working fine with the Nvidia drivers, I have 2 PCs and a laptop with Intel IGPs where suspend works fine, but it doesn't work on my PC with Nvidia graphics card and Nvidia drivers.

I've been meaning to try this, but haven't yet (because I really don't need to any more). See the last post:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7349430#post7349430

I don't like the title much "5 Best"
Should be "5 Good".

The table was hard to look at, should have the mobo names across the top and the features on the left.

Plus HTPC doesn't always mean the same thing to everyone. Low power is important to me and low power usually means low noise. If you're just recording off the network using mythtv and HDhomerun, you don't need a lot of CPU. Etc.

Many thanks for the feedback!

I don't like the title much "5 Best"
Should be "5 Good".


Point taken, but like it says at the beginning of the article it's "in our opinion".
And of course this was at the time of writing it.


The table was hard to look at, should have the mobo names across the top and the features on the left.

Did you notice you can click on the table to get a larger version, which you can then print out and turn whichever way you prefer?


Plus HTPC doesn't always mean the same thing to everyone. Low power is important to me and low power usually means low noise. If you're just recording off the network using mythtv and HDhomerun, you don't need a lot of CPU. Etc.

I agree, the article was primarily based on the classic definition of a HTPC as an all-in-one machine that records and stores TV using one or more TV tuner cards and providing the option of full-screen HD Flash video playback.

For a simple XBMC box or a mythtv front-end Nvidia ION based systems are a better option, this is mentioned in the article too with a link to the separate Nvidia ION products overview article (http://www.linuxtech.net/features/nvidia_ion_products_overview.html).

it's "in our opinion"

Did you notice you can click on the table to get a larger version, which you can then print out and turn whichever way you prefer?

I think it goes without saying that it was your opinion, and I shared mine. :)

I rarely print out pages from the net, kind of defeats the purpose. You may consider including the raw table data as a csv then the reader can view it as they like.

You may consider including the raw table data as a csv then the reader can view it as they like.

Will do next time, the current table is too obsolete now anyway to be worth spending time searching for the original spreadsheet file (if I even kept it at all).

Will do next time, the current table is too obsolete now anyway to be worth spending time searching for the original spreadsheet file (if I even kept it at all).

Perhaps its time that the article should be updated or un-stickied in the forum?

Perhaps its time that the article should be updated or un-stickied in the forum?

I didn't ask for it to be sticky, Rgb did that. :)

I have thought about writing a 2010 version, but currently I don't see any ideal HTPC boards.
ION boards are certainly great for HTPC use but since we still don't have hardware accelerated Flash video playback in Linux, the same caveat as last year still applies.

With regards to microATX boards there doesn't seem to be any boards that are far better then others for HTPC use, since Nvidia hasn't released any new IGP chipset and ATI is still a no-no as far as Linux video playback is concerned.

So these days it's really just a matter to choose any decent mobo and stick a Nvidia 210 or 220 on it (or go the Atom + ION route).

It could be interesting though to collect our collective wisdom in this thread, so if anyone has any suggestions of current mobos that for some reason work really well as Linux HTPC mobo then post them here.

As you said.. until we get accelerated Flash drivers, life is kinda boring :) And/or, at this pace, Apple's war on Flash may be over before then :)

Also seeing such a lack of innovation b/c of the Intel/nVidia lawsuit, preventing the nVidia chipsets for the new Intel chips... then again, its quite a price jump for the i3/i5/i7 chips/mobo/memory... and I don't know why I'd need the performance.

Egads, what's a gadget-freak to do... guess I'll have to look into SSD :)

I didn't ask for it to be sticky, Rgb did that. :)

I have thought about writing a 2010 version, but currently I don't see any ideal HTPC boards.
.

...we could just rename this thread "Linux HTPC Motherboard Recommendations" so it encompasses both former boards that may be out of production and new recommendations.

Still a good reference for a sticky thread.

...
Egads, what's a gadget-freak to do... guess I'll have to look into SSD :)

Yeah, even as pricey as the fastest SSDs are right now, it stills seems like buying an SSD is more bang for the buck than upgrading to any of the new CPUs.

...we could just rename this thread "Linux HTPC Motherboard Recommendations"

How do I change the thread title?
When I edit the title of the first post it just changes the title of the first post, not the thread title.

How do I change the thread title?
When I edit the title of the first post it just changes the title of the first post, not the thread title.

The same thing just happened to me on another forum. I think that a mod has to do it.

How do I change the thread title?
When I edit the title of the first post it just changes the title of the first post, not the thread title.

If you haven't already, I asked Bob Sorel to rename this thread "Linux Motherboard Recommendations"

Most recent comments on this thread noting that there currently is no one mobo that stands out over others has been helpful to me when trying to decide what to buy for a backend-frontend system that will sit in a closet and act as a frontend only about 10% of the time for a theater room (an Acer Revo frontend will be used 90% of the time). I've been hunting for that perfect VDPAU capable system and found the mobo choosing very limited.

Would this mobo, processor, and GPU make a good backend-frontend? I’m building my first MythTV system with one dual-tuner HDHomeRun, an old PVR-150 analog tuner or two, and I may want to add a 1394 firewire card and try and pull from a SA8300HDC cable box as well. This system is for a local cable system that has a lot of clear QAM and analog channels. I don’t mind overspending a little in order to have a system that will do commercial flagging rapidly, etc., in that this will primarily be used for time shifting TV shows.

GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425

Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115222

ZOTAC ZT-20203-10L GeForce GT 220 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500130

Also, not to hijack a mobo thread, but does anyone know if the fans on the GT220 boards will slow down or even stop spinning altogether when the system is essentially not acting as a frontend (i.e., no graphics changes). I’m reluctant to get a passively-cooled GPU, but this system really won’t be performing as a frontend but about 10% of the time or less so having that fan not operate should extend the fan life (I’ve had poor luck with fans being the first thing to fail in systems that typically run 24x7 over the years).

It feels wrong to me to spend money on an IGA chip that you aren't going to use and which is taking up space that could be used by more CPU cores.

But Intel's current CPU line and future roadmap is so confusing and full of dead end sockets that I have a hard time making any recommendations about their products.

Received an e-mail the other day that newegg is again in stock with the ASUS P5N7A-VM! (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131348)

I thought they were to be discontinued (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17563036#post17563036)and was happy I could find one (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17568332#post17568332) 9 months ago before everywhere ran out of stock!

I have used it since then and have been happy with it.

northbear: Are you by chance using the ASUS P5N7A-VM with firewire capture? If so, what 1394a card are you using? My current mobo has onboard firewire which works with my cable box "most of the time", except when it doesn't.

I may be upgrading mobos for reasons unrelated to firewire, but would like to keep that capability and noticed that the ASUS P5N7A-VM doesn't have it onboard.

Thanks for any info.

/Greg

Sorry I can't help as I don't have any need for firewire with my components and as such I was not concerned with the lack of firewire on the MB.

thanks for replying, anyhow, I appreciate it.

/Greg

This might help: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/FireWire#List_of_Firewire_Cards

Thanks for the tip, mythmaster. I had found that page this afternoon.

Based on its responses, it looks like this card uses the chipset that several people have had success with (including with my cable STB): <http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124015> If its not too off-topic for the thread, have you had any experience with this card or chipset?

Thanks again for the info.

/Greg

I haven't been able to use firewire since I moved 1.5 years ago, but I think that I was using a NEC card or maybe a TI. I'll have to dig it out to be sure.

But, no, I've never used a Lucent one.

I kind of miss it, but I had to reset the STB quite a bit. I wasn't using any of the channel-changing scripts, though, and P2P didn't work on that box.

Just to update, I used the ASUS PN57A-VM with this Firewire card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815166018) and it seems to work fine right now under Lucid with my Motorola DC-6200 box.

Just FYI for those who are interested; the Asus P5N7A-VM is on sale (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131348)for $79.99 (plus 7.56 for shipping) after a $30 rebate. Rebate is good thru 8/31/2010

I bought one to use as a replacement for my desktop computer. I liked the idea of having a spare around (just in case) and that I am already familiar with the board.

Thanks for the heads-up northbear! This rebate actually applies to any purchase in July and August, so I could use it for my recent buy (see above.) Nice bonus for me, so thanks for the pointer.

/Greg

Aww man I want it! Can't buy it today though.. should do some more research anyway. But this thread is very helpful!

Aww man I want it! Can't buy it today though.. should do some more research anyway. But this thread is very helpful!

Well you may be in luck. There is a new rebate for the P5N7A-VM for September and newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131348&Tpk=p5n7a) lowered the price $5. Guess I should have waited :rolleyes:

What do you guys think of the Gigabyte boards GA-H55M-USB3 or GA-H55N-USB3 in a low profile HTPC system? Coupled to a i3-530 cpu, would I still need a graphics card to decode h.264 streams? Even though I have good experience with building PCs, I'm coming up to speed with HTPC systems. I'm reading up on the topic as much as I can, but still I feel I know close to zilch!

I am using a 2010 Mac Mini which does hulu well but mythtv/Remote support blows.

According to this link:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac-Mini-Model-A1347-Teardown/3094/3

the mac Mini is using a Nvidia Geforce 320M (similar to a 310M chip). Does anyone know of a board that has something like this on it. Can anyone suggest a build so I might put together a similar system.

Also how about using laptop motherboards for a htpc.

I wonder if anyone has suspend working fine with the Nvidia drivers, I have 2 PCs and a laptop with Intel IGPs where suspend works fine, but it doesn't work on my PC with Nvidia graphics card and Nvidia drivers.You posted this quite a while ago, but did you ever solve it? There's some good information in this thread, but be careful: there are some modifications to the instructions for later versions, as detailed in post 190, and a link to different variations to try and find which one works in post 204.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=471855
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7214266&postcount=190
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9837211&postcount=204

Well I've gotta warn you guys about the ASUS P5N7A-VM -- it will destroy all the data on your disk. This happened to me two years ago when I had a power fail. At the time I blamed it on the BTRFS filesystem, and switched to RAID10 and JFS. But it's just happened to me again. Power fail, and now my whole 4TB array is destroyed. ("Bad fs/superblock", etc) So I am ditching this mobo fast. I thought I was safe with RAID10, but I've just lost two years of my extensive and valuable movie collection, and it's infuriating.

I want the AMD platform, but must have microATX. The only mobos with the newest nVidia NF980ASLI chipset (MSI NF980-G65, Asus M4N82 DELUXE, m4n98td) are ATX, as well as those with the NF780ASLI, so it looks like I am forced to stick with Intel.

I'm sorry to hear that, but what makes you say that it's the mobo's fault?

Have you tried a manual fsck.jfs ? (after making sure the md array is online, see /proc/mdstat ?)

Yes fsck.jfs fails. What else is there? Before I was using btrfs and one drive and no RAID, and now I was using RAID10 and two drives and JFS. Power fail once again, and filesystem destroyed. I blame the firmware for the drive controller. I took almost every precaution.
It could be the PSU. BTW have you tried posting on the JFS mailing-list?
The JFS authors do give assistance to help you in recovery attempts if you ask nicely.
Don't assume your data is lost before you try them.
http://jfs.sourceforge.net/

This mobo is perfect for the backup server (and it's AMD), this would be my choice:
http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-m880g-itx-wifi-amd-mini-itx-motherboard-m880gitx-a-e.html

It's not JFS man.

Sure it's JFS, you said yourself the fs is JFS. If you want to get your data back then you need to repair the corrupted JFS fs, it doesn't matter what the cause of the corruption was.

Unless you tell me that the the disks have been physically fried and the raw disk device isn't accessible anymore, the data will still be all there on the disks and can almost certainly be recovered if you ask for help on the JFS ML.

But then it doesn't seem like you are interested in recovering the data, only in randomly dishing out blame (otherwise you would have posted a lot more details, like exact errors you are getting, output of fstab, etc.).

Well, I've explained the problem with my best knowledge, to the end of helping others, but what I get back is skepticism and an accusation that I am emotionally reacting.

I've accumulated far more motherboard info now than is anywhere on this forum. But I am not here to bicker, so I'd better keep it to myself lest I be accused of challenging the status quo or some other ridiculous assertion.

Been reading a lot in this site for a while and thought this might be a good place to dive in and create some useful information for me and others. Hopefully we can revive this once useful thread. I looks like a great place to keep new (& old) users aware of current boards in one obvious place.

Back to the main topic: motherboards (& APU?)

I am looking to put together a Video Library System for multiple TVs with one central server for content. I have chosen to go with the same common components for both Server & Client to make sparing and repair simpler. After a month of research, I have selected the GigaByte GA-A75M-UD2H motherboard and AMD A8-3800/3850 to power both: it this has PCI-E 2.0, 5 x SATA6, 1 x eSATA6, USB3, IEE1394, GB LAN and up to 32GB memory (for caching later). It is a bit of overkill for the Video (GT 430) Client system but should be future expandable enough for the Server. I am open to other suggestions.

I did see a lot of other motherboards and comments stating "any will do" but they were scattered all over the place. Hopefully this thread will once again rise up to provide the newcomers, like me, an obvious place to start (??maybe other threads for video, ...??)