I'm planning on building a cheap-ish HTPC system using an AMD A6-3500. I'm trying keep costs down on the motherboard and I think I'm going to get the ASRock A55M-HVS.
"http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157277"
It has the VIA VT1705 audio chipset and the specs say that it has six audio channels. Right now, I'll only be getting audio out of my TV speakers but plan on adding a surround sound system later on. I think 5.1 surround will be good enough for me but I'm worried that I'll get the itch to go all the way to 7.1. If I'm using HDMI pass-through on whatever future audio receiver I get, will I still be able to get 7.1 audio or do I need to step up to something like the ASRock A75M?
"http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?tem=N82E16813157260"
The secondary (and less important) question is, is there anything that the A75 northbridge does that the A55 doesn't that I might miss (given that I don't really care about USB 3.0)?
Lastly, for about the same cost, I could go with a Pentium G620 on an H61 platform. Is there any significant advantage to that setup? I think the CPU will be a little better but the GPU will be a little worse than the A6-3500 but either should have plenty of horsepower for 1080p video through XBMC and a couple of background apps right? I've heard that the AMD chip handles 23.xxx playback better and generally plays nicer with XBMC.
"http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157277"
It has the VIA VT1705 audio chipset and the specs say that it has six audio channels. Right now, I'll only be getting audio out of my TV speakers but plan on adding a surround sound system later on. I think 5.1 surround will be good enough for me but I'm worried that I'll get the itch to go all the way to 7.1. If I'm using HDMI pass-through on whatever future audio receiver I get, will I still be able to get 7.1 audio or do I need to step up to something like the ASRock A75M?
"http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?tem=N82E16813157260"
The secondary (and less important) question is, is there anything that the A75 northbridge does that the A55 doesn't that I might miss (given that I don't really care about USB 3.0)?
Lastly, for about the same cost, I could go with a Pentium G620 on an H61 platform. Is there any significant advantage to that setup? I think the CPU will be a little better but the GPU will be a little worse than the A6-3500 but either should have plenty of horsepower for 1080p video through XBMC and a couple of background apps right? I've heard that the AMD chip handles 23.xxx playback better and generally plays nicer with XBMC.
