Best Fusion Motherboard?

Hi,

Great Forum, U Guys rock!!
I'm going to build my own htpc and i would like your help with choosing the best hardware.
The things that i need help with are only the motherboard choice.

GOAL:
Build htpc without hdd/sdd (already have one) for around 150 euro's.
Preferably with dual channel memory (if possible)
I will install 4gb of memory single channel or 2gb dual (cutting cost)

I have build pc's before so i'm not totally a noob on this matter but i would like some hands-on practical information from you guys.

Which board would you choose?

I want a APU motherboard and im currently stuck between the following MB's.

1.ASRock E350M1 (cheapest) (cheapest.)
2. ASRock AD2700 (more expensive)
3. Sapphire pure white fusion e350m1w (more expensive)

1.Is it possible with one of these 3 boards to have dual channel memory?
2.Im aware that some boards have usb 2.0 instead of 3.0, i don't mind.
3.I know that ATI does show better quality but also is harder to install on OE.
4.Much help appriciated.

Excuse my bad english. I live in holland.

Thnx

Oene

Fellow Dutch guy here, goedemiddag!

Of course I don't know the details of what you want to do with this HTPC, but most of the differences can be seen here in this Tweakers.net product comparison:
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/compare/4...06;299227/

Apart from the platform difference (E-350 vs Atom D2700, I don't know a lot about that I'm afraid) it's simply a matter of looking at what you need. For instance, the system I'm looking for will just be wired to my network, so I don't care about any external connectivity such as USB 3.0 vs 2.0 (like you probably). The Atom D2700 board supports SATA-300 where the other ones support SATA-600. I don't know if that's important to you. All my videos are on my Synology NAS, but I'll be installing an SSD for startup speed. I don't think dual channel memory will matter much performance wise, so save a few euros and get 1 x 4 GB I would say. But as with those motherboards, it's only 5-10 euros.

Also, which platform will you be running, and will you want to play HD audio? That's an issue for me, since apparently it's not possible at the moment to bitstream HD audio with an AMD APU using Linux. But my system will be running Windows 8, so for me that's no problem.

Good luck, hope you can find yourself a nice little system!

Oke. Whats the difference between sata 300 and 600? One faster? More capacaty? Im going to run my movies from a nas. I want to be able to play hd audio. Preferably via hdmi. Im able to connect to my av receiver with toslink but extra cables and stuff. Dont like it. Hows the ati support now-a-days with linux?

E-350 has good driver support but the D2700 does not. The D2700 does not run well in Windows, is not supported by OpenELEC and last time I searched there was no Linux support either. E-350 is single channel architecture but for HTPC duties the difference in performance between single and dual-channel will not at all be noticeable. I have an E-350 system with OpenELEC and it runs great. As for which board, the one and only ASRock E-350 board I had I returned because it was defective. I have an ASUS E35M1-I that is running great. I have no experience with Sapphire.

BTW, your English is great -- much better than my Dutch .

Wahahaa, thnx, I lived for a year in the UK (Manchester).
But i mostly talked instead of typing.
So your advice would be the AS-Rock E-350.

Reviews tell me that the as-rock performs better than the sapphire.
And i was already having second thoughts about the D2700.

So I'll think i will choose the E350.

I want to able to play 1080p movies and blue-ray movies. is that possible with this setup?

Memory : Kingston ValueRAM - 8 GB : 2 x 4 GB - DDR3 - 1066 MHz / PC3-8500 - CL7 - 1.5 V.

Mobo: ASRock E350M1 - mini ITX.

Case: HEC Compucase 8K01 - mini ITX - PSU 120 Watt -

HDD: 320 gb 5400 rpm laptop hdd (don't know the specs for sure, somewhere laying around)

SATA-300 or 600 is purely a speed difference. So for you, it probably won't matter much; boot time is a little longer with a slower harddisk/interface but if you use hibernate/sleep of course you won't have to wait so long.

Your setup looks fine for what you want to do. It's about the same as what I want to do As long as it's not the hefty 3D work (which I don't like at all, so using these cheap components works fine for me).

So, if you want to play HD audio and if you're picking an AMD platform, remember that you will basically have to use Windows, since bitstreaming HD audio with an AMD APU (='ATI GPU') using Linux is not possible. If you want to bitstream HD audio under Linux, use a CPU with modern Intel integrated GPU or something.

I placed my order today btw, I ordered this Gigabyte mb, basically the same specs as your ASRock one, except for small differences like USB3. I won't be using that, but I like Gigabyte and the board got good reviews so ah well. Finding a shop for the case that I wanted was harder but I managed it in the end. Ordered 1x4GB, DDR3, PC10666, CL9, from Corsair along with it, so hopefully I should be able to have some fun this week!

.Ah yes i see. Mobo are mostly the same. Im gonna try openelec without hd audio. As long as i can play dts or 5.1 surround im not even sure what hd audio does. I also ordered the above system 2day so i can assemble it this week. Can someone explain the difference between hd audio and dts/dd5.1 ?

...

I would go with Zotac D2550 or. D2700 board. They both have Nvidia card and great linux support. Are powerful, low power consumption, support HD Audio in linux. And also i thing it is possible to mode it with Nuctorious vent and make it not hearable. It is more expensive but much better long term board.

Links:
http://www.mitxpc.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D2550ITXSAE
http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-d2700-wifi...s-a-e.html

Thnx all for your help everybody. I placed a order and are going to build it this week hopefully. Topic can be closed