Decision time, or, a tale of 3 mobos

[danvines]

After 2 solid days of reading posts, reviews, feature lists, and other details, I have narrowed the choice of MoBo down to 3 contenders. I would appreciate any further comments or advice that anyone may have. My criteria are as follows:

1) must do component video
2) microATX form factor
3) socket 939 for AMD Athlon

1st choice: Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9 review (http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/motherboards/1561_1.html) and pricing (http://www.excaliberpc.com/GIGABYTE_MOTHERBOARD_GA-K8N51PVMT-9/GA-K8N51PVMT-9/partinfo-id-561217.html)
Pros: pretty much everything seems to be in the box, including the component video dongle
Cons: This board is not out yet. I do not know if anyone knows a release date.

2nd choice (tie): Asus A8N-VM CSM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131570)
Pros: Supposed to be in stock this week or next. Very highly rated board (or at least seems to be popular).
Cons: Does not appear to support component output. I COULD use the DVI out to my TV, but I currently use my TV's only HDMI input for my DirecTV HR10-250. Of course, I suppose I COULD switch that device to component.

MSI RS482M4-ILD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130520)
Pros: available now. seems to include the component video bracket in the box.
Cons: ATI x300 based video instead of nVidia 6150

There you go. FWIW, this box will mostly be used as a media (music, ripped DVD, downloaded xvid or dvix format video) jukebox and as an upconverting DVD player. I MAY, in the future, add an HD tuner card to be able to record OTA TV (mostly to archive recorded shows since I already have DirecTV w/ an HD Tivo).

Thanks for any opinions.

Dan

[jvrobert]

[QUOTE=danvines]After 2 solid days of reading posts, reviews, feature lists, and other details, I have narrowed the choice of MoBo down to 3 contenders. I would appreciate any further comments or advice that anyone may have. My criteria are as follows:

1) must do component video
2) microATX form factor
3) socket 939 for AMD Athlon

1st choice: Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9 review (http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/motherboards/1561_1.html) and pricing (http://www.excaliberpc.com/GIGABYTE_MOTHERBOARD_GA-K8N51PVMT-9/GA-K8N51PVMT-9/partinfo-id-561217.html)
Pros: pretty much everything seems to be in the box, including the component video dongle
Cons: This board is not out yet. I do not know if anyone knows a release date.

2nd choice (tie): Asus A8N-VM CSM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131570)
Pros: Supposed to be in stock this week or next. Very highly rated board (or at least seems to be popular).
Cons: Does not appear to support component output. I COULD use the DVI out to my TV, but I currently use my TV's only HDMI input for my DirecTV HR10-250. Of course, I suppose I COULD switch that device to component.

MSI RS482M4-ILD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130520)
Pros: available now. seems to include the component video bracket in the box.
Cons: ATI x300 based video instead of nVidia 6150

There you go. FWIW, this box will mostly be used as a media (music, ripped DVD, downloaded xvid or dvix format video) jukebox and as an upconverting DVD player. I MAY, in the future, add an HD tuner card to be able to record OTA TV (mostly to archive recorded shows since I already have DirecTV w/ an HD Tivo).

Thanks for any opinions.

Dan[/QUOTE]

Personally I would go with one of the 6150 boards. The NVidia PureVideo support is really good for upconverting DVD's.

I'd wait for the Gigabyte.

[O2C]

I am using the RS482M4-ILD now and am very happy with it. I use it to watch OTA HDTV and the few DVDs I've thrown in have performed well. It drives my LCD at 1920x1200 and CRT at 1024x768 in extended desktop mode fine. It's also good enough to run Civ IV at high graphics settings, which is a very nice bonus.

Under MCE, I do get a stutter when using MCE to tune HD channels. It can't seem to do it with VM9 and I haven't figured out a way to fix it yet. Others have reported similar problems with discrete graphics cards, so this may or may not be an IGP limitation. No problems viewing HD using overlay mode. I can watch live HD stutter free in overlay mode (non-MCE app). I can record HD stutter free in MCE. I can play back HD stutter free in WMP using overlay mode. I just haven't figured out how to watch live HD and record it at the same time yet. Then again I've only been up a week or so, so I haven't given up yet.

I haven't seen a single "pro" review yet for any of these boards. Board feedback on the two released ones have been sparse too. I haven't read of anyone using the A8N-VM CSM for HDTV yet.

The S/PDIF-out was a required feature for me. It works near perfectly (I say near because I miss my SoundStorm). A con would be that it didn't ship with a bracket. A plus would be that it also has S/PDIF-in too (no bracket of course).

I'm not disappointed that I gave up on my A8N-VM CSM pre-order 2 days before it finally shipped. The vendor I was going with has since raised the price on it $20. I'm only upset that I didn't go with the MSI board weeks earlier.

[danvines]

Looks like my mind is made up. The Gigabyte board is now showing as in-stock at ExcaliberPC.

[FusionRx]

Really wish someone would do a side by side review of this and the ASUS board.