Affordable HTPC CPU/MOBO

[Stuey]

I have upgraded my systems so much that I can justify building a dedicated HTPC.

I already have a 350W Antec PSU, an extra gig of ram (4*256 PC3200) and a spare AGP video card.

I was considering getting a Celeron D with an Asus P4p800SE (or An E-Deluxe). But then I started considering a Sempron to take advantage of the higher bus speed.

THEN I saw that there was an Athlon 64 (3000+ socket 754) for around $115 or so. I cannot go to socket 939 because of my desire to use my agp card and 20 pin PSU. I don't want to go to a Prescott socket 478 because of the heat it would produce in a HTPC case. BUT I recently found a 2.6 Northwood P4 for $115. I suppose I could pair this with the Asus P4P800SE (or is the Deluxe worth it for the Realtek audio chipset?

Back to the point... should I go with the northwood, or the athlon? The northwood = benefit of dual channel support, the athlon = higher clock performance but limited to nforce3 chipsets (no dual channel support and would have 3 slots =768 ram instead of 1024).

Assuming everyone recommends a Northwood, is the Asus a good choice of motherboard or should I go for this Gigabyte?

[MaxRat]

In this case I would opt for the northwood....being a AMD fan myself the NF3 has limitations.....Most of them don't like all three slots filled with ram...The 754 utilize a single channel memory controller and it taxes it pretty good to run 2 sticks...adding the 3rd only hinders it even more....

If you search here you will see the people running 2x's 1gig or 3 sticks have had problems.... this is where the dual channel really shines....one channel for each pair of memory instead of one channel for all....

so with putting together a system with what you have id' opt for the intel solution....

[glc]

If that Northwood is confirmed 800 FSB (2.6C), definitely go that way (there were 400 FSB 2.6's too - and 533 FSB 2.66's). The P4P800-E Deluxe is a heck of a board if you need all those features. Otherwise, the SE model or even the VM are both good boards. If the onboard sound doesn't do what you need, you can always add a card later.

I build exclusively Intel, and won't use anything but Asus or Intel motherboards. I'm fussy.

[Stuey]

I really should wait a little longer before ordering any components, but with the Northwoods so scarce, I'm afraid of them disappearing entirely.

I placed the order with a retailer I haven't used before (ewiz.com). They have decent merchant reviews but some unresolved BBB complaints.

Thanks for the suggestions!