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I sold the HTPC I just built in December and need to build another one. The last on was mostly free parts (AMD XP2400) so as you can tell, my budget is VERY restricted.

I would like to do this fairly soon.

Since the Sempron 3000 is $59 (CDN), I was thinking of going that route.

Is there anyone who uses a Sempron for this?

The tasks would be:
- Watch DVD's
- Play music
- transfer video from VHS to HDD (DVD) - only about 10 VHS tapes.
- e-mail
- internet.

I have the wireless PCI card already.

I am also putting 1GB of memory, a 160GB HDD (SATA), DVD-RW.

I have the DVI-HDMI cable, audio cable, KB & Mouse, Video encoder (Win2000XP by Leadtek), OS.

This is going into a Minuet 300 case.

Any recommendations on an AM@ board as well? Maybe one with a DVI port already? How is this as an option?

THX.

I'm not sure how much more hardware is up there but that same board is on Newegg for $40US. The same processor and board combo is $85US. Definitely not worth that price for an ECS board no less.

Why invest in dead tech to begin with? The processor may be cheap (compared to $42US on Newegg) but that board is way overpriced for what it is worth.

Edit: Sorry, I apologize. I didn't realize at first glance that it was a combo. That's still expensive. Comparing the differences with other prices on their site it appears that they are $10 more than Newegg after converting to US$. That $129 is still way to expensive for what you get. If you don't already have the RAM you'd be better off investing in AM2 if you're dead set on going with AMD.

I have a sempron64 2800 that I use with a biostar tforce6100. That is my main machine and it is plenty capable for me. I use it for everything you are planning on doing with it, and I don't have a single complaint. Those semprons run cool, a feature that will come in handy in a minuet.

I use a Sempron 64 in mine, seems to work well, pretty slow on the transcodes, but its handles everything just fine.

This mobo is a bit more in terms of cost, but very nice & has DVI:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813127013

Think I'll have to get one, too...

That Abit looks like a great little board. If buy it if going AM2.

I built HTPC around a AMD Sempron 3000+ Socket 754 & an Aopen XC Cube EX761. Slapped in a WinTV-350-PVR a spare 250GB SATA, 512MB RAM... all hand-me-downs from other systems and it works a treat. Thinking about sticking in a new GFX card, one that supports HDMI output, but I still need to get a 1080p HDTV first.

Anyone know if there is something special about the nVidia Quadro chipset? This board is $15 cheaper than the Abit board up here.

I still have a mind to get the MSI K9VGM-V.

The Quadro line of video cards is optimized for workstation use, i.e. CAD and 3D design, as are the drivers. It appears that this board is probably designed as an entry level workstation capable of still doing basic CAD tasks.

While it would probably work ok for an HTPC I'm not sure if nVidia's PureVideo is designed to work with that integrated chipset. It might not function as well as a non-Quadro optimized chip.

Is that the only Canadian online reseller that you know? They have a pretty limited selection of parts. Particularly motherboards. There is an Asrock board, the ALiveNF6G-DVI, that looks to be ok. It uses a little daughter board in the x16 PCIe slot to give you a DVI port. It's running for $67US on Newegg. If you can find it at a Canadian dealer it's probably worth looking into.

Taddeusz wrote:

Is that the only Canadian online reseller that you know? They have a pretty limited selection of parts. Particularly motherboards. There is an Asrock board, the ALiveNF6G-DVI, that looks to be ok. It uses a little daughter board in the x16 PCIe slot to give you a DVI port. It's running for $67US on Newegg. If you can find it at a Canadian dealer it's probably worth looking into.

I know quite a few online retailers in Canada. I can usually find what I want using http://www.pricenetwork.ca or going to NCIX or DirectCanada to see if a product is in the country at least.

The problem is Canada doesn't get many of the products the U.S. will - or will be a while before we get any. Case in-point, the AM2 Opterons are no where to be found up here - but Newegg and ZipZoomFly has them in stock.

The AsRock board is appealing, but I can't find it anywhere online. That;s why I have to ask about the products I can get my hands on