I bought this motherboard, a Pentium E6500 processor, 4GB of Corsair DDR2 800Mhz memory and a Lite-On Blu-Ray drive with the intention of saving some bucks and using the built sound and video for a Windows 7 HTPC. Once I had all the current drivers loaded, it worked as advertised: DVDs and Blu-ray disks played back without a hitch; DTS and Dolby Digital content went out over the HDMI 1.3 connection with no problems, and the built-in graphics were adequate for standard computing tasks.
And that's the problem with this motherboard: it's integrated graphics are up to the task of displaying 1080p video, but only adequate for most computer applications, and almost useless for even light gaming. In addition, the onboard sound does not support bitstreaming, which is required to support the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA audio tracks used on Blu-ray discs. Both of these problems were easily resolved by adding an ATI Raedon HD5570 card to my system, which increased my Windows 7 graphics score from 4.3 to 6.8 and added support for the missing audio formats. Unfortunately, it increased the cost of my "budget HTPC" build by $85 as well.
With this in mind, if you're looking to build a HTPC on a budget, and can live with two less memory expansion slots, I'd recommend using the E6500 processor and the HD5570 with an Intel G41-based motherboard such as the Foxconn G41MXE or the Biostar G41M7. Either combination will save you about $50 and give you similar results to what I have, which has proven more than adequate. Invest the money you saved in a really cool HTPC case like the the Silverstone GD04, or just pocket the spare change... either way you come out ahead.Get more detail about Intel DG45ID Media Series G45 micro-ATX Intel Graphics HDMI+DVI 1333MHz LGA775 Desktop Motherboard.
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