Hi guys, I been experimenting with Windows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium more specifically with the media center aspect of the operating system which seems to be much improved over Windows XP MCE2005. Anyways due to this I want to build another Media Center and after my first atempt at a doing this I want to confirm that my specification is powerful enough anyways have a quick look here: AMD Athlon X2 5600+ (2x1MB Cache 2.8Ghz) 2GB Kingston Dual Channel DDR2 667MHZ PC5300 1TB SATA2/300 Seagate 16MB Cache (2x500GB RAID) Optiarc 18X DVD +/- RW/RAM Drive MSI K9AGM2-FIH 690G/SB600 Motherboard W/HDMI Hauppauge WINTV HVR-1300 Hybrid TV Tuner Soundblaster X-FI Xtreme Audio Soundcard Creative T6100 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers Anyways I Want To Use This With My Humax 40'' Plasma TV Plugging The Media Center In Via HDMI and Running at 720p or 1080i and using my surround sound I also want to connect my SKY Digital STB to the composite Video in and Audio in using the HVR1300. Will this do? will the onboard graphics be strong enough to decode HD at 720p or 1080i or will i be better with the DVI connector on a new 8600GTS or something similar?? Thanks In Advanced. My Systems: iDEQ 200T, P4 3.4Ghz,1GB DDR400 Dual Channel,160GB SATA,19'' W/S LCD Monitor, IBM Thinkpad R52 What a Machine IBM/Lenovo Rule, Acer Travelmate 2305LCI

Is the soundcard necessary? From a review of your motherboard: "What’s great about having HDMI and audio on an integrated chipset such as this is that it can carry the audio from the sound chip without any external cables, as opposed to machines with discrete sound cards. It all helps make a simpler, tidier system that’s easier to set up. The audio in question is a Realtek ALC888 offering 8-channel sound via six mini-jack sensing connectors." http://www.trustedreviews.com/mothe... I suggest getting DDR2-800 rather than the DDR2-667. There should be little of no price difference.

yea but the dedicated audio is for the 5.1 creative T6100 which will definately sound better though the soundblaster xtreme audio which they where designed to be used with My Systems: iDEQ 200T, P4 3.4Ghz,1GB DDR400 Dual Channel,160GB SATA,19'' W/S LCD Monitor, IBM Thinkpad R52 What a Machine IBM/Lenovo Rule, Acer Travelmate 2305LCI