The only reason I'd buy one of these things would be to shove in a small case with a BluRay drive as a HTPC. Does the HDMI output do all the HDCP rubbish you need to deliver the full 1080p to a display properly under Vista? And how is the onboard audio, now I think of it? That's usually the biggest problem for these tiny 'do everything' boards.

I think that PCs need the Eee treatment, simpler, more matched to the task. All I want from my PC is to edit a few documents, surf the net, play some music and videos and send a few emails, so a basic 2D graphics card is all that's needed.

Yet if I buy Vista, I get the 3D effects which needs a graphics card, which has complex Direct X10 support and shaders, and big fans whirring to cool it down, and masses of ram and a big hard disc..... and even after that, I find it doesn't even render rectangles in hardware despite all of that technology! a backwards step from Amiga OS circa 1986! My 2D business documents are drawn in software!

A Vista home PC is sooooo far away from what I want, DRM'd up the wazoo, phones home regularly to check it's valid, and it's like having a Microsoft salesman in my face doing hard sell all the time, go visit MSN, go use Microsoft search...

I wonder if Asus EeePC should also be a normal desktop model to plug into a LCD, something simple and straightforward that does what it does, no complexity or fuss, just a working PC, cheap and clean.

Less of this all-things-to-all-men that Vista tries to be.

without full hdcp it is useless for br of hd-dvd

would be a cpu killer anyhow, while i can see the fun in having crysis at 4fps, it might have been more usefull to check if it is any use for decoding h264 and/or vc1

i doubt it.

Yes the HDMI output supports HDCP and the audio is OK but I'm horribly aware that is a subjective answer so if you want me to give a more definitive answer in future reviews I could use some help:

Has anyone built a Media Centre PC with Blu-ray or HD-DVD drives or is it on the 'would be nice to do' list?

If you do watch HD movies from your PC what sort of display do you use - big TFT or a TV?

Is HDCP a major factor or something to bear in mind for the day that DRM hits hard?

what sort of audio set-up do you connect to your PC for movies and what is the preferred connection?

How slow is the CPU in your Media Centre PC? I assume you want near-silent cooling so is a UVD essential or just handy?

Sadly, HDCP is already needed if you're going to play HD-DVD or BluRay on a digital output. The DRM that ruins your analogue VGA output hasn't hit yet, but it's there already on digital.

I've not done it yet, but a look at the specs for Power DVD Ultra looks like a T2500 or better would do it. As for audio, an optical output is ok, but really you want to go analogue outs in order to use Dolby TrueHD or PCM lossless.

I suspect the answer on the HDMI is probably to buy a 'proper' graphics card so you know the H.264 acceleration is up to snuff.

It's a shame that reviews like this concentrate on gaming when nobody will use it for that.

It's a common misconception that you need a powerful graphics card for a media centre/HTPC - the current generation of IGPs like the nVidia 6150 can handle 1080i with no problems and with a low CPU load because they have hardware acceleration built in. You don't need shaders etc. for this - it's not a 3D application.

Asus's tag for this board is 'Enjoy Full HD 1080p Multimedia Home-Theater Entertainment' with no mention of CPU because I assume the G35 chipset does all the work. It would be nice to have that confirmed in a review (you can download 1080p samples - you don't need a Blu-ray drive for that).

I have one of these on order but I have no plans ATM for Blu-ray etc. The HDCP is good for future proofing.

Are there any Linux display drivers for this board? It would make an excellent little MythTV client box if it does.

Andy M

Hi

Yes I'm thinking of building an HTPC to replace my clunky Packard Bell HDD recorder sat under my telly.

I haven't obviously built it yet, but I'd aim for Blu-Ray support, obviously complete with HDCP support - need to learn more about how to get XP or Vista Media Centre working fine with HDCP content.

I would most certainly only build my unit for use with an HD telly, it being a lounge thing. It must fully support 1080p decoding and be quick about it - which is why I'd aim for the HDMI connector like this mobo has (see below though).

Audio wise, I'm not sure, I've never been a big fan of trailing loads of cables all over the place just for 5.1 surround. Its not that important to me. Would be nice tho but all the cables wud make me think I'm in something out of a HR Giger drawing.

I would want a certain amount of grunt out of its CPU, but a unified video decoder would be an obvious advantage even if the CPU could do 1080p decoding itself.

I would not aim for a celeron or a low voltage mobile type CPU, rather a fast CPU with a decent cooling solution, I'd then put the HTPC in a cabinet of some description for noise control.

The point of the good CPU is for decent games like Crysis, and so a mobo like this review would not be what I aim for. If anything I would aim for a non-HDMI motherboard, with a decent gfx card with an HDMI connector.

But it would have to run relatively silently for the living room.

I don't ask much do I! ;-)

The way I see it, if I'm shelling out for a system to watch TV on, I might as well make it a decent gaming platform too - but maybe not up in the Nvidia 8800 ranks though cos it'll run too noisy.

.

I too agree that it was totally pointless of Intel to make it a DX10 chipset. Were they honestly expecting people to ooh and aah over the X3500? Its a joke.

Its like trying to streamline an elephant with go faster stripes and aerodynamics!

Intel should get their chipsets average frames per second up there before even contemplating DX10 support.

Anyone advise which standard of HDMI is adopted on this mobo. The latest spec is v1.3, which includes Deep Color, Lip Sync and Dolby TrueHD sound.....which reminds me - does this board output 7.1 sound via the HDMI?

HDMI is 1.2, and passes 7.1 channel 24 bit LPCM audio at up to 96kHz if fed it by software. The path from the G35 to the HDMI audio is not "protected", so some software solutions like PowerDVD Ultra will downconvert to 16 bit 48kHz (like it does with analog right now).

G35 does full decode of MPEG2 in XP, but is handicapped by a bug in Vista which will keep full decode away until Vista SP1. It does motion-compensation and in-loop filtering on VC-1, but not the full decode, and provides no acceleration of H,264 (the CPU has to do the whole thing).

Supports HDCP and Blu-ray/HD DVD (Vista Only).

@Andrew Meredith: According to www.intellinuxgraphics.org/documentation.html the G35 chipset is supported