First Intel mobo buying ever

[Krazy Owl]

Hi.

I have lot of spare parts at home and I just need a mobo with some specs i decded and it was the only one available.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813121389

Someone gave me a Q6600 Quad and 3 gigs of DDR2-800 kingston. I would like to buy this mobo for a htpc and since it has hdmi onboard it could save me from too much wires plugged on my tv.

Could it be a good choice for onboard and would it play some games well??

Thx

[option350z]

If I recall, the on board video is decent but overall games are a no go on the on board. Since it does have a PCI-E slot a GPU that is powerful enough will work but it is all dependent on what games you may be playing.

[CJCerny]

No for games and no for movies and sound. That IGP is too old for those tasks. You will need to purchase Radeon HD6450 or similar video card.

[Inceptor]

The IGP can handle movies, but at 1080p it will not be smooth playback; 720p would be smooth.
Games, well, nothing recent, as in nothing from the last 6-7 years, unless it's an indie title with lower minimum requirements.
(Many games, while they may support older gpus tend not to support Intel IGPs like the x3100, x4500, etc.)

[Batou1986]

WTF is all this nonsense about the Igp not being capable of playing HD video.
The CPU will be doing all the decoding, You only need a capable GPU if you have a crap CPU and need the GPU to do the work such as in an Intel atom based system.

Secondly the Intel GMA X4500 will play most games hell even dirt 3 runs 15-25fps so games a few years older like Mass Effect will probably run decent on low settings.

People on here should really check there facts instead of just miss informing others with there opinion

Grab the board save up for a GFX card when ur ready.

Portal 2 on GMA X4500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho42hLPaBQE
More Games on GMA X4500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aptIO...eature=related

[Krazy Owl]

Should play mostly BF2 multiplayer only. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhFhN...eature=related

[brandonwh64]

This shows a X4500 getting around 18-20 FPS in BF2

[CJCerny]

Okay, let's forget about the games thing and focus on using this motherboard in a HTPC. The biggest obstacle to using this motherboard in a HTPC is that it likely does not support audio on the HDMI output. You will need to investigate very closely. Older HDMI outputs were used just for video and that is likely the case here too. If it doesn't support audio on the HDMI, you will have to purchase a new low end video card that does and that would also solve the low framerates problem that you will have with the X4500.

Buying a used but working G31 or similar motherboard and spending another $30 to get a HD6450 will leave you much happier than trying to use the onboard sound and/or video of this chipset.

[Krazy Owl]

I have a pc audio plug on my tv. so a simple small wire 3.5mm will be fine.

[Inceptor]

Originally Posted by Batou1986

Portal 2 on GMA X4500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho42hLPaBQE
More Games on GMA X4500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aptIO...eature=related

1) Source engine games, on low settings (even worse).
The source engine is 7 years old, and some of the code used is even older than that.
The Orange box version of the engine is 2007, 5 years old.
2) Modern Warfare, 2007. 5 years old. The engine is the same as what was used in CoD2 released in 2005. The IW 3.0 engine is based on the Id tech 3 license (1999), basically a modified version of the Quake III engine...

So I was off by a year or two, they're still not recent tech. Those games are meat hanging on old bones, bones that haven't seen many substantive technological improvements.
And even if it is possible to run something more recent, 15-25 fps is not something to be happy about; that's unplayable and annoying, even in single player mode.
Hence, the playing of Indie games with similar or lower 'engine tech levels', of which there are a plethora to choose from.

So, if you're happy with that, go for it, at least it'll be interesting to mess around with.

[CJCerny]

Originally Posted by Krazy Owl

I have a pc audio plug on my tv. so a simple small wire 3.5mm will be fine.

You will not be able to see the video sent to the HDMI input on your TV at the same time you are listening to the audio sent to the 3.5mm jack. The audio sent to the 3.5mm jack is probably only played when the TV is switched to the PC input, which is a usually a VGA jack, and it is unlikely that your TV will accept a 1080p input from that VGA input.

[Krazy Owl]

The tv accept really high def from the vga input...except the onboard vga i had tested with sucks at the speed of watching movies at this resolution.