http://www.ZipZoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008674

Been waiting on this for a while. Got tired of waiting so I bought an Asus Radeon 3650 but it resulted in suspend problems (using as a HTPC). Hopefully,this motherboard will complete my perfect HTPC project.

I had been looking at this too. This would be for a pseudo-HDPC because most HDPC folks want micro-ATX. This board is full-size ATX.
Because I want a full-size (not micro) ATX and the latest nVidia integrated, this has left me with two choices:
1. The ASUS M3N78 Pro Linked (by the way, this is the best price I have seen for this board--it was available on Buy.com for about $112 (FS), but sold out.)
2. The Biostar 8200 series Newegg linkfor $98 shipped.

I am still torn between the two.

The Biostar might still be the better buy:
1. The 8300 has been unofficially cited as potentially having heat issues. I am not sure if this is true of this "pro" production board.
2. The Biostar it a bit older, but has parallel port headers (hey, a laser printer can be a lifetime purchase). (Both have serial headers as well as floppy drive support.)
3. The board has been on the market for a few months. It is usually wise to let the early adopters find all of the BIOS issues.

ASUS positives:
1. Has better audio support if you want the latest 8-channel HD audio standards.
2. Has a faster video chipset and has a slightly newer version of the MCP nVidia motherboard standard (though the standard is essentially the same).
3. Will support the latest high-wattage Phenoms.
4. Because it is ASUS, it will likely be fine with the early BIOS that comes with it, but one can never be too sure of this.

The biggest problem is that no reviews exist for the ASUS. I would love to know more about it, but I cannot find any reviews!

SliverOfFear said:I've had a passive interest in building an HTPC ... so I'm curious what gives this, or the Biostar, an edge? I figured I'd just buy a cheap PCI card for the output, is the integrated video supposed to be better in this respect?

the integrated video is capable of bluray playback

SliverOfFear said:I've had a passive interest in building an HTPC ... so I'm curious what gives this, or the Biostar, an edge? I figured I'd just buy a cheap PCI card for the output, is the integrated video supposed to be better in this respect?

There are a lot of great motherboards out there that are micro-ATX (and that have fewer features because of it).
These make far better candidates for display in the living room than a big ol' ATX case does. I have an unused ATX case and like expandability/have a good place to hide the case. Therefore, ATX makes sense to me. My neighbor just made a micro-ATX machine that sits on a glass shelf under his big-screen LCD TV. He does little fiddling inside the case. An ATX would have been a poor choice for him.

Just decide what you want to use it for before deciding on a form factor. Also, decide how important the video and audio output specs are to you. The integrated video on the 8200 and 8300 is supposedly fantastic, as it is for the AMD 790 chipset. There are a lot of great options right now. PCI (not PCI-E) for HD video may not be possible...I am not sure how this would work. PCI video cards have not been standard for years. Any of the platforms above (8200 and 8300, or AMD 790) would be fine though.

8300 is hybrid power enabled from what I've seen. Combine this with a 9800 GTX and you have a perfect HTPC/hardcore gaming system.