jklmpqo Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 What would be the most compatible/best mATX board to run osx on for a media center? The G45 boards have a great chipset but have serious compatibility issues with osx right now, no the least of which being zero support for the 4500hd gfx chips thus at least requiring dedicated video card (and thus ruling out Gigabyte as they dont have a real 16 lane PCIe on thier g45 boards). Of the P45 DFI "Lan Party," it seems it works ok, but still has some annoinces (lack of sleep functionality et al). The G35/G31s seem to have much better support/compatablity but are, of course, last generation technology and would still require dedicated a video card for 1080p playback. What are your thoughts as to the best C2D mATX board for osx (for primary use as a quiet media center)? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135893-best-matx-board/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenameisgabe Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Well, right now I'm rockin a dfi lanparty jr p45-t2rs, which works fine for my purposes (like videogames and need a small system) Up until last month I had an asus p5b-vm which is a solid compatible board but it is an older model. The onboard video on that board isnt supported as far as I know, but it does work well if you're on a budget (it also has 4 dimm slots, which is great). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135893-best-matx-board/#findComment-962963 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synaesthesia Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 The video decode acceleration features of graphics cards are not available in Mac OS. Luckily, a C2D can decode 1080P in software, no problem. But you still need a gfx card, for QE/CI. The only motherboard which doesn't need a dedicated gfx card is the 945 chipset with GMA 950 graphics. A good choice is a 945 Chipset motherboard, or a G31 or P35 or P45 or whatever chipset motherboard, that's listed as compatible, and a silent graphics card that's compatible, of your choice. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135893-best-matx-board/#findComment-963054 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jklmpqo Posted November 12, 2008 Author Share Posted November 12, 2008 so i think im going to go with the dfi mini lanparty (only matx p45 w/o integrated gfx) and a e8400 (or an e5200 depending on the easy of oc with that board and osx) 3GHz C2D should take case of plex/boxee/xbmc 1080p nicely. how powerful gfx would you suggest for this type of machine? im guessing 9600 8800gt 9800gt are all overkill but how far down can I go? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135893-best-matx-board/#findComment-963586 Share on other sites More sharing options...
m16 Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 My motherboard is really cheap, however it doesn't do S3 sleep, only S1. It also has GMA950 (but in kalyway 10.5.1 artifacts) but i use a radeon 2600XT which is plenty for OSX86. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135893-best-matx-board/#findComment-963871 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synaesthesia Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 how powerful gfx would you suggest for this type of machine? Something like a geforce 7300 256mb or Radeon 2600 will work nicely. Unless you just wanna play games. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/135893-best-matx-board/#findComment-964272 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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