[cappiel]

My Asrock Z68m-ITX board died last night. Did all the tests (paper clip etc) and nothing brought it back to life.

I have the intel i3 chip, whats a good replacement these days? this htpc is my mythtv backend and xbmc frontend. Just need the HDMI out for 1080p.

Local microcenter has

Gigabtye H61N and Asrock H77M at decent prices. any thoughts?

[Dougie Fresh]

Which i3 do you have?

I have had very good luck with both of those. I would buy based on the features you need (4x vs. 2x SATA, USB3 header vs. not, CIR header vs. not, etc.). I've also had a few of those Gigabyte boards be very finicky with power supplies which shows up as a reboot loop on cold start.

Shop around a bit for those boards -- I've seen better deals on occasion on the 'net especially if you have state tax -- unless you're buying an i3-3225 or i5-3570K with it you don't get the $50 off.

[cappiel]

Thanks Dougie. I have the i3 2100.

Agreed, was leaning towards the AsRock due to some of the features. I'll shop around online. PA tax would bring the asrock one up to the same price as newegg. plus some gas mileage at 3.60 whatever a gallon ha

[Dougie Fresh]

Amazon has better prices right now that Newegg with the free shipping:

H77M-ITX $99.99
http://www.amazon.com/LGA1155-Intel-USB3...B007RQ0LQI

Also:

B75M-ITX $89.99
http://www.amazon.com/ASRock-DDR3-1333-I...007RQ0HKS/