[widescreen]

Hi everyone,

I'll be building a new system soon, and I can't quite figure which motherboard to pick. Here are the constraints :

- It will be a fully dedicated HTPC - no games - so I don't need much CPU power as long as it plays 1080p smoothly.
- will run XBMC over Ubuntu or XBMC live. Therefore HW acceleration must be Linux compliant. Ion seems the way to go (VDPAU) as I understand the new Sandy Bridge HD Graphics won't benefit from HW acceleration under Linux. What about ATI IGPs ? Does Ion 2 provide any imporvement over the old Ion ?
- mini ITX or micro ATX form factor
- HDMI+VGA output (my current TV only has VGA, next one will have HDMI for sure)
- Price is not an issue

Many thanks in advance.

[cowfodder]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813500037 That's the board I've had for over a year now. No problems at all, OC'd to 2.01ghz with no issue (I've had it as high as 2.6, but lost a lot of stability.) No VGA, but comes with a DVI to VGA adapter. Not sure how well that works under linux though.

[widescreen]

Thanks. Looks nice.
It seems like I will need to stick to Ion 1 if I want VGA. Ion 2 MBs have only HDMI.
Will I miss much ?
Anyone heard of a ion 2 MB with VGA ?