[mcowher]

I'm trying to decide on a motherboard containing either the G45 or G43 chipset, but I'm wondering if the extra features of the G45 (hardware acceleration for VC1 and AVC decoding) will be useful in XBMC for Linux?

Here's a chart comparing the two:


Here's a link to an article comparing the two chipsets:

Intel G45 & G43 Chipset Details

The two motherboards I'm considering:
ECS G45T-M2 ($99)

ECS G43T-M ($79)

[topfs2]

No hw accelleration on any board in linux sorry to say.
G45 drivers are still not very mature in linux neither, they are starting to get better (I have a G45) and I think they will get better.

[mcowher]

So I guess it doesn't make sense to pay another $20 for something that'll never get used anyway?

[succo]

well,it's not like it will NEVER be used... as you can see somewhere else, harware acceleration is starting to come to nvidia boards and we have patches for ffmpeg... it's like it's hard to say when and if it will come to intel drivers and when and if xbmc ffmpeg will be patched to use this acceleration... in 3 words, never say never (and topfs2 didn't say 'never' himself)

[mcowher]

well,it's not like it will NEVER be used...

Good point...I'm kind of leaning towards that G43 board anyway though, because it has a built-in HDMI port, whereas the G45 board only had DVI.

[Kazuka]

If I understood Topfs2 correctly in a previous post about the newer Intel chipsets, you'd want to wait on XBMC Live that will be based on Ubuntu Mobile 9.04, which should work with the G45 chipset out of the box, right?

I'm waiting for that and will stick to Vista MCE in the meanwhile with my Aopen MiniPC based on this G45 chipset.

[gbyte]

Both G43 and G45 boards have HDMI port. I'm using G45 board from Intel on Ubuntu Intrepid and it's rock solid out of the box. I read in somewhere that G43 support in linux is even worse on stability. I suggest you check this with google

Just a note on Intel boards - for working sound I had to build ALSA 1.0.18 to get anything...maybe it wasn't needed tho as it turned out to be buggy mixer, after few mute/unmute, up/down it finally worked.

[mcowher]

Both G43 and G45 boards have HDMI port

I was actually referring to the ECS G45 board I'm looking at. That particular one only has DVI. I know I can convert with a dongle or cable, but I'd rather have on-board HDMI.

[mcowher]

Well NewEgg just listed a MSI G45 motherboard today, so I think I'm switching to that...The G43 is making me nervous the more I read about Ubuntu support for it.

[gbyte]

Onboard HDMI is also preferred over dongle, because you can also get audio over HDMI if you need it later.

[mcowher]

Well I put a MSI G45 motherboard on my christmas list, and it's too late to change it to an NVidia-based system.

I'm wondering if I'll need to go with a Windows-based XBMC setup until the Ubuntu drivers for the G45 are more mature and then go with XBMC for Linux?