HTPC Motherboard recomendation?

[solomanii]

Guys,
Recently my HTPC motherboard (a GA-7VM400MF) just fell over dead. I need to replace it but this model I can't seem to find in Australia anymore (out of production perhaps?).

So any recommendations on a new motherboard? It needs to be a micro-ATX, preferably with dual-bios or some other bios backup and have firewire support. Also AMD socket A. The closest thing I can find is the 7VM400M-RZ but it has no firewire or SATA. Does not have to be a gigabyte board it just the company I am most familiar with.

Would love for it to have onboard s-video or equivalent. But that’s totally optional since I have never seen a motherboard with that kind of interface.

Thanks in advance.

 

[EntityAnomly]

I don't know that you're going to find a motherboard that has all that anymore. Socket A motherboards are phasing out. This is the closest thing I could find. It's microATX and has SATA, but no firewire:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130473

You might want to look at upgrading your processor to a cheap Athlon 64 so you can get a socket 754 motherboard.

 

[EntityAnomly]

If you'd consider a processor upgrade, and depending on what type of RAM you have maybe a RAM upgrade this board looks awesome for a HTPC.

MSI Motherboard
RS480M2-IL

microATX - Socket 939 - 4xSATA - 2xFireWire(one port on back) - Onboard Video w/S-video & Composite Vid Out

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RS480M2-IL&class=mb

I can't find it for sale yet, but I think it just came out. You could get an Athlon 64 3200+ processor for about $160 that would work with it.

 

[solomanii]

No wonder I am having so much trouble trying to find a replacement. I didnt realise that both the motherboard and cpu are EOL.

Thanks guys.

 

[solomanii]

All fixed up. Wanted to spend as little as possible so I just got a 7vm400AM-RZ motherboard. Now I got it working again I want to find a good hardware monitoring tool for the heat. Something that can display the current temp as well as shut the PC down if it gets too hot.

I tried mdm5 but it doesnt seem to support my specific motherboard. Only supports upto 7vm400m not the RZ series. So any suggestions?

Thanks.