HTPC for Family

I'm considering building a for my mum to put in the front room next to the HDTV she just bought. And I want to know if the onboard graphics solution to this mobo, will be powerfull enough to give me good quality HD playback

The parts in question are
Motherboard:ASUS P5N7A-VM LGA 775 NVIDIA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131348
TV Card Tuner : Hauppauge WinTV HVR 4000.

Im also considering running a Core 2 Duo E5200 to power it will it be enough/overkill? .

I've built my own rigs before but am new to HTPC's. Thanx for Help

In my previous HTPC builds, I have gone with AMD and found that it is better, and cheaper.

I would use something like an Athlon 7850, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103678 with something like this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128379

Good luck!

For an HTPC, ATI is the better way to go. If you go with onboard gpu then I recommend either the 780G or the 790GX chipsets and you will be guarenteed smooth HD playback.

ASRock makes excellent mobos. ASRock mobos are competitively priced, solid, stable, and offer a number of features for the price. I highly recommend ASRock for an HTPC build. The ASRock A790GMH/128M is a really nice mATX mobo just screaming to made into an HTPC.

Some may say otherwise, but avoid Intel onboard gpu's...

The GeForce 9300 is one of the IGP's that can support ful HD playback. The E5200 is a great CPU and will easily be enough for HD. If you find it lags its a great overclocker as well.

AMD has great boards for HTPC's as mentioned above. The 780G and 790GX chipset boards have the HD3200 and the HD3300 ATI IGP's which can support Blu-ray/HD DVD, and DXVA. If you do go AMD, and choose a AM2/AM2+ board I'd reccomend a CPU like a AMD Athlon x2 4850e or a 5050e. Both are 45nm and have a TDP of 45W, IIRC. It'll run cooler than the e5200.

AMD Athlon x2 4850e AM2 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103255

AMD Athlon x2 5050e AM2 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103298

Thank for the replies guys I guess i've got alot more to look at, after all the comments i'm now definately considering switching to an AMD based platform especially after seeing the price of the AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8GHz & AMD Athlon x2 4850e compared to the E5200 I was considering.

Also gunna look into some 780G and 790GX chipset boards. Will comeback with what I find.

Cheers