I'm currently looking to upgrade my htpc/fileserver combo.
A new motherboard has the following requirements:
- SATA must support port multiplication. Unfortunately this excludes any motherboard with an ICH7 chipset, such as the Gigabyte G31M-E2SL (a real pity, i really like this board). Also, the more sata ports, the better.
- low power
- S/PDIF or optical output
- onboard gpu which support hardware HD playback is definitly a bonus, but not a requirement. I still have a passive Radeon 4670 which i could use for that (fairly decent idle power consumption). Still, it would save on power consumption.
- Gigabit LAN (something like realtek, no ahteros)
- AMD or Intel doesn't matter
- undervolting support

I've already found:
- Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2. Fairly popular on it on this forum it seems. Low power, but requires purchasing a separate cable for S/PDIF. Unofficially supports port multipliers. Unfortunately, recent revesions only have 4 sata ports instead of 6. I will need my Radeon 4670 for this one to play HD.
- Gigabyte GA-M85M-US2H. Geforce 8200 chipset with six sata ports, but i can't find wheter or not it supports port multipliers. It does support AHCI, so maybe. Onboard gpu may be able to do HD playback? Unknown power consumption of the board?

Any thoughts are much appreciated!

Update: i ordered the Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H, thanks to greenfrank's helpfull thread.