I have an irrational bias against Intel, and an old but great receiver with spdif and DTS, but no HDMI input. I want a HTPC, media/file server, general handle all 24/7 duties, optional very light gaming with mostly older games (this part isn't working out well at all so may skip due to old games not W7/64 happy). One PCI slot required for old Svideo out card, tuners likely to be two networked Silicondust, a dual clear, and prime cablecard 3 tuner.

First attempt BioStar 760G M2+, worked, but video failed, rma board not installed yet.

Second attempt MSI 880GM-P51, faster, lower power, no driver for DDL or DTS, 2 channel spdif only.

Third attempt, here I am.
I could just put the BioStar back in, but I am not opposed to buying a new motherboard if I can improve the power use, speed, and get the spdif encoded sound working. I'm even considering adding a DDL sound card to the MSI, but it irks me to have the VT1828S sound chip and be locked out over MSI not paying the license fee so I can use it. Question for another forum, but I would consider going to some Linux flavor to get the MSI encoded spdif working.

Thanks