Media centre graphics card recommendation

Looking for a graphics card to go in a media centre PC. Although it'll mainly be used for movies and music I would like to do some gaming, and I'm trying to find a balance between low noise and performance (the TV is 1080p so it needs to be capable of handling 1920x1080 resolution). I figure an 8800GT should be a good option...does anyone have experience of the MSI 8800GT Zilent or Sparkle 8800GT Cool Pipe? The Sparkle would be great because it's totally silent, but I'm worried about the heat in an SFF case.

A Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT "Ultimate Edition" 512MB would do the job. low power use on idle, uvd for hd decode offloading, cheap, and fast enough to handle modern games decently.

How does the 3870 compare to the 8800GT?

I'd second the ultimate edition if thats the passive one on ocuk :)

Very similar gaming performance between the two but ATi's are generally considered better for media given that they can take audio over their HDMI.

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Originally Posted by staffsMike

given that they can take audio over their HDMI.

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Really? How does that work, do you link the graphics card to the soundcard?

Yeah a cable from the graphics card goes to either the soundcard (if it has the correct header) or the motherboard's HD audio header :)

Sold!

just thought id actually try using hdmi audio on my 3850 as it was mentioned here.

no pass through cable, or other sound card integrated or discrete required. the card has a realtec audio chip of some sort built into it :D shows up in control panel as "ATI HDMI Audio"

Yeah, but it's handy in the case of a discrete sound card.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MadduckUK

just thought id actually try using hdmi audio on my 3850 as it was mentioned here.

no pass through cable, or other sound card integrated or discrete required. the card has a realtec audio chip of some sort built into it :D shows up in control panel as "ATI HDMI Audio"

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ooo thats even better :D

Thanks for that Madduk :)

This Ultimate Edition isn't going to work out. The enormous heatsink on the back (which OC UK do not show a picture of) clashes against the case, the system won't start when the side panels are on. It gets really, really hot. Gonna get a normal 3870 XT with a decent cooler and see how that does.