sbiddle: Depends entirely what you're wanting to do. If it's primarily video playback then CPU performance makes very little difference as the GPU's support hardware acceleration which does all the hard work.

On the other hand there are still ongoing issues with hardware acceleration of H.264 content with ATI hardware, and issue that's been ongoing ever since H.264 broadcasts began. I actually spent close to en entire day the other day testing a number of ATI onboard cards and various codecs trying to get perfect playback of Freeview|HD H.264 content, with the goal of getting an M1 motherboard myself for my PVR if I could get satisfactory results. At the day nothing I did would deliver performance as good as a cheap as an old nVidia 8400.

Gilco2: Hey did you go ahead with one of these

It doesn't matter what app or codec you use - picture breakup of H.264 content has been, and still is an ongoing issue with ATI hardware when you use hardware acceleration.

JonnyCam: Yeah, I don't get the tearing, but every so often there is bit of pixelation, and then the picture half-freezes / moves back & forwards. I thought it was my dodgy freeview reception, it's not a lot of the time, but still there.

This is an old P4 NPVR client in the bedroom with an AGP HD2600, so it's not a critical issue, the Nvidia 9400 silent works fine on the main HTPC.

I was looking at one of these fusion boards to replace, but would an ION be a better idea?