A Home Theater Personal Computer, or HTPC, is a system built to stream media to a large television or projector as part of a home theater setup. While you can use a wide range of different motherboards for this type of rig, in general you want a board that is ideal for handling a lot of media and keeping your system running cool and quiet. Look for a motherboard with at least one good video card slot, to keep your video media playing fast and smooth. You’ll also want a ton of storage, so that you can keep as many media files as you want on your system, and options for enough RAM to keep your system running smoothly.
These HTPC motherboards can run a maximum of at least 32GB of RAM, which is more than enough for a home theater setup, though some can handle even more. They have at least one really good slot for a video card, which is sufficient for a serious media player, but if you plan on using your HTPC for gaming, then you may want to look for a board that can handle more than one video card. These boards give you at least six slots for SATA connections, which lets you have a ton of storage in your computer. Both Intel and AMD motherboards can work great for an HTPC, and these boards use chips with relatively low power requirements, which help keep your system cool without creating a lot of noise. Check out our list of the best HTPC motherboards in 2022.