So, inspired by all the Linux HTPC talk on here over the last couple of days, and partly (OK, mostly) influenced by the fact that I was up on Tottenham Court Road this afternoon with Hugo, I accidentally slipped and bought a PVR-350 card.

I'm going to install it in my big Linux PC tomorrow, and was a little daunted by the size of the installation document.

That, however, isn't my problem. My problem is this: my Linux box is currently built around an Asus A7V motherboard, which uses a VIA chipset. Given the fact that this is supposed to be a bit dodgy, what kind of problems can I expect? Should I just get a new motherboard?

On that note, if I do get a new motherboard (he says having just disposed of an old PC case that would have been ideal), how much can I reuse? Having just dropped the cash on the encoder card, I can't really justify an entirely new PC.

So, I've currently got an A7V (the original one) with an Athlon T900 on it, and 1Gb of RAM. Do I need a new board, and if I do, what should I replace it with?

I'm not bothered about flash things like built-in RAID or stuff like that, just the basics.