New build, maybe...

[setishock]

I'm looking for a mother board that has the Sound Blaster Cinema built in to it. Can be a gaming board if need be but will be used for a high end home theater set up.
Budget is $300.00usd max just for the board.

 

[PP Mguire]

High end home theater? Should just use an optical out. As an X-Fi owner for the past 10 years you don't want to get into the hassle that is Creative drivers. Also, most "gamer" motherboards with Creative chips use the lower end C-Media chipset. I only know of a couple that use their Core3D chip and one of them being the Extreme11 which still goes for a pretty penny.

 

[setishock]

Be cheaper to get a nice board then get the 3D sound card as an add on.

 

[PP Mguire]

You don't need a sound card if your AV has optical input. In the long haul it's cheaper to get a good sound card instead of spending more money on a board you'll have to upgrade later. Long as you get a PCI-E sound card or external USB device it'll be compatible with future boards.

Edit: Another option would be straight HDMI.

 

[setishock]

I could go the HDMI route. I'll entertain the idea. Any suggestions for a solid board?
I like things to last a while so I'm not always spending money. I drop a bundle one time and enjoy the results for years to come.

 

[PP Mguire]

Need more information, like what's the processor going in it?

Both HDMI and optical out give a straight digital signal to the AV, usually PCM. Any form of sound chip or audio setup on a card or board isn't going to make a difference to this signal. The only thing a sound card or upgraded onboard audio is good for is upgraded DACs and amps. Sometimes software enhancements are nice but they honestly aren't ever worth the trouble. The only reason I kept my X-Fi for so long is because I spent a ton of money on it and liked the DAC for my cans. Now for simplification and less nonsense running on my machine I just use HDMI out to my TV and then audio out to my headphone amp.

 

[setishock]

Well since a HTPC really doesn't need all that much horse power, let's go with 8 gigs of ram and a Intel i5. A 128 gig SSD. Don't need much there due to having a WD Mycloudmirror NAS box. Movies and music get streamed from there.

 

[PP Mguire]

Well we got a couple options.

You can go with this D3 board that has HDMI out but has DDR3 support so it's cheaper on the RAM.
ASUS Z170-P D3 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

Or you can go with this board that has optical out and HDMI out that also supports DDR4.
ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com


If you wanted a smaller form factor we could do mITX as well and parts would be cheaper with a Haswell based machine.

For an SSD, if you get a board with an M.2 slot.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147431

 

[setishock]

What do you think of this SSD for either primary or data storage secondary?

OCZ ARC 100 ARC100-25SAT3-480G 2.5" 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Newegg.com

 

[carnageX]

You can get a better Samsung 850 Evo 500gig for cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E500B-AM/dp/B00OBRE5UE