[mythtv-users] Motherboard Recomendation

[Andrew Close]

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:48:55 -0700, Mark Gardner <markgard at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've skimmed the archives and havnt' found an answer to my liking...
> so here's the question
> 
> I'm planning on building a myth Frontend/Backend box with some
> hardware i have around
> AMD 1200 Duron (could be Athlon if I need the power)
> PVR 350
> 512 DDR
> Will build either on SUSE 9.3 ( I work for novell ) or Fedora Core
> 
> What i'm looking for is a motherboard that won't break the bank, but
> just works.  I had one with a VIA chipset that had a bunch of DMA
> errors :( But have had many good reports with nForce chipsets.
> Preferably the onboard sound should work....
> Onboard video a plus but not required...

Mark,

i've had good success with the Chaintech 7NIF2 motherboard and Myth
(KnoppMyth R5A12).  i have an Athlon XP +2700, which is socket A.  i'm
not sure what the Duron is...
it has onboard svideo, vga, audio, lan and the nforce2 chipset.  my
only complaint is that i thought it had SPDIF connectors onboard (it
appears to) but i couldn't find an adaptor to allow for passthrough. 
i finally contacted Chaintech and asked about it and they said: "7NIF2
S/PDIF feature is for manufacture option, so that board you have is
not support S/PDIF feature.".  so you might want to look at the 7NIF4
which i believe is the replacement board for the 7NIF2. 
http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/eng/

this board is a micro-ATX and only has three PCI slots + AGP.  if you
want the SP/DIF option you may have to give up a slot.  and if you
don't already have a capture card i'd recommend the pvr-250 over the
350 as it's cheaper and you're looking at motherboards with svideo out
so you don't really need the 350.

andy