[mythtv-users] Motherboard Recommendation needed

Chuck Peters cp at ccil.org
Sun Jul 20 23:30:24 UTC 2008


On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 11:26 AM, John Drescher <drescherjm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
> ASUS M3N78 PRO AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard -
> Retail $104.99
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131320

One thing that concerns me is I have heard ASUS reputation for support
is in decline and some of the Newegg reviews seem to reflect some
recent reliability issues with other ASUS boards. I would like to get
something that could last 5-10 years.

These new AMD based boards have the highest FSB speeds I have seen
(2600MHz).  How much of an issue is this when you use 7200rpm SATA
harddrives?  Would it be significant if one adds drives over time to
get a total of 4-6 drives?

What board would you use if you don't need all those PCI slots?

> Pair that with a
> AMD Athlon 64 X2 5800+ Brisbane 3.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2
> 89W Dual-Core Processor - OEM
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103274 $95.00

I have been attempting to learn more about processors and other issues
relating to building systems and my impression is Intel's 45nm
technology will run cooler and use less power.  What would you
recommend for Intel based boards with 3 PCI slots?

> And a
> ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail  $25.99
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185125

One thing that really concerns me a lot is cooling and dust.  That
heatsink appears to have fins very close together and looks like it
would be great at collecting dust and a pain to clean. Some of the
Antec cases have filters and that could be big help in that the case
filters could be easily cleaned more frequently than the hard to clean
CPU heatsink.  On these old Dell machines we have they don't have a
fan directly connected to the heatsink, they have a bigger fan
connected to the case and a hood to channel the air over the heatsink.
The heatsink fins are not too close together and they don't seem to
trap the dust and impede the cooling. Something where the design
avoids the dust accumulating in the CPU heatsink would be ideal.  What
would you recommend for the cooling and dust issue?


Thanks,
Chuck


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