[mythtv-users] OT: Grrr Motherboards!

[Allen Edwards]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 2:10 PM, Damian <damian at gingermagic.co.uk> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Sorry to start ANOTHER thread, but I feel I should whenever it's a new
> question I'm asking. Let me know if I'm pissing anyone off.
>
> Last night, I was pretty much decided on the ASUS M2N-VM DVI
> motherboard. Then I read about lots of problems with the on board LAN.
> No problem I thought, if it messes me about, I'll just use my current
> PCI Lan card! Then I realised that there are only two PCI slots on most
> of these microATX boards and I need both of them for my two Nova-T tuners.
>

I just went through this and will get my stuff Monday.  Spent a lot of
time thinking about it so here is what I got and why.  In most cases I
went with the most highly ranked and most popular choices according to
the newegg ratings.

ASUS M3A AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard 	
Like you I wanted a MB without video and in my case one with S/PDIF  I
picked ASUS as it is more highly rated than Gigabyte, my second choice

ASUS EN6200LE TC1G/TD/512M GeForce 6200LE 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI
Express x16 Video Card
According to the Wiki, the 6200 is a good choice for many myth users.
This board has onboard memory and not shared memory.  You may notice
that I picked all ASUS so I hope for fewer compatibility issues.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Brisbane 2.8GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core
Processor Model ADO5400DOBOX - Retail
This was a little more power than I probably need but I didn't want to
get caught short.  Someone said that you should get a multiple of
400MHz on the clock although I don't think that is necessairly true
any more.  AMD is a lot cheaper than Intel so I was able to get much
more power for less money.

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual
Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK
I went with the fast ram as it was only a few dollars more and had
this nice instant rebate.  Very highly ranked.

Check back early next week to see how it works if you want.

Again, look on newegg.com and look not only at the rating but at the
number of comments.  Try and go for stuff with a lot of comments and
high ratings.  If a part is unrated because it is new, try and see if
the vendor has good ratings on similar parts.  People buy what works
and high number of comments mean lots of people are going back and
buying more.  At least that is how I look at it.

Allen