[mythtv-users] Are VIA chipsets still a no-no?

[Brian Wood]

On Tuesday 24 February 2009 15:03:21 Mark J. Small wrote:
> HI everybody,
>
> I'm looking to rebuild my backend, and am doing a little research.  My
> current backend is a PentiumIII 1GHz box with 3 Hauppauge Freestyles and an
> AverA180. It works pretty but I'd like a little more juice for transcoding,
> commflagging and some SATA ports for more storage.
>
> Last time I went all Intel to avoid the dreaded DMA problems with old VIA
> chipsets. I'd heard that there were troubles with some NVIDIA chipsets too.
>
> So now I'm thinking about at some AMD chips, but I don't want to run in to
> compatibility issues.  So can anyone tell me if the newer chipsets work
> better?  How about the chipsets that are a few years old (nforce 3,
> K8T800)?

My main Myth machine has an nForce-3 chipset mobo and I have never had any 
problems running (Fedora-based) Myth with it. 4 PVRs, and I've never had a 
problem with 4 recordings at once while watching a recording, so there don't 
appear to be any DMA problems. This is an older socket 754 board.

I have a newer 939 mobo with an nForce4-Ultra chipset. Just testing it out 
prior to possibly using it for a new Myth system I find that Debian boots and 
installs just fine, but the Ubuntu install disk will not even boot, nor will 
Knoppix. It may be just a matter of finding the right incantation to give the 
kernel at boot. I haven't put too much time into it as yet.

939 CPUs and mobos are getting hard to find, you'd probably want to go AM2 if 
you want an AMD processor. Also, DDR2 RAM is cheaper these days.

>
> My ideal motherboard/CPU combo would have:
> 2 Lan adapters
> 2 Serial ports (yeah right!)
> 4-5 PCI slots
> onboard video
> onboard sound
> IDE and SATA
> Use as little power as possible, since this is my server, and it runs 24/7

The "4-5 PCI slots" is going to be a problem. Most newer mobos have PCIe slots 
(sometimes 2) for graphics, which usually reduces the PCI slot count. They 
also usually have 1 or more PCIe X1 slots, for which I have yet to find any 
use for.

Of course with things like the HDHR out there, the need for PCI slots is not 
what it used to be.

As you say, good luck with the 2 RS-232 ports. You can use USB-to-Serial 
adapters, but there are some applicactions they will not work for (like IR 
blasters or controlling DirectTV receivers).

As far as onboard video, you might want to get something VDPAU-capable. Not 
too many of those embedded yet, so you might want to use the (probably there 
anyway) PCIe slot for an 8xxx or 9xxx nVidia card.

Remember AMD now owns ATI, so you are unlikely to find much cooperation 
between AMD and nVidia.

-- 
beww
beww at beww.org