[mythtv-users] Motherboard / case suggestions for early 2022 backend

[Stephen Worthington]

On Sun, 12 Dec 2021 13:33:32 -0500, you wrote:

>On Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 2:29 AM Stephen Worthington, <stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz>
>wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 11 Dec 2021 19:48:57 -0500, you wrote:
>>
>> >Anyone have thoughts on the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4
>> >Motherboard? (
>> >https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570%20phantom%20Gaming%204/index.asp)
>>
>> This looks like a lower end (ie cheaper) X570 motherboard.  Higher end
>> X570 boards can be very expensive, and are likely overkill for a box
>> intended for MythTV only.  But if you are intending to use it for
>> other things too, you might want to look at more expensive options.
>> X570 is great for getting 6+ (8 in this case) SATA ports that all work
>> when using the NVMe slots.  This can be important if you are like me and
>> keep adding more hard drives for more storage.
>>
>> I downloaded a copy of the ASRock motherboard's manual and compared it
>> to my new X570 motherboard
>>
>>  <snip>
>>
>> That is all I have noticed - I hope it is some help.
>>
>>
>Stephen,
>
>You just wrote an epic novel's worth of insight on a motherboard for
>someone halfway around the world from you. I don't have enough superlatives
>to add to the thank you's.
>
>So many variables to think of. For example, I was originally going to run
>it headless, but if I do use a Windows VM to handle the odd Windows only
>press screening, do I want an MB with onboard graphics or a fanless
>graphics card?
>
>I'm beginning to realize that this isn't a shopping list, it's a research
>project.
>
>Thanks again for your insight.

Motherboards with builtin graphics are pretty much Intel only at the
moment.  AMD did not make any CPUs with GPUs in its latest chips, so
you would be getting PCIe v3 only and a much slower CPU if you went
with an older AMD CPU with GPU.  I have not studied the latest Intel
offerings as they came along after I bought my new X570 system, but
the previous Intel chips worked out as rather more expensive - both
the CPUs and motherboards were more expensive than AMD equivalents
which were faster overall (although not necessarily on a single core).
So I decided AMD was a better option at that time and put my efforts
into looking there.  I suspect that the price differential has not
gone away.  Unless it has, then it will be cheaper to buy an AMD
system and add an Nvidia GT1030 silent card (the lowest current Nvidia
offering) than an Intel system with a lesser builtin GPU.

The Nvidia GT1030 does do 4K video, but only at the standard TV level,
not high refresh rates.  I imagine that press screening video is
likely 4K, but just what it actually is you would know better than me.
A GT1030 might have a problem playing video that is in higher 4K
formats that needs to be reduced to a lower format.  But more capable
Nvidia cards get very expensive, and have annoying fans.  And as a
result of having fans, they die early when the fans stop.  I have
never had a fanless Nvidia card die yet.  I have only 1080p monitors
and TVs and the GT1030 does handle on-the-fly conversion from 4K to
1080p with all the videos I have tried.  If the video you want to play
is using the new up-and-coming AV1 codec, the GT1030 does not handle
that, but a new X570 AMD system would be able to play it using the CPU
and the application of some more electricity - the CPU would be
running a lot faster.

Is there a sample of that sort of video somewhere I could download and
try out?