[mythtv-users] Selecting a motherboard

Preston Crow pc-mythtv at crowcastle.net
Fri Dec 5 13:14:46 EST 2003


I'm looking for advice on selecting a motherboard for my MythTV system. 
Any chipsets I should look for or avoid?  Anything I need to know
besides the obvious list of features and price?

For reference, I'm planning on using this box as both a front-end and
back-end.  I'll also be buying an HDTV soon after setting up the system,
and reports I've read suggest that I'll need a 2.4GHz or so processor
for that.  All else being equal, I'm assuming I'll get better
price/performance with AMD.  (I'm also planning on using it as a
router/firewall, so I'm leaning towards a motherboard with dual
ethernet.)

Tentative feature checklist:

At least 2 SATA ports (for those 500GB SATA drives everyone will be
using in a year or so).
Standard dual EIDE ports (for the initial drive and DVD).
Digial audio out (surround sound support for DVD and HDTV).
Dual ethernet (I don't need GigE)
AGP port (probably for a GForce4 MX440)
At least 3 PCI ports (for the PVR-250, pcHDTV-2000, and expansion)
Firewire port (I may get a digital camcorder at some point)

I would be willing to use a PCI card instead of some of those features,
but the fewer cards I have to use, the better the airflow will be, and
in theory it should be cheaper.

It was all so much simpler back when I built my Slackware system in
1995.  :)

Any advice would be welcome.

--PC




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