[mythtv-users] Re: Decisions, decisions

[Jay Goldberg]

Joseph A. Caputo writes:
 >
 > - Need onboard firewire, otherwise I'll need another PCI card for my
 > external drive.
 >
[...]
 > If micro-ATX isn't feasible, I was thinking of going with an Antec
 > Overture case + full ATX mobo.  I was thinking of getting an nForce2
 > mobo w/on-board GF4MX (my current AGP card is a GF4MX, and it suits me
 > fine, but I'd like to keep it in the current box).  If I have to go
 > this way, I know some people have no problem with nForce2 while others
 > have had trouble getting theirs to work.  Any suggestions on a good
 > full-ATX mobo?  I've seen some folks on the list recommend Chaintech,
 > and I already know to stay away from VIA KT-XXX chipsets.  What mobos/
 > chipsets are folks with M-179's using?

FWIW - I went the full ATX route.  Allows for some very nice and
very quiet (but very big) Zalman cooling devices.  I bought the
Intel 865PERL motherboard and a nice SilverStone HTPC case.
Onboard firewire, and plenty of slots.  I'm a big fan of Intel
motherboards, as I don't overclock and I'm usually looking for
stability above all else.

I also bought an nVidia video card for $53 at target-sale.com:

   V-MSI-8903-060        MSI 8903 GeForce FX 5200 128MB 8X DDR TV-Out

This works great, and with the nVidia XFree86 drivers, all my video
decoding seems quite fast.  I went with this option since I have to
wait a bit before the ivtv drivers & mplayer support all video
playback well on the TV-out of my PVR-350...

         HTH
                 Jay

Regarding the Antec case - I still haven't seen a picture of an
Overture with drives installed.  I have really ugly floppy & DVD
drives, so I went with the SilverStone since it has covers over
the drive bays.

-- 
jay at ransdoc.com                                                             .