[mythtv-users] Looking for a board for a new mythbox

Sean shomann2 at insightbb.com
Tue Oct 28 09:24:47 EST 2003


Ah, the dilemma I faced a few weeks ago ;). I ended up getting the Shuttle
MN31/N board because of my insistence on Firewire and my want to keep the
video separate from the IGP chipset. My setup (from a hardware standpoint)
has been near bulletproof so far, but the nForce2 chipset isn't FULLY
supported under Linux it seems. The major parts will work fine (networking,
audio, video) but as far as FULL 100% compatibility it isn't there yet. Of
course, the argument could be made the same for the Windows world as well ;)

As long as the board has SPDIF headers, you can always mod yoru case later
if you feel the burning need to use all the expansion slots by using a
bracket solution as suggested below

-Sean

>>>> MicroATX need min. 2 PCI slots
>>>> VGA with TV-out
>>>> Sound with SPDIF
>> 
>>> Do you mean all of that stuff directly on the motherboard, no extra
>>> bracket headers required? I'm not familiar with such a board, but my
>>> Chaintech 7NIF2 is a micro-ATX board, has 3 PCI slots, onboard TV-Out
>>> (no extra bracket required) and onboard SPDIF if you get the bracket
>>> for it (which can then fill the slot unused by the AGP slot).
>> 
>> Sounds nice, but has a chipset fan, which I want to avoid. How loud is
>> it? I don't want to go to go through all the effort to get a low noise
>> system and have a small fan whirring inside. ASUS has the A7N8X-VM
>> which
>> will need two brackets (no problem) but this will be quite expensive
>> (108 EUR or $ the board, 25 $ TV-out bracket and 20 $ SPDIF bracket)
>> I can't hear any difference between this board and the previous fanless
>> chipset board I was using. That tiny little fan is next to inaudible,
>> and certainly quieter than an idling hard drive, so I don't think it
>> would be a problem.
> 
> If u really want quite get a VIA EPIA M board with the 2 PCI card raiser.
> That has all you want but its only worth it if ur going to have a PVR-250 or
> 350 for the hardware MPEG2 encoding. That with the MPEG2 decoding on the
> PVR-350 or on the motherboard and it will be great. (assuming to just want
> it for TV) if u don't want (can't get) a hardware encoding card then have
> alook at the Leadtek WinFast K7nCR18GM motherboard range. They do need a
> bracket for the SPDIF and the 2nd moniter but it comes with that included in
> the package. Check it out, it has everything u asked for.
> http://www.leadtek.com.tw/motherboard/winfast_k7ncr18gm_2.shtml
> Hope that helps (oyer its based on the nForce2 Chipset and thats pretty well
> supported in linux isn't it?)
> -Laurence
> 
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