[mythtv-users] yet another hardware list

Jarod C. Wilson jcw at wilsonet.com
Thu Feb 19 12:20:36 EST 2004


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On Thursday 19 February 2004 07:43, john lawler wrote:
> Thanks for the feedback.  I checked out that mobo, and it looks pretty
> nice.  I would like to not have to buy a separate video adapter,
> especially if this s-video'll work out okay with the nvidia drivers.
>
> Have you used this motherboard yourself?

I have. I've got both the Chaintech 7NIF2 and MSI KM4M-L. The Chaintech is a 
much better board, at least as far as its onboard video goes (and possibly 
the motherboard chipset, with respect to the ivtv driver...).

> I'm a bit concerned about the
> "shared system memory".

Don't be. Works like a charm.

> I assume that means the card has no dedicated RAM
> and has to borrow from the main RAM.

That is correct. Such being the case, you'll probably want 512MB on the board. 
I've got a single 512MB stick of DDR333 on mine, with 64MB allocated for the 
onboard video (probably overkill, but leaves plenty of RAM to spare for both 
video and the system).

> Have you ever used a card like this
> before?  Does it hog much RAM?

You can adjust how much you want to allocate.

> I've read the archives on this model and it sounds like some are using it.
>   Did I read somewhere that using the onboard video requires you to cut
> back the FSB to 133 or 166?  Would that not be problematic for moving lots
> of data?

When using the onboard video, you can't run dual-channel DDR400 RAM in 
dual-channel DDR400 mode. DDR333 works just fine though (that's what I'm 
using), plenty of bandwidth, etc., and the memory speed is independent of the 
processor's FSB. I'm running an Athlon XP 3200 now, with full 400MHz FSB.


> J. Donavan Stanley wrote:
> > john lawler wrote:
> >> Hi guys, I'm a newbie looking at purchasing all new hardware for a
> >> modest mythtv box (with some room to grow).  I checked out the specs
> >> of some of the machines that the developers use (since I figured
> >> that'd be a good place to start), and basicaly went with one of those,
> >> or maybe it was one of Jarod's machines.  Not sure.  Anyway, here're
> >> the specs:
> >>
> >> MSI KM400 Chipset, Model KM4M-L (microATX)
> >>     (w/ onboard AC '97 audio, ethernet, and "Integrated S3 Graphics
> >> UniChrome^(TM) 2D/3D Graphics with motion compensation" which I guess is
> >> a video adapter)
> >>
> >> Athlon XP 2400
> >> 256 MB PC2700 333Mhz (maybe 512, not sure yet)
> >> Sony 16x DVD-ROM
> >> Hauppauge PVR-250
> >> Chaintech NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 64MB w/ S-video out
> >> microATX case w/ 230W PS
> >>
> >> [and I have a spare 60GB WD 7200rpm sitting around that I'll start with]
> >>
> >> as of yesterday on pricewatch, this'd all cost me ~$400.00, which'll
> >> be pretty cheap as far as the hardware goes.
> >
> > I'd recomend grabbing a Chaintech 7NIF2 MB instead.  You'll get an
> > onboard Geforce 4 with TV-Out instead of the S3.  It'll save you a slot
> > and it has the advantage of having the svideo connector right along side
> > the other ports not on an external card.
> >
> > You'll want the 512 (well more than 256 at least).  And with the
> > Chaintech MB you can get two sticks of 256 running in dual channel DDR
> > mode.

- -- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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