[mythtv-users] OT: hardware advice

[Stephen Tait]

At 18:52 10/06/2004 +0100, you wrote:

>and will throw in a seperate pci raid card..

Is this for Linux?

Chances are the card will be one of the crappy promise/highpoint cards 
everyone seems so enamoured with (yup, count me in as another 3ware fanboy 
:^). Getting their "inbuilt RAID" (it's software RAID, not real RAID) 
working will be a pain in the ass. If you plan to use it, don't bother with 
a RAID card, just get a bog standard IDE controller board and use Linux 
software RAID which, if rumours are to be believed, is better performing 
than the highpoint/promise software RAID. The controller will also prolly 
gobble up a whole IRQ, but I imagine the same is true for an onboard one.

I don't know how well the linux softraid plays with the windows driver 
though, if you plan to dual boot you'll need the RAID drivers for windows, 
hence you need the RAID card.

Also bear in mind that the nForce2 is highly proprietary (although it's 
still the best performer), and IIRC you'll have to use closed source 
drivers to get decent performance out of it. Recent kernels I believe have 
preliminary nForce2 support (including the nVidia LAN which by all accounts 
is a very good performer), but I don't know how well it works. Recent 
distros (gentoo for one) will make it pretty easy for you to install the 
appropriate modules.

I've also heard problems with the nVidia sound chip under Linux - can't 
remember the details off hand, but it doesn't work as well as in windows 
(yawn). If you're using an external card, you don't need to worry (what I 
wouldn't give for a mobo with an Audigy built it!).

Personally, I've had better luck with Abit boards than ASUS ones, but as 
ever YMMV.

Also bear in mind that I have no idea what yor orignal setup was, so please 
ignore me if I'm coming from the stating the bleedin' obvious department.