[mythtv-users] PCI motherboard, or switch to PCIe/USB/net?

[Andre Newman]

On 31 Aug 2014, at 02:25, Marco Nelissen <marco.nelissen at gmail.com> wrote:

> My motherboard died and so I need a replacement. The thing is that I currently have three PCI capture cards, and motherboards with 3 PCI slots are increasingly hard to find, and apparently don't last very long (this one lasted 2 years).
> I'm wondering whether it would be worthwhile to switch to PCIe, USB or networked capture cards, or whether I should stick with PCI. Also, suggestions for an LGA1155 motherboard that will last more than 2 years are welcome.

I was in a similar situation a year ago, I felt I should buy a motherboard with PCI slots while I still could.

After some research I found that a great deal of modern motherboards with PCI slots have problems, especially with PCI cards like sound cards and tuners that generate a lot of interrupts and need them answered without delay or loss. You need to either buy an older chipset that still has native PCI or be very careful what PCI bridge chip is used by the manufacturer, the ASM 1083 seems especially problematic, google the LKML for details.

I gave up trying to find an LGA 1150 or 1155 board with a lot of sata ports (that work reliably in Linux) and 3 PCI slots that would work reliably with tuner cards. I moved some other equipment around and reused an old LGA 775 board that had 5 proper PCI slots.

It’s quite expensive to switch to PCIe especially if you already have several perfectly good PCI cards, I find USB tuners to be unreliable, falling off the bus at regular intervals. A friend who has a six usb tuner Myth system (one per mux) after many years of trying to get them running reliably gave in and scheduled a nightly reboot.

Andre

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