What nvidia motherboard to get for Sage?

[jettman]

I am going to build a new server for Sage using an AMD X2 processor. I want an nvidia based MB but not sure what chipset to get. I see there is:
Geforce 6150
nForce4 SLI
nForce4 Ultra
What is the difference?

I will be using the server to watch Sage recordings and DVD's. I don't want to buy a video card yet because I am spending my money on processor for now so it needs to have a decent TV out. I also want it to be a standard ATX mobo, not a small form factor.

Any suggestions?

[Humanzee]

I think you'll find that most of the 6150 mother boards are small form factor.

FWIW I would go with something that is expandable for a server. I.e. lots of buss badwidth with high quality hard drive controllers. There are some boards that can support up to 4 SATA300 drives + 4 SATA150 drives + 4 IDE drives.

I have noticed that I have run out of capacity for drives and PCI slots in my server. I have 5 Hard drives in my machine. 2 PCI tuners, SATA300 controller card, + some block outs for audio output etc. If I were to look for a new MB I would make sure that it has PCIe bus plus a minimum of 3 legacy pci slots. Get onboard audio (with digital pass-through) and network so that you can save room for TV cards.

SLi is a little crazy so unless you plan on having two video cards skip it and go for the nForce Ultra.

thats my $.02

http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Su...SubCategory=22 has a feature that lets you shop for MB's by features.

[jettman]

I used the following search on Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...22&Order=stock

What is the difference between:
PCI Express x1
PCI Express x16
?

[Mark SS]

Part way through building a system at the moment:

Abit KN8
Gigabyte 6600GT PCIE
4200 x2

No issues so far!

[elaw]

Originally Posted by jettman

What is the difference between:
PCI Express x1
PCI Express x16
?

Others can probably provide more detail, but I think the simple explanation is x16 is for video cards and x1 is for other types of cards. Or in other words, x16 replaces AGP and x1 replaces old-style PCI.

Eric

[lobosrul]

I have an MSI Nvidia SLI board. SLI is for runing to hi performance graphics cards to get better 3d performance.

You only need SLI if your a gamer. I plan on running dual graphics cards (7800 GT's) eventualy. If your not a gamer SLI is probably a wase, they arent that much more expensive, but you generaly lose a pci slot.

PCI-e x1 slots are smaller than x8/x16 slots, the connecter is maybe 2 inches long. There arent many cards out there for PCI-e x1 at the moment, but i bet in the future there will be (like tv tuners).

[fidget]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

I have an MSI Nvidia SLI board. SLI is for runing to hi performance graphics cards to get better 3d performance.

You only need SLI if your a gamer. I plan on running dual graphics cards (7800 GT's) eventualy. If your not a gamer SLI is probably a wase, they arent that much more expensive, but you generaly lose a pci slot.

PCI-e x1 slots are smaller than x8/x16 slots, the connecter is maybe 2 inches long. There arent many cards out there for PCI-e x1 at the moment, but i bet in the future there will be (like tv tuners).

Another option for the second PCI-e x16 slot is a RAID-5 or RAID-6 controller. The ones that I have seen are PCI-e x4 cards that can fit into a x16 slot.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by fidget

Another option for the second PCI-e x16 slot is a RAID-5 or RAID-6 controller. The ones that I have seen are PCI-e x4 cards that can fit into a x16 slot.

I'm curious: does this make the x16 slots slow down to x8 each, or does that depend on the motherboard? I thought I read that somewhere, but am not certain how that works. I know SLI often slows both to x8, unless the board actually supports two video cards w/both at x16, but I'm not certain about how that works with non-video cards.

Oh -- and I've got an Asus A8N-SLI Premium (not using SLI) for my work PC. SageTV & everything else runs quite well on it.

- Andy

[lobosrul]

Id be curious to know that too Opus, but really it doesnt matter. Even the fastest card out there needs no more bandwidth than x8 can deliver.

I doubt a RAID controller would need that much either (x8 is many times more than a PCI raid controller would ever receiver).

[jettman]

I have narrowed my search down to the following boards.
Asus A8N-E
ABIT KN8 Ultra

Are there any advantages of one over the other?
Since I don't want to buy a video card right away and want to just use onboard video hooked up to my 19" LCD monitor, will these both work for that?

[src666]

The big problem with newer motherboards is the lack of PCI slots. I think the most I have seen is 4, with most having only 2 or 3. You might want to look as some of the non-PCIe boards, which have up to 6 PCI slots. It really depends on how many tuners you want to stuff into the box, and what other options you need to add.

Just a thought.

[kenpo]

I have no experience with either board, however, based on the pictures I would go with the Asus. It has three open PCe slots between the 16x PCe (Video) and the PCI slots, thus all three PCI slots can be used (for tuners, etc.) without crowding the video card. The Abit board on the other hand has the video card right next to the PCI slots -- which means you prabably will not be able to use the PCI slot closest to the video card.

[Mark SS]

Originally Posted by jettman

Since I don't want to buy a video card right away and want to just use onboard video hooked up to my 19" LCD monitor, will these both work for that?

I don't think the KN8 has onboard video so that makes the decision a bit easier!

[jettman]

Are Mobo's w/ati crossfire chipsets any good such as the ASUS A8R-MVP?

[Steerpike]

I've just ordered this motherboard, which I'm going to put in this case. I chose this particular 6150 mobo, by the way, over the others simply because it had the S-TV bracket bundled - one less part to track down. NewEgg sell the same board but not with the bracket ... so I had to go to PC-Alchemy.

I agonized and researched this choice to death before finally arriving at this config. I plan to run a moderate AMD Athlon 64 S939 CPU in the mobo - a 3200+ - still overkill for an htpc. I plan to use crystalCPUID to drop the V-core of this CPU to reduce heat generation ... hopefully easier than building a Pentium M or AMD Turion based system, which is what I spent months trying to configure.

While larger, more flexible cases are obviously preferable in many ways, I 'must' have a small case because I don't have room in my cabinet for a 'typical' htpc case (which has to be about 6" tall to allow standard PCI / AGP and/or PCIx16 slots). The case above is under 4" tall, and - since the mobo has built-in nvidia graphics (Great for htpc, not great for games), I only need one slot for the tuner. I have 4 other computers in house with monster cases and a full slew of peripherals, so I'm fully aware of what I'm giving up by going for a small case.

By the way - I plan to use external USB2 drives for most of my storage. I will do the initial capture to the local hard drive (a 250 Gig Sata) but copy stuff to USB2 as required. USB2 is perfectly fast enough for this kind of video, I've been testing it for months without a hitch. I currently have 5 identical maxtor usb2 drives (so I can use the same power supply 'bricks'!).

I should have this built up by next weekend ... will let you know if it delivers!

[MilkmanCDN]

Steerpike,

Nice case choice. I'm using it as a client myself. Unfortunately, while your motherboard will fit inside the case, you won't be able to use the PCI slots because the PCI riser card that comes with the LC11 case won't match up to the MSI motherboard layout. That said, you won't be able to put the PCI tuner card (or any other PCI card) into your case. Check out the silverstone web-site (www.silverstonetek.com) for more details.

The only 6150 based uATX board that I have found, which matches up to the LC11 PCIe/PCI riser card is the Asus A8N-VM (CSM) series of boards. I have one of those boards; but, it the on-board s-video doesn't work as expected (video is dim and I get a signal loss problem every 4-5 seconds). I am attempting to rectify this problem by using an off-board PCIe video card (eVGA 6600 passive available at pcalchemy).

[Steerpike]

Originally Posted by MilkmanCDN

Steerpike,

Nice case choice. I'm using it as a client myself. Unfortunately, while your motherboard will fit inside the case, you won't be able to use the PCI slots because the PCI riser card that comes with the LC11 case won't match up to the MSI motherboard layout. That said, you won't be able to put the PCI tuner card (or any other PCI card) into your case. Check out the silverstone web-site (www.silverstonetek.com) for more details.

Errrr ..... are you sure? I thought I researched and checked that (but I explored SOooooo many avenues, I may have made a big booobooo there!).
I did read about this restriction, but did not believe that it applied to the MSI board. Looking again ... I think you are right: Here is the MSI board pic, and here is the Incompatible/Compatible Diagram from Silvestone. The MSI board layout matches the layout, I guess, of the lower left 'incompatible' item. Amazing that I missed that!

I'm actually planning to use this as a SageTV Client only, so I don't need any PCI slots ... but ... boo hiss hiss. I placed the orders yesterday, could possibly cancel before shipping.

Do you know, since you have this case, whether this is a total disaster, or just a partial one ... that is, can I at least use one of the PCI risers? That's the most I'm likely to need.

Funny, I've always bought Asus, but the simple fact that I was going to have to order the S-Video adapter separately, and from yet another vendor, steered me to the MSI! So you say the Asus has video issues; did you research that, and conclude it was not a defect (and worthy of returning)?

I also considered going 6600GT passive, but I figured the passive heatsinks may not fit inside the LC11 case, hence the decision to go on-board!

(update) - oh my, just read your post http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17007 , and see the reference to 28 pages-worth of issues with the 6150 based boards! Guess I'd better have a read over there!

Darn - over a month of research and still my choices are not sound. Amazing. Sadly, I wasted a very long time trying to configure a Pentium M, and then later an AMD Turion (both laptop CPUs) based system, so as to minimize heat generation (I'm a silent-computer freak). I finally read how you can drop the voltage and frequency in software, which allows you to reduce heat gen in an AMD Athlon S939, so rushed into the decision to use the 6150!