Fill'er up-using all 5 pci slots

[Jesse]

Hi,

Right now my primary sage box (playback and serves two clients) is making use of 3 of its 5 pci slots and its agp slot (intel D865perl mobo). I have two maudio sound cards serving audio to 6 zones and one pvr500mce for SD recordings. I also use two vbox usb HD tuners.

I would like to add a 3ware 2 port raid card to provide raid1 for my OS and applications. I will also use the array to hold my music and photos. Down the road I would also like to add a 4 port sata controller card.

This would be a total of 5 pci cards. Problem is I have heard that there is not much chance I will be able to successfully use all 5 pci slots. I have heard that 3 is really the practical limit. Right now I do get some weird issues with the sound cards where I periodically have to reload the drivers for them.

Is anyone out there using all 5 pci slots successfully? Any boards known to be better than others for this?

Input and advice will be appreciated.

Jesse

[m0ng00se30]

I have used all 5 slots on an ABIT IC7 MB. I've since upgraded, but I was running 3 PVR250 tuners, adaptec Raid, and Audigy2 without issue. Honestly I think it seemed to be less quirky than my current setup listed in my sig!

--Mike

[deria]

I'm currently using 4 PCI slots + 1 AGP slot. I think that the practical limit depends more on what you want to do (ie: bus bandwidth required, power required, complexity of device or resource requirements) than the physical number of cards in the system. On my previous system, I had all five PCI slots filled + 1 agp slot. It was rock solid. One of the ports was a network card, and the other was a firewiere card though so the demands weren't exactly high.

[jptaz]

Jesse,

I am using all 5 PCI slots plus AGP and it has been rock solid...in fact I have always had my PCI bus filled since I started using SageTV 3 Years ago.

I currently have a 3 PVR 250s, 1 PVR 500 (May get replaced soon), and finally a 3Ware 9500-12 SATA RAID 5 Card with 8 Drives in RAID 5 which everything records to.

The most important factor for filling the PCI slots is making sure that you keep temperatures in check. I have 12cm fan right on top of my PCI slots to keep them cool and even so they run hot.

John

[DocDrydenn]

Without trying to make it sound like I am "One-Uping" anyone, I have taken PCI to the next step so to speak.

My server runs a Tyan K8SD Pro MB. This board has 4 PCI-X slots (don't confuse with PCI-Express) and 1 PCI slot. 3 of my PCI-X slots have been reserved for my 3ware Raid Controlers (at the moment only 1 card and 1 slot are being used. future upgrades will fill these).

This left me with 1 PCI and 1 PCI-X slot to add turners and such. This would not do. I wanted at least 3 NTSC Tuners and 1 OTA HD Tuner.

I set off in search for PCI Expansion and came across the Sun Netra E1. Found it on EBay for $100 and found the Host controler PCI Card on Ebay for $50.
The Sun Netra E1 gave me 3 addition PCI slots, in an external enclosure.

You can find other enclousers with 2, 4, 6, 7, and 13 slot expansion ability.

So.... the number of PCI slots you use is not a problem. Just keep an eye on the bandwith.

[insomniac]

Thats a great mobo. I have Im running on all 5 slots on my PERL 865 just fine.

I.

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hi,

Right now my primary sage box (playback and serves two clients) is making use of 3 of its 5 pci slots and its agp slot (intel D865perl mobo). I have two maudio sound cards serving audio to 6 zones and one pvr500mce for SD recordings. I also use two vbox usb HD tuners.

I would like to add a 3ware 2 port raid card to provide raid1 for my OS and applications. I will also use the array to hold my music and photos. Down the road I would also like to add a 4 port sata controller card.

This would be a total of 5 pci cards. Problem is I have heard that there is not much chance I will be able to successfully use all 5 pci slots. I have heard that 3 is really the practical limit. Right now I do get some weird issues with the sound cards where I periodically have to reload the drivers for them.

Is anyone out there using all 5 pci slots successfully? Any boards known to be better than others for this?

Input and advice will be appreciated.

Jesse

[blade]

Originally Posted by DocDrydenn

I set off in search for PCI Expansion and came across the Sun Netra E1. Found it on EBay for $100 and found the Host controler PCI Card on Ebay for $50.
The Sun Netra E1 gave me 3 addition PCI slots, in an external enclosure.

You can find other enclousers with 2, 4, 6, 7, and 13 slot expansion ability.

I've always wanted to get one. Unfortunately I don't really need one yet, so I can't talk myself into it at the moment.

[dagar]

Really nice setup Doc ... a fellow Tidewater resident I see

I couldn't tell, either I'm blind or it's not there, but what case is your server in?

[Jesse]

Hi,

All good news. Thanks to everyone. Now it's off to newegg......

Jesse

[Steerpike]

Going slightly off-topic here, but ... what does one actually 'do' with 3, 4, 5 tuners? Do you have the corresponding number of digital cable tuners or satellite receivers or whatever? What is the primary motivation? Just curious!

[cybrmage]

I would say that the primary motivation is getting rid of the annoying recording conflict icon that appears on the upper right hand corner of the screen whenever I configure less than 3 tuners.

That... and the need for more and more tech toys!!!

[DocDrydenn]

Ah, someone has actually asked about my case.....

I consider the entire thing the case, but ....

The enclosure is a HP 10622 22U Graphite Rack unit. She is about 42" H x 24" W x 30" D. She has front and rear vented doors and sits on very large caster wheels.

The CPU case is simply a generic 4U 19" EATX server case.

I also have 3 generic 5U cases being used as HDD Bays. Each will hold up to 10 5.25" external access (cause I use mobile HDD Trays) drives. (currently only one "bay" is being used with 8 HDD @ 320GB SATA drives)

My entire setup (almost everything) is linked in my SIG if you want to know more about each item. I'm in process of getting a few pictures of the actual setup (not just the company links), linked in my sig.

Edit: FYI, I've added the cases to my sig. (The first three items.)

[Fluffdaddy]

Going by your sig you put a lot of time and money in your system. 1)Bottom line.........Are you 110% happy with your sage setup as-is ?

[insomniac]

Multiple clients controlled by people with different taste for tv + tuning dish IRD's.

I have a total of 7 tuners running. 2 dvb, 4 analog, 1 HD

I.

Originally Posted by Steerpike

Going slightly off-topic here, but ... what does one actually 'do' with 3, 4, 5 tuners? Do you have the corresponding number of digital cable tuners or satellite receivers or whatever? What is the primary motivation? Just curious!

[DocDrydenn]

Fluffdaddy if you are talking to me, then...

I have to admit, I started with Microsoft XP MCE (Please no flaming )
MCE limited you too much, IMO. I didn't really like the feel and back when I started this stuff MCE was still too buggy for me. I then found SageTV. I don't remember how I found it, but I've never looked away since.

I also must admit I havn't put in as much money as you would think. Everything in my SIG and all the small stuff not listed (ie. cables and etc..) have cost me somewhere right around $2500 - $3000 and didn't happen all at once. This has been a slow process for me, but a fun one. Almost all of the system was made with parts from eBay to keep costs low. I also don't consider this a "Done" project either. I am always tinkering, modifing, updating, etc... as I go. I enjoy it.

So for the PVR side of it all, I'm really happy.
For the SageTV side.... well, I'll say I havn't had any real problems, but I also must say that I try to keep running with the newest BETA. Problems are going to happen with BETAs.

As for:

Originally Posted by Steerpike
Going slightly off-topic here, but ... what does one actually 'do' with 3, 4, 5 tuners? Do you have the corresponding number of digital cable tuners or satellite receivers or whatever? What is the primary motivation? Just curious!

Right now I only have 3 NTSC tuners and 1 OTA HD tuner, but the main reason, IMO, is simply two words: Recording Conflicts. For each tuner you have, you can record or watch live TV with. So.... one tuner = 1 recording OR watch one live TV. Two tuners = 2 recordings OR 1 recording and 1 live TV. ...... You get the idea. Also since most who run a server, have it connected to multiple TVs, 2 tuners = both TV's watching different live TV broadcasts. In my case, it is mostly because a lot of the TV I like to record is on at the same time.