new motherboard

[garyellis]

Its time to upgrade my system.

When I started looking at CPU and MOBO's, I am confussed as to how to pick a MOBO. I plan to get an Intel CPU, either the E6700 (core 2 DUO) or the Q6600 (core 2 Quad). Given each of these needs a MOBO that has a CPU socket of LGA 775, it seems I have many choices for a MOBO. What other attributes / features of a MOBO should I be looking for to get the most out of SAGE? I use this computer totally for SAGE and SAGE activities (like video editing, commercial cutting, making DVD's, etc...), but mostly just recording and watching TV. (lots of HD)...I know I need lots of USB2 ports, given external HD's and (maybe) the new SAGE HD capture device. Also, I really only use the HD extenders, I do not really ever use the video card or the onboard audio out.

I realize I can just go to the most expense MOBO and spend $300, but there seems to be many in the $100 to $150 range that I can't really describe the differences between them and the more expense ones.

Thanks for the help,

Gary Ellis

[Mitch G]

I am by no means an expert on these matters, but for comparison, I just built a server (that like you will be used with extenders as opposed to feeding a TV directly) using this mobo:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...367&CatId=1533
with a core2 duo 2.2GHz chip.
My only complaint is that it doesn't have on-board graphics (an oversight on my part). So, I had to buy a $30 graphics card to hold me over until the HD extender is once again available.

So far, I've been extremely pleased with the performance. Monitoring the CPU has shown that it is hardly working while doing Sage things. FWIW, I also have SqueezeCenter on that server. If doing editing on the machine as well, then I would probably go with a quad core chip - which I could have dropped in there as well, but I stayed on the cheap side.

I guess my point in all this is that I think you can get buy with a relatively inexpensive motherboard. But, of course, ymmv.


Mitch

[BobPhoenix]

I just built a new server with this MB (Q6600) but I'm thinking of switching to this cheaper model.

[garyellis]

Thanks, that sure seems to have what I am looking for and I like the price... I assume that I will spend $250 to $300 on the quad core processor...Thus, would be nice to get cheaper MOBO. I assume that spending more on processor makes more sense than spending more on MOBO.

I have noticed that my networking usage is starting to get a little higher when I record or watch using the HDHR. Currently my MOBO has 2 GB lan ports. I only use 1, but wondering if ther is a way to use the other to help with networking. I assume as HD becomes more available, then I may go to another HDHR and the network could become a bottleneck.

The MOBO you showed here only has 1 LAN port.

Thanks for the help...

Gary Ellis

[BobPhoenix]

I don't have an HDHR so I can't tell you how to do it but I know others have posted about using a direct connect from the HDHR to the second lan port on their server.

[MeInMaui]

I just went through this. The way I went about it was to list all of my 'must have' requirements and then any extras that would be nice to have. Here are the things I considered. (this is for a headless server)

1. Must support the chosen CPU. (duh) I went with a Q6600, so the MB has to be socket 775 and have an appropriate chipset.
2. Must have at least 2 unblocked PCI slots for internal tuners. (3 slots would be nice)
3. Must have dual Gigabit LAN. One for the network and one for a dedicated HDHR connection
4. Must have at least 5-6 SATA connectors for internal storage
5. Nice to have 1-2 eSATA connectors for external drives
6. Must have built-in IEEE1394 for firewire STB channel changing
7. Must not have any chipset fans on the MB. Next to the power supply this has traditionally been the largest source of failures for me.
8. Nice to have at least 2 PCIe slots in addition to slot for video card for future expansion.
9. Nice to have solid capacitors (one less thing to worry about for reliability)
10. Nice to have 4 memory slots for future expansion.

So I took these requirements, went to ZipZoomFly, and started filtering their selection of motherboards. I finally decided on this Asus board. I is a little more expensive than you mentioned (~$190), but it met all of the above requirements/preferences. There are cheaper boards there as well if you don't need some of this things I listed. HTH

Aloha,
Mike

[garyellis]

Great input...Let me take a few of them and ask questions...

1 . Must support the chosen CPU. (duh) I went with a Q6600, so the MB has to be socket 775 and have an appropriate chipset.

Are the processes in Sage set up in a manner to take advantage of dual or quad processors?

2. Must have at least 2 unblocked PCI slots for internal tuners. (3 slots would be nice)

I currently have a Hauppauge 500 and and 150. Thus I am using 2 PCI slots. Do you see any new cards coming out that I would need more slots. For example, the new Hauppauge component capture coming out next month. Is that an internal card?

3. Must have dual Gigabit LAN. One for the network and one for a dedicated HDHR connection

I've currently connected my HDHR via the network rather than direct connect. I've asked this questions a couple of times and never really gotten good answers. Is there an advantage to direct connect?

4. Must have at least 5-6 SATA connectors for internal storage

My case really isn't big enough to handle more than 3 internal drives, thus I use a few external drives.

5. Nice to have 1-2 eSATA connectors for external drives

My current MOBO does not have eSATA. Is this significantly better for external storage than USB2?

Currently I have 2 internal drives via SATA 2 and I hang 3 external drives via USB2. So, I assumed I wanted a MOBO with lots of USB2 ports. Should I focus on eSATA ports instead? Of course then I have to buy drives that support eSATA.

Thanks for the help...

Gary Ellis

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by garyellis

Are the processes in Sage set up in a manner to take advantage of dual or quad processors?

SageTV is multi-threaded & can make use of multiple cpus. Example: if you have clients that need the video to be transcoded, it can use multiple cpus for those multiple transcodes, though each transcode process uses only 1 cpu.

Plus, multiple cores/cpus make the PC respond better -- in my opinion, once you use multiple cpus, you'll never want to go back to just 1.

- Andy

[garyellis]

Thanks Andy, is that also true about HD extenders?


Example... 2 recordings and 2 videos playing through HD extenders....

possibly could use 4 different CPU's?


cool...

Gary Ellis

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by garyellis

Are the processes in Sage set up in a manner to take advantage of dual or quad processors?

Andy answered this one far better than I could.

I currently have a Hauppauge 500 and and 150. Thus I am using 2 PCI slots. Do you see any new cards coming out that I would need more slots. For example, the new Hauppauge component capture coming out next month. Is that an internal card?

The new Hauppauge component capture device will be external USB 2.0. I'm not sure about anything else out there.

I actually have 2 PVR150's and a PVR500, but on e of the 150's is in my development computer. The motherboard I linked to is one of the few I found that has a total of 7 PCI/PCIe slots, so there is plenty of room for expansion just in case I decide to rearrange my setup or add a new PCIe based tuner. Also, the PCI slots are arranged so that one is next to the video card slot. I prefer to leave that location empty so it just wastes an extra PCI slot rather than a PCIe slot.

I've currently connected my HDHR via the network rather than direct connect. I've asked this questions a couple of times and never really gotten good answers. Is there an advantage to direct connect?

I used to have my HDHR connected over the network, but it had to pass through 2 switches to get to the server. I was having lots of problems with pixelation and freezing in this configuration (it could have been a faulty switch). I switched over to a direct connection and it has been behaving nicely since.

My case really isn't big enough to handle more than 3 internal drives, thus I use a few external drives.

My server has 5 internal drives so this was more of an immediate necessity for me. I didn't want to add another SATA controller card.

My current MOBO does not have eSATA. Is this significantly better for external storage than USB2?

I have read that USB2.0 adds some CPU overhead. The board I selected has 2 eSATA ports and something like 12 USB2.0 ports, so there is lots of flexibility for various configurations. I'm also expecting to get a couple of those component capture devices when the are available. My preference is to fill the available eSATA connections first before loading up the USB2.0 connections.

Currently I have 2 internal drives via SATA 2 and I hang 3 external drives via USB2. So, I assumed I wanted a MOBO with lots of USB2 ports. Should I focus on eSATA ports instead? Of course then I have to buy drives that support eSATA.

My impression is that eSATA is the preferred connection for external drives. I made sure the external drives I bought supported eSATA. As I mentioned above this board also has lots of USB ports just in case.

Thanks for the help...

Any time.

Aloha,
Mike

[toricred]

I just ordered a Gigabyte P35-DS3L. It has solid state capacitors, only 4 internal SATA ports, a single GB LAN, but it has 3 PCI, 3PCIex1, and 1 PCIex16. It is also highly regarded in the OC community if you wanted to overclock at some point.