Which of these 2 mobo's for WHS and h.264 comskipping?

[btrcp2000]

Current server board:
http://http://www.gigabyte.us/Produc...me=GA-965P-DS3

Another one I have:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...e=GA-M57SLI-S4

Sometimes I think I'm pretty smart when it comes to sage, and then I start thinking about upgrading the server, and realize that I still don't know s^%$

I know I need more horsepower for a client (kitchen pc, extender not an option) that needs to be able to play HDPVR files. That got me thinking about upgrading the server to WHS and giving it enough oomph to do h.264 comskip while I at it, then using the old cpu and whatever else in my client.

Current server specs are in my sig. Only place it hiccups is when doing h.264 comskip, which I have only tried with the beta of showanalyzer. It worked, but it brought the server to its knees. I assume I need a faster cpu, dual or quad is apparently arguable depending on what you read here.

I also have another pc with the gigabyte m57sli-ds3 v2.0 that I could use. It is currently running on a Athlon x2 4000+ 2.1ghz.

Assuming that for my comskip problems I need a faster cpu and maybe more ram either way, I need to decide which motherboard to use in the server. Staying with the current intel seems easiest, but are there any benefits/pitfalls to using the AMD?

Quite frankly, all I really want immediately is to get my client working, but since it is the low man on the totem pole in terms of need for power, I want to use whichever hardware does not wind up in the server. If I can get some thoughts on which of my two boards would be best, I will know where to begin on the client.

Thanks!

[stanger89]

Well I'll start with the comskip "problems". Comskip should not be causing problems regardless of what CPU you have. It should be running at a low enough priority that it doesn't disrupt the CPU for playback. And it should also (be configured to) not read the recordings so fast as to disrupt playback either.

I don't think throwing more CPU at the problem will help you if (and this is how I'm reading your situation) comskip is causing playback problems. In that case I think you need to look at your configuration, maybe adjust the disk usage throttling settings on them. In fact if the problem is reading data too fast, throwing a bigger CPU at it could make things worse.

As for your actual question, if I were building a high-ish powered system, I'd definitely be looking at the Core i7. I'm really close to building one of those myself to replace my desktop

[btrcp2000]

Skipping commercials while viewing is not causing problems, neither is detecting them in SD or OTA HD recordings via showanalyzer scans. The problems came when I used the Beta to analyze HD stuff from my r5000 and hdpvr. It actually did better than I thought, being a beta, but the server was pegged and couldn't do much else.

I don't really expect the hardware to immediately make this type of scanning flawless, after all it is pretty cutting edge beta stuff. But it seemed that the consensus was you would need quad core at least when it is stable.

Are my assumptions out of whack?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

Skipping commercials while viewing is not causing problems, neither is detecting them in SD or OTA HD recordings via showanalyzer scans. The problems came when I used the Beta to analyze HD stuff from my r5000 and hdpvr. It actually did better than I thought, being a beta, but the server was pegged and couldn't do much else.

That sounds like an SA beta problem. It will be pegged for sure, but it should run at a low priority and not negatively affect anything else. Seems like last time I tried the SA beta on my desktop it didn't actually "hurt" anything, other than showing 100% CPU on both cores.

I don't really expect the hardware to immediately make this type of scanning flawless, after all it is pretty cutting edge beta stuff. But it seemed that the consensus was you would need quad core at least when it is stable.

That's if you want to do it in real time, not the criteria for it to "work". I run commercial detection on my desktop (since it's got more horsepower), and the H.264 comskip works just fine, but it's about 1/2 to 1/3 or so real time on my dual core X2. The actual CPU, or amount of CPU power should have no effect on the quality of the scanning, or the impact to other operations. When it comes to commercial detection, more horsepower just means it will get done sooner, up until the point of the disk being the limiting factor.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by stanger89

That sounds like an SA beta problem. It will be pegged for sure, but it should run at a low priority and not negatively affect anything else. Seems like last time I tried the SA beta on my desktop it didn't actually "hurt" anything, other than showing 100% CPU on both cores.

I realize this is the way it is suppose to work, but I could always tell when my computer was doing something with it's "idle" cycles when I had a single-core machine. It wasn't until I got a dual-core machine that I stopped being able to notice that. I'm not sure if it was the bump in general speed of the machine, or the bump to dual-core (probably a combination of the two).

[gplasky]

One advantage of the GA-965P-DS3 is if you look at all the drivers available for that board from that site they actually have Windows 2003 server drivers avaialble for the whole board. Definitely a plus for WHS. Audio, chipset, LAN and SATA RAID. This should be a plus for you from a stability standpoint. (Of course any tuner you use won't but XP drivers usually work fine. I have a HD-PVR and a HDHR runnning on my WHS with no isuues.)

Gerry

[DOS64K]

Originally Posted by gplasky

One advantage of the GA-965P-DS3 is if you look at all the drivers available for that board from that site they actually have Windows 2003 server drivers avaialble for the whole board. Definitely a plus for WHS. Audio, chipset, LAN and SATA RAID. This should be a plus for you from a stability standpoint. (Of course any tuner you use won't but XP drivers usually work fine. I have a HD-PVR and a HDHR runnning on my WHS with no isuues.)

Gerry

Gerry's right. Don't let your comskip issues distract you from the fact that you will be using this with WHS. Most folks who "roll their own" WHS box find their experience lacking in some way because of a driver issue. Also keep in mind your overall power consumption/heat generation.