[mythtv-users] OT: Abit NF7-S v2 questions

[Matt Hannan]

I bought this mobo to replace my aging Asus A7V133-C that had IDE 
controller issues under Linux, so my MythTV was always locking up on me.
One of the reasons I bought this particular Abit board was because of 
the onboard sound:

* Onboard 6-channel AC97 Codec
* Professional digital audio interface supports optical S/PDIF OUT
* NVIDIA SoundStorm Technology with real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoder

Yes, that is to quote the manual.

Anyway, I timed my purchase of the board to the final release of Fedora 
Core 2 so that I could take advantage of the native ALSA support that 
FC2 boasted so highly about.
I have to say, the sound has been the roughest aspect of this build to 
get going.
It is working now, but I want it to work better.

Right now, my MythBox is hooked to a set of analog 5.1 Creative 
speakers. It was fairly easy to "fake out" my last MythBox 1.4 under RH9 
because i was hooked into my stereo receiver for 5.1 (tho not AC3) output.
I was wondering if anyone out there has the same mobo and FC2 but with 
digital 5.1 speakers and if they can speak to the added quality of going 
that route. I understand that SoundStorm may never be supported in a 
non-Windows environment, which is sad. I would love to record straight 
to 5.1 digital!!

Also, this mobo sports SATA-150 connectors. I am not looking to do RAID 
with it, but the chipset is Silicon Image Sil 3112A. My 120gig UDMA133 
drive is starting to get a bit full, so I am thinking of moving all my 
videos and MP3 collection to a 200gig SATA drive and point MythTV at it, 
as well. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, my trepidation stems from a 
buddy of mine pulling his hair out trying to get Linux installed on a 
SATA system. Mandrake 10.1, just this past weekend, finally solved this 
issue for him. Scratch another Windows user! Heh heh.

Anyway, can anyone speak to the ease or difficulty in installing a SATA 
drive in this system under FC2?

Thanks. I know this is a bit OT, but it is in a round-about way MythTV 
related.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Matt