[mythtv-users] Motherboard Recommendation needed

[John Drescher]

>> ASUS M3N78 PRO AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard -
>> Retail $104.99
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131320
>
> One thing that concerns me is I have heard ASUS reputation for support
> is in decline and some of the Newegg reviews seem to reflect some
> recent reliability issues with other ASUS boards. I would like to get
> something that could last 5-10 years.
>
Of the 20+ ASUS boards I have purchased at work / home / others the
only problem I have ever had was the chipset fan died. These new
boards do not have a chipset fan so no worries anymore for that.

> These new AMD based boards have the highest FSB speeds I have seen
> (2600MHz).  How much of an issue is this when you use 7200rpm SATA
> harddrives?  Would it be significant if one adds drives over time to
> get a total of 4-6 drives?
>
Probably not much but AMD cpus do have a better bandwith to the GPU
and to IO since the memory and the IO buses are connected
independently and directly to the cpu.

> What board would you use if you don't need all those PCI slots?
>
There are several other ASUS boards I would choose. At work I use M2N
boards but this is choice is maninly because I can no longer buy from
newegg and have to use the "approved" vendor even though their prices
are higher on most items. I admit they do box the items better than
newegg though.

>> Pair that with a
>> AMD Athlon 64 X2 5800+ Brisbane 3.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2
>> 89W Dual-Core Processor - OEM
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103274 $95.00
>
> I have been attempting to learn more about processors and other issues
> relating to building systems and my impression is Intel's 45nm
> technology will run cooler and use less power.  What would you
> recommend for Intel based boards with 3 PCI slots?
>
Don't know that much about intel boards now. I buy around 30 amd cpus
to every intel one. And most of the intel ones are ready built
systems.

>
>> And a
>> ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail  $25.99
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185125
>
> One thing that really concerns me a lot is cooling and dust.  That
> heatsink appears to have fins very close together and looks like it
> would be great at collecting dust and a pain to clean. Some of the
> Antec cases have filters and that could be big help in that the case
> filters could be easily cleaned more frequently than the hard to clean
> CPU heatsink.  On these old Dell machines we have they don't have a
> fan directly connected to the heatsink, they have a bigger fan
> connected to the case and a hood to channel the air over the heatsink.
> The heatsink fins are not too close together and they don't seem to
> trap the dust and impede the cooling. Something where the design
> avoids the dust accumulating in the CPU heatsink would be ideal.  What
> would you recommend for the cooling and dust issue?
>
I have a dozen of these at work and I am very impressed at the cooling
ability of these versus heatsinks from 3 years back. They keep my
5500s (work ac) under 40C with full load on both cores. As for dust,
not really a big problem at work but at home I would vacuum the
computer every 2 to 3 years.

John