[mythtv-users] Failing hardware & FE/BE replacement, feedback

Phil Linttell phil.linttell at rogers.com
Tue Feb 1 13:19:16 UTC 2011


> Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:06:22 +1000
> From: Anthony Giggins <seven at seven.dorksville.net>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Failing hardware & FE/BE replacement
> 	feedback
> To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>
> On 22 January 2011 10:53, Anthony Giggins <seven at seven.dorksville.net>wrote:
>> > I've been given initial management go ahead to look at a replacement
>> > Combinded FE/BE due to the current motherboard failing (it was secondhand
>> > when I got it) basically it just freezes during high network load (ie
>> > transfering video files via the onboard sky2 gigabit network card) initially
>> > the issue started with just the network failing (required ifdown eth0
>> > followed by ifup eth0 to restore) but probably due to upgrading the network
>> > switch to gigabit its now escalating the issue to full system freezes.
>> >
>> > When the issue occurs there is nothing in the logs which makes me think the
>> > motherboard is failing?
>> >
>> > Anyway I have a Core 2 Duo CPU laying around unused would I be better off
>> > using this or go the whole hog and upgrade to i5 or i7 and possibly get more
>> > cores for transcoding & commflagging etc (will keep the nvidia GT240 for
>> > video decoding)
>> >
>> > Also the LGA775 boards I've seen only have 4 or 5 Sata ports so having
>> > possibly more on the i5/i7 board is also a plus :) and any power savings are
>> > a bonus but not required.
>> >
>> > Please if you have any recommendations let me know.
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> >
>> > Anthony
>> >
> No one has any suggestions or advice?

Anthony,

Sounds like you're intel-minded, so this may be more useful to others.  
We'll be seeing a new AMD CPU/chipset generation this year, but you can
get very price/good performance from what's currently on the market - it
might be worth you comparing vs i5/i7.

I had a combined FE/BE that seemed to get unstable after an OS upgrade,
and progressively got worse.  The system would freeze under high loads
(a DVD-rip with handbrake would always freeze.)  It turned out that the
fins on the CPU heat-sink had become clogged with dust.  Blowing out the
heat-sink and replacing the thermal paste made the system as good as new. 

However I also wanted to add more memory.  As  DDR2 memory is now more
expensive than (much faster) DDR3 memory,  I decided it was time to
upgrade my motherboard/memory/CPU.  I wanted a board with 6 x SATA 6Gb
and USB 3.0 support for the future, and support for more than 8GB RAM
should I need it for VM's.

For a "budget" BE/FE system I went with:

Asus M4A87TD-EVO
- 6 SATA 6GB/s + 1 ESATA 3.0 GB/s
- 2 USB 3.0 ports (+12 USB 2.0)
- 2 PCIe 2.0 x16 (one in x4 mode)
- 1 PCIe 2.0 x1
- 3 x PCI
- 1 x IEEE1394
- 1 x Gbit LAN
- max. 16 GB DDR3 (1066/1333/1600 or 2000(over-clocked) MHz)

The board has "core unlocker" which will automatically unlock unused
cores from AMD Phenom II processors.  I popped in a Phenom II X2 3.2GHz
CPU (HDZ555) and it was immediately recognized as having 4 cores. 1 of
the extra cores seemed okay at first, but the board automatically
disabled it later (further testing proved it was unstable) - so I ended
up with 3 usable cores.
I'll likely upgrade to an X6 when these drop in price.

Everything has been working fine under kubuntu 10.10 for about a month
since I purchased it (including on-board audio, which some people had
problems with using earlier OS (alsa) versions. 

With my previous board I'd been having problems with firewire
occasionally locking up after the 10.10 upgrade, resulting in 0-byte
recordings (I use the firewire for channel-changing with an HD-PVR).  
Channel changing is working fine using the firewire on the main board. 
I use the gigabit LAN to my router supporting multiple FE's.  

The board was US$114, plus $90 for what turned out to be a 3-core 3.2
GHz CPU, and 8GB (2x4GB) of DDR3 1600Mhz was $105.   So, $310 (+tax). 

You have your your GT240, but previously I had on-board nVIDIA
8200-series GPU (Asus M3N78-VM), so I needed a  video card.  I went with
an nVIDIA GTS-450 based card (this is a general purpose workstation, not
just FE/BE), although that necessitated a power supply upgrade as
well.    If it was just a combined FE/BE, I would have gone with a
fanless, less power-hungry VDPAU capable card and could have used my
existing PS.

Since motherboards with integrated VDPAU-capable GPUs are getting more
difficult to find, I'd recommend the above board for AMD users looking
to upgrade and planning to go with a separate nVidia card.

Phil




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