On Nov 20, 2007, at 3:08 PM, Lan Barnes wrote:
OK. But what chipsets do I want or want to avoid? Or can anyone make a
recommendation? I don't need a barn burner. 1.5 GHz or so, working
DMA,
1/2 to 1 G RAM, maybe an AGP for the old GForce MX 4000, at least 2
PCI
slots for the pvr-150s, preferrably a local vendor.
My general rule for desktop stability is to use Intel chipsets, and if
possible Intel motherboards. They're not enthusiast or overclocking
friendly, but then overclocking is not necessarily friendly to
stability.
The problem you're going to run into is the constant pace of change.
We had Pentium processors go from 478 pin FPGA to 775 pin LGA. We had
RAM go from standard 133MHz to DDR to DDR2 (with a brief but crappy
stop in Rambus town). We had video cards go from AGP to PCI-Express.
As a result, a motherboard upgrade done more than 6 months after
system purchase invariably requires some amount of new components, or
searching through vendors' new-old-stock or Craigslist posts to find
something that matches your requirements... as you are now finding.
I may have an answer for you... I have at home a fully built and known-
stable-under-MythTV system that I'm looking to get off my floor. It's
2-3 years old, but has a Pentium 4 2.4GHz and Intel-chipset
motherboard with a good amount of RAM and some hard drive space. It's
in an AV-center friendly sized Antec case (Overture). It's been
unused on my floor for a few months, so when I get home I'll boot it
up and check that everything is intact and send you a private email
with further details. I'm not looking to sell it for any sort of
fortune, so I suspect we may be able to work something out that fits
your budget and lets you move past this headache. I'll also throw in
a very old ~500Mhz Celeron system I have sitting in my office... the
internals may not be worth much, but the ATX case is in good shape and
might make a good home for your old MythTV components.
--
Joshua Penix http://www.binarytribe.com
Binary Tribe Linux Integration Services & Network Consulting
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