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2 PCI/1 ISA left: Best solution for USB (2.0, 1394), TV Tuner, NIC

alkemyst

alkemyst

No Lifer
I have a Abit BX6r2.0 and it's great for me...however one limitation is the two USB ports. I would like to add 2.0 USB actually and maybe a couple Firewire 1394's, but that is very optional as almost everything I can think of is fine with USB 1.1 (my webcam, Epson Printer, and future: graphics tablet, USB mouse, UPS, Palm cradle, game controller, etc).

I would like a TV Tuner and I will need a NIC again once I get back on broadband. I know they make TV tuners that plug into a USB port, but I haven't heard much about them and how good they are. If they are just as good except like having a HUGE dongle behind your machine I can deal with that and it would make it easy for me to add a USB 2/Firewire combo card and connect the TV tuner to it.

I also want to start playing DVD's on my PC and heard hardware decoders are best....so whereever that fits into the above scenario too.

I have 2 PCI and 1 ISA left (or 1 PCI and 2 ISA).

What would be the best solution?

Chris
 
That combo card looks like something you should consider.

When you move to broadband you could remove your modem and replace it with a NIC, then just get a USB2.0/Firewire card and a TV tuner and you'd be set.

As for a DVD decoder, your Radeon 8500 will offer great performce, and a separate decoder will be unnecessary.
 
Yeah I'd forget about the hard dvd decoder if you just want to watch on your PC, any recent video card and cpu should be enough for that job.

It might be hard to fill up those ISA slots since ISA is phased out so to save your PCI slots for other cards, I recommend you get a ISA NIC. I picked up a 3com 10/100 NIC (3C515-TX) for pretty cheap on e-bay for an old socket 7 backup machine. Win2k recognized it fine and it works great for me. Now, however, I moved to a wireless setup so I just use a USB wireless NIC, something else you may want to consider.


Anyways nice to see another user still chuggin along with this ancient chipset. 🙂 Long live the BX!
 
Would not recommend a USB TV tuner. I've seen no reports of good quality from those.
I'd recommend:
1. A 4-port USB hub. Entrega makes a good one. However, if removing an internal PCI modem
is an option, then get a 4-port USB 2.0 PCI card to replace the modem.
Staples had one for free after rebate last week.
2. A Leadtek PCI TV tuner card from Newegg. Or, Hauppauge is also a good brand.
3. An inexpensive PCI NIC. Can usually be found for about $5 after rebate,
(weekly special deals at local office supply or electronics store (Best Buy, Circuit City)).
4. Leave the ISA slot empty.

 
I never had a modem in a PCI slot, mine is external.

I am interested in that NIC/USB2/Firewire card, anyone know the NIC's compatibility and reliability?

I thought hardware DVD decoding was better, but many have said with my 1.4GHz processor and the AGP Radeon 8500 128MB I will be more than fine.

 
Another vote for PCI only - combo card and TV tuner.

This combo card has a Realtek chip, and those are used often for onboard NICs, such as on ASUS boards (the one I am writing this on, for instance), etc.
I would not use them in a server environment (although they probably would handle it well), but it's fine stability wise.
 
In my experience, hardware decoding is generally worse. I've used both the Creative DXR2 and the Videologic (can't remember the model) cards and the picture is far less crisp than with software decoding.

With your CPU and Graphics card, you'd be better of doing it in software IMHO.
 
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