LGA 775 motherboard with 5 PCI (33MHz slots)

[ColdFusion718]

I was wondering if you guys know of an LGA 775 board which supports Pentium D (dual core) CPUs that have 5 PCI slots (for TV tuners). Since most of you guys are experts, I figured this is a good place to turn to for help.

Among the ones I found were but I'm not sure they support dual core CPUs:

Asus P5P800
DFI 865PE-TAG

Those two both mentioned supporting the Prescott core. If you guys know of an LGA 775 board that supports Pentium D Dual Cores with 5 PCI slots, please let me know. Thanks!

 

[openwheelformula1]

for HTPC PCI-E is highly recommeneded. yes you lose a couple PCI slots, but you gain a couple PCI-E slots. PCI-E graphic cards are cheaper and you have more options to choose from. Most importantly HDCP compliant cards will be available for PCI-E, not AGP.

If you really must have 5 PCI slots, then Asus P5P800 SE is your best choice.

 

[ColdFusion718]

Hmm but there aren't any HDTV tuners available right now that come in the PCI-E 1x form factor, hence the need for those older PCI 33MHz slots. I'm going for 4 HD+1 analog tuners.

So anyways, does the Intel 865PE chipset support Pentium D processors?

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: openwheelformula1
for HTPC PCI-E is highly recommeneded.

y? There are almost no PCI-e capture cards available.

 

[ColdFusion718]

Originally posted by: TerryMathews

Originally posted by: openwheelformula1
for HTPC PCI-E is highly recommeneded.

y? There are almost no PCI-e capture cards available.

I couldn't find any PCI-e capture cards either. My plan is to build a PVR, not a kickass gaming machine--that's not until the summer.

 

[openwheelformula1]

First of all, it's not recommended to filled all 5 PCI slots with ATSC or analogue tuners. Some of those 5 PCI slots will have capacitors or other items preventing you from installing a capture card. For example my Dvico Fusion5 can only be installed on 3 of the 5 PCI slots on my Abit NF7-S. On top of that, at least one of those PCI slots will share IRQ with your graphic card which causes stuttering. Also IRQ sharing with SATA controller is a problem too. Sure there are almost no PCI-e tuners available, but there will be. Why limit yourself to the current generation of buggy capture cards. Another advantage is the higher wider selection of graphic cards and upgrade path to HDCP if you plan on watching BlueRay or HD-DVD. Want H.264 hardware acceleration? Your only option for passive cooling is 6600GT if you go AGP.

ps. why 4 ATSC tuners? seems way overkill considering there are only a few OTA channels available. Don't forget the possibility of ATI's cable card solution and DirectTV's internal card.

 

[ColdFusion718]

Originally posted by: openwheelformula1
First of all, it's not recommended to filled all 5 PCI slots with ATSC or analogue tuners. Some of those 5 PCI slots will have capacitors or other items preventing you from installing a capture card. For example my Dvico Fusion5 can only be installed on 3 of the 5 PCI slots on my Abit NF7-S. On top of that, at least one of those PCI slots will share IRQ with your graphic card which causes stuttering. Also IRQ sharing with SATA controller is a problem too. Sure there are almost no PCI-e tuners available, but there will be. Why limit yourself to the current generation of buggy capture cards. Another advantage is the higher wider selection of graphic cards and upgrade path to HDCP if you plan on watching BlueRay or HD-DVD. Want H.264 hardware acceleration? Your only option for passive cooling is 6600GT if you go AGP.

ps. why 4 ATSC tuners? seems way overkill considering there are only a few OTA channels available. Don't forget the possibility of ATI's cable card solution and DirectTV's internal card.

My cable company doesn't do CableCard and I am not going to wait for them to decide to do that. I get unencrypted QAM over coaxial and I only watch ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX anyways. You know all those shows in HD? I only watch those, a lot of the times, they overlap. Also, I don't feel like wasting 15 minutes watching commercials every episode (I will be using MythTV to record & detect/delete commercials). For these very reasons, it's worth it to me to spend the money.

As of right now, the only solutions available are PCI or USB (not going with USB). Once tuners come out using PCI-e 1x and HD-DVD/BluRay become established, I'll just build another box. Besides, I have extra dough to piss away this month.

The reason I asked is because I need a solution relatively soon, not 6-12 months down the road.

 

[openwheelformula1]

good luck with the build. Keep in mind that not every card is QAM compatible. Dvico Fusion5 is the most popular QAM capable card, but it's the one with clearance issues. I highly doubt you can use 4 Dvico Fusion5, but you could take a look at the pictures and give it a try. Make sure you have proper setup for hard drives to avoid noisy seeking and head movements during multiple recording. 1 big hard drive won't be enough, and 2 might not either.

My solution to your situation would be two separate HTPCs with a proper network setup. One for living room and one for bedroom. One could be the full time gaming rig and part time PVR. This way you can watch and recording on one while recording two from another. Two tuners for each rig. Honestly I think you'll have either heat or noise issues with 5 tuners, PentiumD and multiple harddrives. Unless you use a regular and well ventilated tower.