Looking for a powerful motherboard for a Media Center PC

tiburoncito · Post by **tiburoncito** » Tue May 24, 2005 9:50 am

Ladies and Gents,
First, sorry for the length of this email, but I want to make clear my
intentions.
For the last couple years or so, I have been thinking about building a
multimedia PC, A.K.A. Media Center PC. I have been cautious because I want a system that will cover all my requirements AND that does NOT use MS Windows in any way or shape. I want it to be a Linux based Server.
Here are the server specs:

1. Must be Linux based.
2. The box will be a full high tower.
3. The power supply must provide enough power for all the devices and perhaps some external devices.
4. Need enough cooling power to dissipate anticipated heat.
5. A mother board with PCI-E connections. I was looking into the BTX
motherboards because of the cooling capabilities they provide. But I
might have OS support problems. It should also support DDR2, SATA2, 800MHz BUS, 802.11g WLAN, mutliple USB ports, one firewire port, 8 channel audio or better.
6. Either Intel or AMD processor of at least 3.xGHz
7. At least 1GB RAM
8. The box must have enough bays to hold a good number of hard drives
since I plan to collect lots of data. I would like to start with about
1000GB of disk space (3 or 4 sata2 drives?)
9. Two DVD-burners. I already have two 16x Dual-Layers (One Memorex and one Sony) burners. I burned at least 8 movies per week. I use dvd shrink under MS Windows, as it breaks the protection. I am not doing anything illegal. I purchase lots of movies and then I back them up
just in case the original gets scratched.
10. Enough USB2 ports to connect: Static digital camera, my digital
camcorder, mouse, keyboard (not necessary), three external USB drives
that I already have, USB printer that I already have. I want the USB
ports on the front, if at all possible.
11. Comm: Ethernet 10/100/1000 NIC, Wireless Ethernet, Bluetooth?,
12. Media adapter (e.g. Avermedia, ATI E-Home Wonder, Etc.) with
TV/DVI Tuner and FM Radio Tuner and connection for my cable-tv input.
13. Media adapter: TV-Out. In other words, I want to play a DVD on the Media PC and sent the output to the TV. Perhaps I am not using the
correct name.
14. A powerful graphics card such as nVIDIA GeForce PCI-E.
15. 6-Channel Audio.
16. I want to connect my Turn-Table, Receivers, TV, Cable Box
(PINNACLE PCTV pro?)
17. I want to connect X10 Firecracker device.
18. X10 Home Security to control surveillance cameras and to capture
security videos.
19. Connection for an all-in-one media reader: Smartmedia,
SecureDigital (SD), MMC, Microdrive, MemoryStick, CompactFlash, Etc.

Could anyone please make some suggestions?

Thank you for your time

-mogwai · Post by **-mogwai** » Tue May 24, 2005 11:19 am

i didn't read through your litany of requirements, but i have a d925xcv that might be to your liking. check to see if this meets your demands. it's brand new and has never been opened.

tiburoncito · Post by **tiburoncito** » Thu May 26, 2005 10:23 am

This mobo contains almost everything I want, except the following components:

Missing inboard:
SATA2, Wireless and Firewire.

Searching on the web for a mobo with all the components is quick difficult. If you happen to know of a website where I can look I will truly appreciated.
Oh, sorry for my litany, I just wanted to be clear.

Thank you

-mogwai · Post by **-mogwai** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:45 am

tiburoncito wrote:This mobo contains almost everything I want, except the following components:

Missing inboard:
SATA2, Wireless and Firewire.

Searching on the web for a mobo with all the components is quick difficult. If you happen to know of a website where I can look I will truly appreciated.
Oh, sorry for my litany, I just wanted to be clear.

Thank you

it's got slots for that stuff

tiburoncito · Post by **tiburoncito** » Sat May 28, 2005 8:34 pm

I found the following motherboard, which appears to satisfy some of my needs: Asus P5WD2 Premium Motherboard.

Thank you

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Sat May 28, 2005 9:41 pm

I am in the process of writing up the review on the P5WD2 Premium. Probably done sometime next week, but so far I am very impressed with it. definitely should be on anyones short list.

tiburoncito · Post by **tiburoncito** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 8:48 am

capper5016, before I buy this motherboard, I'll wait for your review. I am new to this MOBO business and would like to have as much info as possible, before investing any greens. If you have any further info, please send it to me via email ([email protected]), if you don't mind.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 9:03 am

not a problem at all. I'm waiting for my prommie as I'm going to use it with this board
So far I love this board, runs great.

tiburoncito · Post by **tiburoncito** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 9:32 am

Sorry, as I said before, I am learning about MOBOS. What is a prommie???
I did a google search and it looks like it is a CPU, although most of the hits were to report problems with it. What do you get with a prommie, that you can't get with a "standard" CPU, if this prommie thing is a CPU?

Sorry for asking stupid questions.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 9:40 am

Extreme Cooling Technologies
http://www.extremecoolingtechnologies.c ... eteia.html