[vdr] Re: Hardware recommendation?

[Stephan Martin <dvb@martin.de>]

Hi Christianm,

Christian Bodenstedt wrote:

> > Most important for me is, that its stable 
> as I don't use my slowest old 13.5GB-HD or try
> working on the 3 other HD's at the same time. 
what problems do you have with your harddrives?
never had problems with that except when using the
hdparm-options marked as dangerous.

But things like that are, why I want to stop using products from VIA and AMD 
and start using products from Intel again. I don't want to think, when am I 
allowd to use my discs and stuff...

I know there were/are problems accessing another disc on the same bus
with VIA and also with CMD640 chips on Intelboards.
-> No Board with that funny southbridge or cmd640 for me.
   I will also not by any boards with chips on it called 'cmd...'
   as long it is possible.


I am also interessted in which parts the probleme causes, so could you
try watching TV (Time-shift) on a full-featured card (which revision ?) with 
xawtv (perhaps full-screen), start 'updatedb' and tell me if it works longer 
than 30 minutes?



> BUT: all HD's are jumpered master as the board has 4 IDE channels. When I
> let it only play back a movie with mplayer I never noticed problems.
What kind of problems du you have when copying files?

> Maybe it would be the better choice to choose a mainbord that is as "old"
> as the cheap processor. 
If producers of the boards don't write in their manuals "We don't support this
and that processor" and if the components are mainstream and the best
Performance/Euro and they are not able to make the known (older)
components reliable, how should they make components work, that didn't exist
when designing a board?

I think processors don't change as fast... so if they support new ones and
they support the frequencys and the voltage, there should be no problem
related to an older tested processor.


> Then you can be sure that the bord works more
> reliable as the manufacturer had enough time to write a bios or fix some
> other problems.
But they do it usualy mostly for the windows users. I do not trust them any 
longer, that they fixing problems. I am looking for something reliable where
I know that the problems are fixed.

I would love to know a website with linux specific information about what 
problems are there with which hardware. How do the vendors and manufactures
see linux? Do they support linux and are they helpful?

I would certainly take that into account when making my decisions. I want to 
pay more money for good developed and testet hardware. But how can I find it
except of trusing into names.

> Also I don't think you would have spent more money if you
> had bought the duron with a kt133(a)-bord and would buy an Athlon XP with
> kt333-board in future. 
I had an kt133 (elitegroup) before. It had a few problems, but the computer of 
my brother broke and he needs a computer for his buissness.

I tested his board (JETWAY 663AS) and I could reproduce crashes, I changed 
CPU, RAM, GFX BIOS options... So I gave him mine where I know were the 
problems are. (No Jetway for me any longer)

So I had that Duron 800 and had to buy a new board and new RAM (my brother 
needed more RAM anyway) PC266 was nearly the price as PC266 and I would have
bought a new cpu, but I had to many problems with it.

I would probably buy a kt133, but I didn't find one, I can trust.

> Your pc freezes completely? Maybe a problem with your power supply?
I have only problems doing videooverlay. I think video overlay doesn't
need more power than copying the bytes with the cpu.
>
> Are two of these HDDs on the same IDE-channel (one as master, the other
> slave)? 
yes, but again: I never had problems with things like
make -j 8 bzImage and updatedb and copying 2GB from one HD to another
at the same time.
And tuxview/xawtv/fbtv with videooverlay makes my computer freeze.

Maybe it is the Siemens DVB?
(I have no problems with mplayer, but I don't kow if they use videooverlay)
But why don't I find information about others with the same problem?

> If I were you, first I'd (again) try the newest bios available. Then I'd
> maybe upgrade the CPU to a cheap Athlon XP, as I don't think the kt266a
> was built for fsb200-durons. Also a faster CPU won't hurt if your
> power-supply can keep up with the higher currents that'll flow to the CPU.
Me or someone else needs a new computer anyway. So I just try the next 
chipset/manufacturer. This time it will be intel
> Good luck,
Thanks

> Christian
>
> P.S.: If you want to, you may send me a german mail describing your whole
>       actual System (Hardware and Software). That would be easier for me.
I already decided to buy something different. I spend to much time and have to 
many negativ feelings with that epox board.
But I don't want to make the same misstakes over and over, so I start asking...

Gruß

SMartin




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