Where have all the PCI slots gone????

[Noakes]

I don't know about anyone else, but as the PC world moves on it seems to be making it harder for the enthusiast to make a medusa type BTV system. It seems that one must now remove all there single tuner cards and replace them with dual tuner cards if you're building a new system or replacing a card. Al the newer MB's support 3 PCI slots... :-( some maybe 4. I myself have 4 PVR 250's.. I have read many forums stating that Hauppauge's PVR 500 has terrible picture quality. I have also seen there is a new PCI card out that does over the air HD and cable on the same card but haven't read anyone’s reviews on it. So I was just wondering what everyone’s thoughts were on this matter. Pros.. Cons... Better cards.. PCIE cards...???

Later all
Noakes

[merrypig]

pcie = better. Plan for it.

[Flatus]

Originally Posted by merrypig

pcie = better. Plan for it.

Would it be that easy--planning on one hardware iteration as being the forseeable standard.

Right now I have half a dozen AGP cards that will no longer fit in MBs with the latest AGP standard. And modem riser cards, PCI something-or-other, that have risen for the last time.

And that says nothing about the thousands of dollars worth of working, top quality cards that will not fit in anything.

And the dozens of sticks of RAM that are useless.

I've pretty well decided on buying second-tier stuff, planning to use it for a year or two, then replacing it with the then current iteration of junk. No more cutting-edge stuff for me--it's just a lousy investment.

Flatus

[Khris]

Originally Posted by Noakes

I have read many forums stating that Hauppauge's PVR 500 has terrible picture quality.

This is not true.

Although there are two different kinds of PVR 500s (which have different chipsets), only one of them is bad. I've got two PVR 500s and love them!.

[Parrothead]

You have the option of adding USB2-based capture cards that will mean even more snakes on your HTPC head.

[Noakes]

Wow!

Im surprised more people didnt chime in. I understand there is a new standard, heck I've lived through many of them throught the years. It just seems funny to me that the industry is so quick to close the door on the PCI standard even though they don't have the same apples to apples configuration ability with PCI-E. I mean who decided how many slot were to be a standard on newer MB's? Many of the MB's I see now are only looking at SLI. In a BTV PC who could give a crud about SLI? I my self have always stayed just behind the tech curve as far as buying is concerned, but I resent the industry trying to force one to make changes that are unecessary. If it aint broke why would you want to fix/replace it?

Noakes

[Mistergq]

Originally Posted by Noakes

Wow!

Im surprised more people didnt chime in. I understand there is a new standard, heck I've lived through many of them throught the years. It just seems funny to me that the industry is so quick to close the door on the PCI standard even though they don't have the same apples to apples configuration ability with PCI-E. I mean who decided how many slot were to be a standard on newer MB's? Many of the MB's I see now are only looking at SLI. In a BTV PC who could give a crud about SLI? I my self have always stayed just behind the tech curve as far as buying is concerned, but I resent the industry trying to force one to make changes that are unecessary. If it aint broke why would you want to fix/replace it?

Noakes

I will agree this much - to date, Hauppauge has not released a PCIe version of the card. I also agree that at this point AGP gets the job done and we do not need SLI.

[Joe The Dude]

I agree that It's getting very hard to find a decent board that supports dual core processors and has enough regular PCI Slots to fit my needs.

Also, I've yet to see a PCI Express version of the Sound Blaster line of Soundcards, yet they do have an external USB Version...


If someone were to come up with a Motherboard that had a decent chipset, One PCI Express x16 Slot, Six PCI Express x1 slots, Four SATAII Ports that supported vairous RAID types (including a Stripe), DDRII 800 or better, and Dual Core CPU Support, It would grab my attention.

That is to say, it would grab my attention If I could go out and buy Six PCI Express x1 Dual-ATSC OTA HDTV Tuners (do they even exist?) and use them all at the same time with BTV on the above imaginary motherboard.

Oh and to sweeten the deal, and to save those of us who already have a dedicated BTV Server that's already stuffed with Tuners we still want to use, True BTV support for multiple servers (not just the lame folder-sharing or "Server Select" method of today ~ this has been discussed before elsewhere) would be icing on the cake.

But back to the topic at hand...
You can see from my sig that I'm using all 4 PVR-500's in my Core2Duo Motherboard, so that I can have a total of eight SD Tuners.
They're the good kind, what most people refer to as the "Type C Cards".
But yeah, I also have an extra PVR-500 (Type A) and a PVR-150 that I can't use on that board because it lacks two more standard PCI Slots.

I dunno.
I highly doubt it, but maybe someone will come out with a Quad-ATSC-OTA-HD Tuner that can go in a PCI Express x1 slot, and maybe we'll be able to install three of them in a single motherboard that has:
Dual Core Support.
DDRII Support (Four DIMMS)
Onboard video, Audio and Gigabit LAN.
Three PCI Express Slots.
Four Four PCI Slots.

Or, and I doubt I'll ever live to see it, some Dual-QAM-Tuners in both PCI and PCI Express formats that support Cable Card, BeyondTV, and has no DRM Restrictions; ie:
No auto-expiration of recorded shows.
Able to convert and burn to DVD and/or HD-DVD and/or BluRay without paying an extra fee.

Erm.. sorry about my rant for today.


But, um, yeah, I think that until hardware manafacturers fully embrace the PCI Express format, they should at least make some PC Cases that have an extra layer of slots, and include a PCI Express to PCI Riser Card or the like.

The Riser Card could convert a PCI Express slot into seven PCI Slots that could be mounted in another row of slots above the existing ones.
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
- - - - - - - - - - Horizontal Riser Card Connector w/seven PCI Slots.
(...Exaust fans...) Several Vertical Riser Card Connection options but only need to use one.
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
- - - - - - - - - - Motherboard's Slots.

But again, even though it's a great idea for people with a wad of cash and desire to make the ultimate home-built DVR, I doubt I'd ever see such a thing.

[MGS]

I remember reading years ago when all 32mhz pci slots where going to all be 64mhz and that has not happend and probably not going to. Everything is going exturnal usb2 and such.