Micro ATX form factor w/Blu-ray/DVB PCI card/Video capture card,etc?

R

remember

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Does anybody know if there would be any problems with using a Micro ATX form factor for my Mobo & computer case with regards to my Blu-ray burner?
(Perhaps the Blu-ray burners need the more ample cooling area of a larger ATX case or Micro ATX mobo's are lacking something that Blu-ray burners may require?)

Also, the mobo must have room for the HDCP video card required for Blu-ray as well as a DVB PCI card for viewing sat TV and some type of Video capture? card for direct recording of programs on to my hard drive. And lastly some kind of wireless adapter card for internet connectivity. Sounds like a lot for a Micro ATX board, but I have seen that they(MicroATX mobo's) have on average 4 expansion slots.

But I dont know what kind of slots are necessary. AGP, PCI or PCI-Express? Can any body please help me on all this?
 
Some of the latest mATX motherboards have onboard HDMI if that's what you're after; one example of this is the Abit Fatal1ty F-190HD, it uses the ATi Xpress 1250 and has a HDMI socket onboard. It's an Intel board and would support the Core 2 Duo's. You can get TV capture and satellite cards combined I think now although I may be wrong.
 
It says that this board has
PCI Express x16 1
PCI Express x1 2
PCI Slots 1

but I dont know what kind of slots the various cards I'm after require? even if the DVB PCI and video capture card are built together as one card, what kind of slot are they? x1 or x16?

Plus, one of the satellite receivers I still use, needs to have a serial connection for the null modem cable of down/uploading of new updates. That mobo looks like it doesn't have that ability.

*(&^($ this is just too complicated. As far as the HDMI connection, it has to be HDCP compliant, otherwise Blu-ray will not even allow playing of their own Blu-ray movies at their full res(sounds crazy but I think its true). I checked at
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/support/answerbox_productfaq.jsp?FID=2577
and that ATI card is not listed, so I don't think I can use this mobo.

Just to hold me over and so I study in the right direction, can anyone answer the first part of my many sided questions? Will a Micro ATX mobo/computer case cause any problems or make any drawbacks with my Blu-ray burner in lieu of using a standard ATX form system?
 
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I'm no pro, and i dont know anything about blue-ray, but i reckon as long as you can find a micro atx board with all the required expansion slots, then you'll have no problems...

the wireless adapter and tv capture/satellite cards will be PCI, and the graphics card will be PCI express (x16).
I cant say i've ever seen a PCI express x1 slot being used (but like i said, i'm no pro)...

if you have one tv tuner, you can use that to watch a tv channel and record it to your hard drive simultaneously, but if you want to watch one channel while recording another channel to your hard drive, you'll need two tuners.

If you can get a card with both a DVB and satellite tuners, it might be worth getting two of them, that way you can watch one and record another simultaneously, regardless if its a satellite channel or not.

So if you find a micro ATX with 3 PCI slots, and 1 PCI express (x16) slot (for example: the Gigabyte GA-945GME-DS2), then you can have the 2 tuners, a wireless adapter, and a graphics card...

i've rambled on a bit but i hope i've helped!
 
No, you didn't ramble. You should have kept going.

I'm very glad to hear that you have never heard of anything being used for a PCI-express x1, or were you only referring to the graphics cards?

Thats exactly what I needed to know, that the video capture and DVB and internet cards will be PCI and the graphics card PCI express x16

And thank you for reminding me about the dual TV tuner. Exactly what I want. To be able to watch one channel and record another at the same time. While I'm at it, is it possible to record 2 channels at the same time and watch a 3rd?

But then you said "get a card with both a DVB and satellite tuners, that way you can watch one and record another simultaneously regardless if its a satellite channel or not" How am I going to watch any TV if its not from satellite? Thats how I get all my TV channels. Are you talking about TV from the internet?

The board looks pretty nice. Its got the right number/type of slots I need, plus its got the serial connection, which some others didn't. The only thing I'm worried about are the reviews. One person says, the board didn't recognize 2gigs of RAM, which is the max. I'd kind of like to have 4. I often have Google Earth, Ipod Radio, loads of web surfing running at the same time, and now with the Blu-ray, well, its a damn good recommend, but I'm also curious why one reviewer said "Don't waste a Core 2 on it." I have a E4300. Why do you think that reviewer said that? If I find the same thing with 4gigs I'd probably buy it right now and hopefully the reviews are all good too. But let me know what you think about the 2 gig RAM max.

Thanks for your help. I felt like I was 10% of the way to choosing a mobo, before reading your thread. Now I feel like I'm 80-90% sure of which mobo to get.
 
remember said:
I'm very glad to hear that you have never heard of anything being used for a PCI-express x1, or were you only referring to the graphics cards?
Click to expand...
well i've never seen any type of card use a x1 PCI express slot...


remember said:
While I'm at it, is it possible to record 2 channels at the same time and watch a 3rd?
Click to expand...
yeah, but then you'd need a 3rd tuner...


remember said:
But then you said "get a card with both a DVB and satellite tuners, that way you can watch one and record another simultaneously regardless if its a satellite channel or not" How am I going to watch any TV if its not from satellite? Thats how I get all my TV channels. Are you talking about TV from the internet?
Click to expand...
I didnt realise you only used satellite broadcasts, so dont worry about getting a terrestrial tuner (which is what i meant by DVB), just get a couple of satellite tv tuners. Heres one a shop near me stocks, not sure if its any good though: Compro VideoMate - S350


remember said:
The board looks pretty nice. Its got the right number/type of slots I need, plus its got the serial connection, which some others didn't. The only thing I'm worried about are the reviews.
Click to expand...
yeah i was looking at that one for a media PC (my case restricts me to a micro atx board) but the reviews have turned me away from it too... I have no idea why one bloke said not to use that cpu, i'm planning on using an E6600 so i'm a bit annoyed too.
I'm not gonna get that board, i'm gonna keep looking for something more reliable that can take a bit more ram if i feel the need to upgrade.

no worries about the advice, but dont forget i'm no expert on this stuff, i'm only learing as i go...
 
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You can get PCI-Ex1 cards, Hauppage make a TV tuner for this slot and a lot of controller cards use it. I think if you have a satellite box already you can use a normal TV tuner card as well.
 
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