[MPlayer-users] Re: Hardware question

[Steven M. Schultz]

Hi -

> From: Tobias Diedrich <ranma at gmx.at>
> I wonder if VIA managed to sort out the PCI problems with the newer
> chipsets. I have an ASUS K7V266A with the VIA KT-266A chipset and the

	I don't think they have ;(

	The mjpegtools mailinglist (not archived as far as I know) has many
	tales of woe with folks trying to use VIA chipset boards to do video
	capture.

> PCI performance just sucks. It will crash rather reliably if I try to
> use the TV Card, Soundcard and Disk Busmaster DMA at the same time.
> 
	Yep - PCI bus loading  and the VIA chipsets just do not get along
	well.

> I really would like to recommend AMD, but for serious work I'll have to
> recommend Intel instead...

	There are motherboards with AMD PCI chipsets and those work well
	from what I've heard - ASUS makes a good dual Athlon board for
	example.   

	Just check the spec sheet - if it lists VIA move on till you find
	one that uses the AMD chipset.  It really is that simple ;) 

	For serious work a dual cpu system is a Good Thing.  Good Things
	do not come cheap though ;)

	I took the easy way (not all that much more expensive - dual cpu
	AMD or Intel systems are not far apart in price) and went with an
	Intel (Intel PCIset 860 based) system.   

	Cheers,
	Steven Schultz
	sms at 2bsd.com