Be better if they'd post a speed comparison of SATA RAID5 vs SCSI

Where the BLOODY HEll are my 33Mhz, 32bit PCI Slots?!?

I'm looking into building a HTPC with 1x 1394a (for the iPod), 1x DVB-C and 2x DVB-S2 all PCI Cards of course.

Instead I get a half dozen PCI-e slots for thos über €600.00(EUR) Grafx Cards.

Ok I'll accept that IDE is dead, but a Mobo win only Two PCI Slots is truly unacceptable...

Erm... why not choose a different board?

Once motherboards start drastically reducing their PCI slots, companies will convert their cards from PCI to PCIe.

When I bought my first (and only retail) PC I remember people telling me it was a bad choice because it had had 2 ISA slots. They said the PCI slot was only for video cards. :)

'Where the BLOODY HEll are my 33Mhz, 32bit PCI Slots?!?'

Getting scarcer on all mobos Im afraid, most stuff we used to slap on PCI now tends to get stuck on USB 2.0 (modems/video capture/tv tuners etc.) or built on to the board (sound/LAN etc.)

Yeah it sucks a little, the inside of the pc has the clutter reduced but it gets transferred to the clutter of USB cables that hang off most modern PC's

You wouldn't need to put a Firewire card in a machine built on this motherboard, Michael, since it's claimed to have 2 Firewire sockets on-board.

> I'm looking into building a HTPC with 1x 1394a (for the iPod),

As Steve Foster said. It has onboard Firewire, so you won't need one. At worse case, a Sonnet Allegro Express FW400 will probably do fine (what I have in my HTPC, not wanting to waste a PCI slot on the mach).

> 1x DVB-C and 2x DVB-S2 all PCI Cards of course.

Using two Lifeview FlyTV Express X1 MST-STA² and using either one of the remaining two PCI slots for your DVB-C tuner should do nicely (although I admit, I find that Lifeview makes great hardware, but the software's crap as hell). Although I'd either do as most suggest and pick a different motherboard that fits your need, or wait until cablecard comes out (hoping that by then, PCI-e tuner cards will probably be more common in the market).

Is that chipset/regulator heatpipe passively cooled? I hope there isn't a fan hiding behind that round MSI logo... I've had to replace those things on customer's boards before when they get filled with dust and the bearings go.

Also bear in mind that the latest ones only sync over USB anyway; you can only use Firewire as a fancy charger with a 5th or 6th Gen.

4th, 5th, 6th?! Touch!!!!

Bah Humbug! If it ain't got FireWire it's not a proper iPod!

So that unfortunatly limits my chooses to the first Three Generations then.

How the heck need a Color Screen and Movies + Wi-Fi on there DAP?!

Turn the thing on and stick it in your Coat Pocket and be done with it...

...Speaking of Coats... Where did I leave mine?!?!

**Sory for the doubble post Plese feel free to meld this in w/the last One**

Going PCIe could be an option, IF I WAS NOT LIMITED TO DVB-**T**.

Sadly A DVB-T Tuner would be about as useful to me as a useless thing.

Sadly I'm just a wee bit out of the Signal Rage of DTT Freeview, seeing as I live here in Germany, and have almost no interest in the platform, as I have more of a taste in Pay-TV.

Is Sky really ~that bad?!~ granted I'd take the BBC over most things certainly over the ARD ANYDAY OF THE WEEK!

But, I still think the US Systems' the best model in the World...