Upgrading my 6150 MoBo to separate MoBo & Video card (2 Viewers)

[snewman]

Okay I've had it - I'm going to replace my ASUS A8N-VM CSM with a separate motherbaord and video card combo.

At the end of the day the 6150 is just not cutting it for HD content - it can handle the lower end stuff (576p and 720p) most of the time but the 1080i content from the DVB-T card seem to cause it trouble - I guess its the extra deinterlacing load that does it. I've tried all the tuning I can to improve the video performance, but can't get any improvement.

I've also got an issue with the constant hard disk activity for no apparent reason - my research on the web indicates that its the SATA controller on the mobo that's at fault.

So I've decided to upgrade to a separate motherboard/video card combo. I'd like to get some opinions from the MP community on my current selection. What I'm looking for is real world experience on these.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9
- I want a passively cooled motherboard and from my reading the nForce5 Ultra is a good chipset .

Videocard: Gigabyte or MSI 6600GT or 7600GS
- Again I'm looking for passively cooled.
- Not sure whether to go for the 6600GT or the 7600GS. The 7600GS runs cooler but still meets the 10GB/s memory bandwidth requirement (its spec is 12.8GB/s), but the 6600GT is still available as a double slot passively cooled solution and has a slightly higher memory bandwidth at 16GB/s.

Questions:

1. Has anyone got good/bad experiences with the GA-K8N Ultra-9?

2. Does the GA-K8N Ultra-9 have the same SATA drive activity problem?

3. Does the 7600GS handle the top end HD content (1080i and p)?

Any feedback would be very helpful - I've tried to choose hardware that's not too new so I can benefit from your experiences (I bought the 430/6150 soon after it came out when everyone was still out to lunch on whether it was good enough for HD).

 

[Efros]

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/44085/

Some have been experiencing problems with this board and PCI TV cards

 

[Uli321]

Hi,

I recently upgraded to
- ASUS AM2 M2NVP-VM Micro-ATX Board (
- MSI nvidia 7300 GT card

Got no problems with HDTV DVB-S2 streams.

Isn't the 7600GS card a 64 bit one?

Uli

 

[ziphnor]

You need the 7600GT to get all the HD features:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

However, the 6150 should handle 1080i without any issues, so something must be wrong. Maybe you are running with a deinterlacing type that the 6150 doesnt support for HD? (ie Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing). What is the CPU usage during playback? Have you tried recording from the DVB-T card and playing back on another computer?

On my HTPC, ive been having problems with my ATi X550 which should handle 1080i playback(MPEG2, not H.264/MPEG4). I can playback in PowerDVD with 30% CPU usage and no problems. However in MP with the same video codec i also get 30-40% CPU usage but the video is jerky. When i disable hw accel in the codec i can playback at 85-90% CPU usage without problems.

It seems a bit excessive to upgrade to solve what is most likely a software issue

 

[mameo]

Hi
I have the asus a8n vm-csm too, with geforce 6150 onbard. I have no video problem when using my sapphire theatrix 550, but it's impossibile for me watch a dvb-t tuner without stuttering or jerky... I try terratec T2, terratec 1400, asus 7131 dual with a lot of driver, codecs and in every mediaportal version!!!....
So wich is the problem of this chipset with DVB-T tuner????
What should I try to do??? (I don't want buy a new graphic card!!)

I see that some user with this motherboard and dvb-t tuner has no problem, so I wish that someone post wich version of driver, codec, setting and mediaportal version use.
Thanks

 

[Taipan]

it's impossibile for me watch a dvb-t tuner without stuttering or jerky...

This sounds very much like your TV signal level is inadequate. It might be fine for analog, but very marginal for digital TV?

If you use the TV application that came with your DVB-T card, is the TV image smooth, or is it "stuttering or jerky"?

What sort of TV antenna are you using?

 

[mameo]

Terratec T2 and 1400 works great with terratec software (terratec home cinema); asus 7131 dual works great with "winfast DTV", but don' t work, for example with "cyberlink power cinema"..
Another example: on my notebook with onbard radeon 9600 Terratec T2 and Mediaportal works fine any codec I use..
So I think the geforce 6150 has problem with wmr-9

 

[mameo]

Another example: if I work at 640x480 16 bit depth colorspace video is fine even in fullscreen mode. Instead at 1024x768 have problem.
With "gbpvr" software and working with vmr-7 video works so and so...

 

[snewman]

You need the 7600GT to get all the HD features:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

However, the 6150 should handle 1080i without any issues, so something must be wrong. Maybe you are running with a deinterlacing type that the 6150 doesnt support for HD? (ie Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing). What is the CPU usage during playback? Have you tried recording from the DVB-T card and playing back on another computer?

On my HTPC, ive been having problems with my ATi X550 which should handle 1080i playback(MPEG2, not H.264/MPEG4). I can playback in PowerDVD with 30% CPU usage and no problems. However in MP with the same video codec i also get 30-40% CPU usage but the video is jerky. When i disable hw accel in the codec i can playback at 85-90% CPU usage without problems.

It seems a bit excessive to upgrade to solve what is most likely a software issue

If I could be convinced that its just a software issue then I would keep battling, but I've been scouring the web for people who have been sucessful with the 430/6150 combo in a HD HTPC application and all I've found is people having similar battles to my own.

The system works great with my DVDs, XVids, photos, music and SD DVB-T channels, but when I go to HD the problems start.

With a lot of fiddling around with decoder settings I can now get 1080i to function properly both outside and inside Media Portal, but 576p and 720p just won't happen for me. Both of the progressive channels look like someones playing with the jog/shuttle control - slightly sped up compared with the audio.

I've downloaded sample clips of HD content from the web, but I can only find WMV-HD, not MPEG-2. The WMV-HD stuff works okay, but unfortunately that doesn't help me with my HD broadcasts.

I've just read too much about other people struggling with this 430/4150 for HD to keep fighting this one. I'm sure someone else will buy the mobo on eBay as it is more than adequate for a desktop PC or even a HTPC at SD.

So my current thinking for replacement mobo and video card are:

Asus A8N-E motherboard
Gigabyte 7600GT SilentPipeII

I know I've upgraded from the GS to the GT, but I want this thing to last me into the era of BluRay and HD-DVD with only the additional investment of a new DVD drive.

 

[ziphnor]

I solved my X550 problem by forcing the deinterlacing mode to 'Bob', maybe you should try this as well?

Have you tried playback of the HD recordings in other programs/other computers?