Ed:
The fact that eCS is weak in supporting onboard accessories such HDA and LAN influenced my choice for a MB
with so many PCI slots.   I have tried on several different occasions to make use of the built in LAN connection with eCS
but the lack of a suitable driver made it necessary for me to use a PCI card.
Audio with eCS is a hit and miss proposition which probably means I will need to buy yet another PCI or PCI-E card, I haven't decided.
Then I have a Capture board and a Promise Host adapter. Good thing I've been able to keep my desires under control!

Thomas

Ed Durrant wrote:

warp4dennis wrote:

Hi:
FYI:  I'm not one who has got to have the newest 'what-ever'.  It may have something to do with being from
a not very well off family when growing up.  I was taught how to save by buying at discount stores.  My mother
would sew material from my old cloths on those spots that were subject to wear so I could get more mileage out of
vthe 'new'.
And this has stayed with me through the years.  Even with the PC.
Why by a whole PC when a new MB will do.
For many months now I have noticed that MBs which use an AMD processor are being replaced with others that  have newer chip sets and CPU socket, so I put off buying a newer MB basically because there were never enough
PCI  slots.   Most come with only 2, some with 3.   That was until a couple of weeks ago.
Gigabyte advertised on the Internet a new MB that has 4 PCI slots and is  AM2+ compatible.
So I bought one. What I since found out is I am not able to use Win2k with this MB.  The BIOS does not support Win2k. I have kept using Win2k because I have found that Win2k gives me a whole lot less gray hair.  Since the beginning
of the year I have been using XP as my main OS and Win2k as backup.  I would have preferred to keep it that way,
but the 'Spirits' are against it.
I also bought a different Video card.  A newer one that has some more 'oompf' for writing letters (ha, ha, ha).
And this new Video card also has no driver for Win2k so the desktop is shown at 640 X 480 pixels.
Another thing I noticed with the newer MBs, there  is only one IDE connection which makes it necessary for me to start using the SATA connectors and cable.
So because of progress it has become necessary for me to gut my PC and replace the MB, two DVDs, three HDDs and a
Video card in order for me to keep from being shut out.
For you who are interested here is what I have in my PC or soon will be.
MB: Gigabyte GA-M720-US3
Video Card:  Sapphire Ultimate Radeon HD 4670
DVDs:  One Plextor PX 820a and one Samsung SH - S202n
HDDs:  Two Samsung HD322HJ and One HD400LD.
The Samsung HDDs are wisper quiet and so are the DVDs.
I have only two fans for cooling.  One for the CPU and one for the Power Supply which are very quiet.  When they are
at work it is hard for me to tell even with one of the covers removed.
I just thought somebody out there would want to know.

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

 I also noticed the change in new motherboard specs recemtly. They now come with more SATA connectors and as you say only one EIDE PATA connector (intended, I think for the DVD drive, so now that SATA DVD Burners exist, I suspect that will go soon as well).

 Gigabyte have released several new boards and I'm not a gamer I tend to look at the lower end boards with as many things as possible integrated - the one I am considering at the moment is the Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3. What is common across several new boards from both Gigabyte and ASUS and others is the use of the HD Audio chipset from Realtek, the ALC888 and the Gb NIC also from Realtek the 8111C chip. I think these perhaps should be the next target for support as they appear to be coming the standard on the cheaper boards.

 I would hope we could get the 8111C supported under Genmac, perhaps initially in the "unsupported mode" but I wonder if the HD version of Uniaud will support the audio chipset? Most of these boards have onboard video as well however they also have a PCI-E X16 slot so its probably best to grab whichever (older) card that has SNAP support and add it in. Panorama may be able to support the onboard video depending what it is but an add-in card for the video would normally be the better solution and it uses a slot you cant use for another adapter in any case.

Cheers/2

Ed.