Intel SandyBridge... I don't get it.

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Digimer <linux-5ZoueyuiTZhBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>
| 
| On 01/20/2011 05:05 PM, William Park wrote:
| > Just thinking out loud...
| > 
| > With Intel's SandyBridge cpus (i5/i7-2NNN) out now, why are they still selling 
| > old i3/i5/i7-NNN cpus?  I mean, who's going to buy them?
| 
| Anyone with boards prior to them. At work, I still buy oodles of
| Core2Duos, which are even older. We've got a platform though that is
| well tested and reliable. It's a serious hassle to switch up our
| hardware more than is needed.

Interesting that you should say this.  See the end of this message to
see relevance.

I'm agonizing about building a new MythTV backend.

I want lots of PCI slots to hold my Hauppauge analog tuners.
(my current box had 5 tuners but is down to 4 since I needed to add
a SATA contoller)

    + I don't want to spend a lot because who knows how long analog
      signals will be with us (over cable)

    + I want to stay with analog as long as I can because DRM prevents
      recording digital cable signals (the record-component-out hack is a
      little hacky, but I will try that; it requires a lot of Rogers STBs
      and whacky open-loop control of the tuner)

It's come down to these choices:

- use an ancient PC from inventory (lots of PCI slots, PATA, low
  horespower)

- build a new box out of socket 775 motherboard:
  <http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3637&dl=#sp>
  5 PCI; cheap; obsolete; DDR3
  Need to also buy CPU and RAM.
  Variant: there is version that uses DDR2; I have some DDR2.

- build a new box out of a used socket 1156 board that is available
  4 PCI; used price == 775 board's new price; USB 3.0, more PCIe slots
  Need to also buy CPU and RAM.

- use a semi-current AMD box I've already built
  3 PCI (the most AMD boards seem to offer)
  3 is too few, I think.

So: how much better are 1156 systems than 775 systems (and Socket AM2+
systems) for my purpose?

Will 5 SD streams swamp + whatever Myth is doing swamp the memory bus?
If so, 1156 would be much better.

Will anything need much CPU?  Since I've been living with an Athlon
1700 XP, I think the CPU issue is minor.  I do hope to add a couple of
Hauppauge HD PVRs and I don't know what load that adds.
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