I want a full-feature full-size ATX H67 MBO

External Since: Nov 18, 2004 Posts: 88

With lots of slots.

Any ideas? Everything I've found is itsy bitsy mini-micro.

Currently I'm running an Asus P5Q Turbo with an Intel Quad 2400 MHz
processor and four gigabytes of DDR2 SDRAM. Video is ATI Radeon HD 2600
XT. I have one 1-terabyte SATA drive and three 1.5-terabyte drives
attached to the board.

I don't play cutting-edge games and I don't overclock. Never have --
probably never will.

What I do is process video. Lots of video -- much of it HD/Blu-Ray
authoring.

I had been having lots of problems with one particular new piece of
software over the past few weeks until I discovered I needed to turn OFF
its attempts to do hardware H.264 processing. It's now succeeding at
software H.264 processing -- yay.

But the application is taking hours to process big high def video files
and when it runs it maxes out all four cores of my quad processor.
We're talking 95% to 100% of all four cores -- simultaneously -- for two
or more hours. And the core temps were pushing 80c until I carefully
cleaned my Zalman processor fan and installed an additional case fan.
Now temps are just under 70c when processing is underway.

So I've been doing a bit of Googling and I've discovered that H67
motherboards should cut down considerably on the amount of time it takes
to process H.264 files. And who knows, maybe a new i7 processor will
run cooler?

Whatever, I think I want an H67 motherboard. But I want something
better than anything I've found for sale at Newegg or any other online
vendor. Everything I see is too small. Apparently the motherboard
manufacturers think that anybody interested in H67 must have no interest
in mega-desktops. I want to run a BIG computer.

A few weeks ago I checked this newsgroup and saw that Paul (he doesn't
know it but he's my hero) recommended to someone else that he wait until
June of this year for new motherboards that would support H67 and P67 --
both in one, allowing for the H67 "gimmick" on motherboards that can be
overclocked.

But I don't overclock. Is there anything out there now that will give
me H.264 hardware processing capability on a motherboard with lots of
ATX slots and other bells and whistles?

Thanks all.

--
Bill Anderson

I am the Mighty Favog

External Since: Oct 09, 2004 Posts: 2508

Bill Anderson wrote:
> With lots of slots.
>
> Any ideas? Everything I've found is itsy bitsy mini-micro.
>
> Currently I'm running an Asus P5Q Turbo with an Intel Quad 2400 MHz
> processor and four gigabytes of DDR2 SDRAM. Video is ATI Radeon HD 2600
> XT. I have one 1-terabyte SATA drive and three 1.5-terabyte drives
> attached to the board.
>
> I don't play cutting-edge games and I don't overclock. Never have --
> probably never will.
>
> What I do is process video. Lots of video -- much of it HD/Blu-Ray
> authoring.
>
> I had been having lots of problems with one particular new piece of
> software over the past few weeks until I discovered I needed to turn OFF
> its attempts to do hardware H.264 processing. It's now succeeding at
> software H.264 processing -- yay.
>
> But the application is taking hours to process big high def video files
> and when it runs it maxes out all four cores of my quad processor. We're
> talking 95% to 100% of all four cores -- simultaneously -- for two or
> more hours. And the core temps were pushing 80c until I carefully
> cleaned my Zalman processor fan and installed an additional case fan.
> Now temps are just under 70c when processing is underway.
>
> So I've been doing a bit of Googling and I've discovered that H67
> motherboards should cut down considerably on the amount of time it takes
> to process H.264 files. And who knows, maybe a new i7 processor will
> run cooler?
>
> Whatever, I think I want an H67 motherboard. But I want something
> better than anything I've found for sale at Newegg or any other online
> vendor. Everything I see is too small. Apparently the motherboard
> manufacturers think that anybody interested in H67 must have no interest
> in mega-desktops. I want to run a BIG computer.
>
> A few weeks ago I checked this newsgroup and saw that Paul (he doesn't
> know it but he's my hero) recommended to someone else that he wait until
> June of this year for new motherboards that would support H67 and P67 --
> both in one, allowing for the H67 "gimmick" on motherboards that can be
> overclocked.
>
> But I don't overclock. Is there anything out there now that will give
> me H.264 hardware processing capability on a motherboard with lots of
> ATX slots and other bells and whistles?
>
> Thanks all.
>

Back before the "Sandy Bridge Meltdown", Gigabyte had a full sized board.
This is the B3 version of that one.

"GIGABYTE GA-H67A-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA6 USB3 ATX"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128475

It has the usual issues with slot placement, so you won't get to
use all the slots. And one reviewer notes that the heatsink on the
MOSFETs, got in the way of the power connector. Hope that one is
sorted by now.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-128-475-Z03?$S640W$

For video processing, alternatives include GPGPU computing, and one
person was using a Cell Processor board of some sort. So there are
other solutions besides software. But the obscurity of those solutions,
and what programs can use them, is what limits those approaches. You
stand a better chance, if you use a bunch of different editors, that
your main processor will always be available for rendering.

"Leadtek SpursEngine"
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/03/leadtek-intros-spursengine-packing-...-e-card

And this article shows how multiple accelerators can be combined. It's
unfortunate that the processor used for this bench, was so pathetic.
If it was a 2600K, the balance here would be quite different. So this
test was "engineered" for marketing purposes.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/04/16/tmpgenc-supports-spursengine/1

Paul