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Dual Xeons & g400-tv- some questions

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  • Dual Xeons & g400-tv- some questions

    Hi All!

    Tiring of the long re-encoding times (uncompressed or dv avi to mpeg1/2), am considering the following setup:
    - IWILL DPI533 mobo
    - 512MB Crucial reg, ecc pc2100
    - 2 Intel Xeon 2.4ghz 533fsb cpus

    My vid card is a g400-tv. The mobo has an AGP Pro slot (supports AGPPro, AGP8x and AGP4x).

    Will the g400-tv work properly on this board? Are there any modifications that would need to be made? If so...what and how?

    Thanks in advance for your feedback. Happy holidays all!
    -funsoul

    PS- Am using virtualdub, tmpgenc and premiere 6.0 (although will move to mspro7 as it's sse-optimized...I don't think premiere6.0 is)
    mmedia pc: 2x2.4/533 xeons@3.337ghz, asus pc-dl, 2g pc3500 ddram, 27g primary, 2x120 WD's, promise fastrack100, matrox g400-tv, hercules soundcard Server box: p4 1.4GHz, asus p4t, 1g ecc rdram, 27.3g primary, 3x80g maxtors, promise fastrack66, radeon ve, soundblaster Beat box: p3 500, asus p3bf6, 1024meg pc100, 45g primary, 3x45g maxtors, soundblaster, radeon ve, dazzle vcII

  • #2
    nm folks....found some relevant threads over at the matrox forums (surprise surprise hehehe)

    seems there were a couple versions of the g400-tv....one which can go up to 4x which would work fine on the mobo in question....the other is only capable of 2x in which case I'll need to find a new video capture card.
    mmedia pc: 2x2.4/533 xeons@3.337ghz, asus pc-dl, 2g pc3500 ddram, 27g primary, 2x120 WD's, promise fastrack100, matrox g400-tv, hercules soundcard Server box: p4 1.4GHz, asus p4t, 1g ecc rdram, 27.3g primary, 3x80g maxtors, promise fastrack66, radeon ve, soundblaster Beat box: p3 500, asus p3bf6, 1024meg pc100, 45g primary, 3x45g maxtors, soundblaster, radeon ve, dazzle vcII

    Comment


    • #3
      Hi,

      If you want a Dual Xeon motherboard, why not get an ASUS PC-DL? The G400 will NOT work in this or any of the new 1.5V AGP slot boards. Sorry. But if you are spending so much cash on dual Xeons and buying an expensive motherboard, then you should consider a newer video card too! You can get a Matrox P650 for under a $100 if you look really hard! btw, for a dual Xeon, you better buy a good power supply - I recommend something from PC Power & Cooling. Send me a PM if you have more questions.

      -V-
      ASUS P2B-DS REV 1.06 D03 w/ DUAL 1.4GHZ Tualatins; Matrox Parhelia; M-Audio Delta 410

      Apple Powerbook G4 - 1.33GHZ

      Comment


      • #4
        Hi X-Caliber

        Thanks for your feedback!

        The Asus boards are excellent (I've had a number of them over the years) but the IWILL is (by all accounts I've read) much better for overclocking.

        According to the threads over at the regular matrox forums...some g400-tv's will work in an AGP Pro slot...others won't (I posted the details off the board and am waiting for a yeah or nay reply).

        If I have to get a new video card....the p650 looks fine but then I have no analog capture capability. It'd be nice to get a single board that does capture and display. Haven't been following the subject for a while but 'bang for the buck'....matrox seems to have lost the edge to ati at this point.

        Anyhoo....appreciate your comments! Would love to hear what you consider the best (in the under $250 range) video board is that can also capture (svhs-in/out).

        Yep....I know power's an issue with any dualie setup....probably go with one of the big Enermax ones.

        Thanks again!
        -funsoul (also ny,ny 10010 hehe)
        mmedia pc: 2x2.4/533 xeons@3.337ghz, asus pc-dl, 2g pc3500 ddram, 27g primary, 2x120 WD's, promise fastrack100, matrox g400-tv, hercules soundcard Server box: p4 1.4GHz, asus p4t, 1g ecc rdram, 27.3g primary, 3x80g maxtors, promise fastrack66, radeon ve, soundblaster Beat box: p3 500, asus p3bf6, 1024meg pc100, 45g primary, 3x45g maxtors, soundblaster, radeon ve, dazzle vcII

        Comment


        • #5
          Hey,

          The ASUS PC-DL uses has a newer chipset, which is why I recommended it. I choose the Parhelia b/c of the dual head capabilities, which are much better than the G400 (which I upgraded from). Incidentally, I had a G400MAX w/ a Rainbox Runner G series card which I used for analog capture and TV watching. works well!

          btw, I would pick PC POWER & COOLING over Enermax, their stuff is really much better. You also need a stable and clean DC line for your dual board. I run a OCed P2B board, with Dual Tualatins. My voltage lines are running much better than other people with this setup, and my ram is getting the full 3.3V.
          ASUS P2B-DS REV 1.06 D03 w/ DUAL 1.4GHZ Tualatins; Matrox Parhelia; M-Audio Delta 410

          Apple Powerbook G4 - 1.33GHZ

          Comment


          • #6
            Hi again X-Caliber

            Yep...I'm definitely looking at the Asus PC-DL....by all accounts I've read, they're excellent mobos.

            Thanks for the tip on the PC POWER & COOLING psu

            I'm STILL waiting to hear back from the Matrox folks as to whether my g400-tv will work....I'm really hoping it does as my 'go dualie' budget doesn't include buying new vid cards, too.
            mmedia pc: 2x2.4/533 xeons@3.337ghz, asus pc-dl, 2g pc3500 ddram, 27g primary, 2x120 WD's, promise fastrack100, matrox g400-tv, hercules soundcard Server box: p4 1.4GHz, asus p4t, 1g ecc rdram, 27.3g primary, 3x80g maxtors, promise fastrack66, radeon ve, soundblaster Beat box: p3 500, asus p3bf6, 1024meg pc100, 45g primary, 3x45g maxtors, soundblaster, radeon ve, dazzle vcII

            Comment


            • #7
              Yeah I know what you mean, plus by all accounts, the Parhelia is far from perfect. I was also planning to build a Dual Xeon, but after I priced everything out, I decided it would be cheaper to upgrade my Dual P3 from 550MHZ to 1.4GHZ. The only problem is that I am stuck with 1 gig of ram, which is terrible when using photoshop CS and editing 200M 16bit images.

              The other issue is that I thought it would be best to upgrade to a real 64bit dual system, but theres no end to this. The ATX cases are on the way out, not to mention that Rambus is too expensive - and there isn't a dual xeon board that supports rmbs on the market. Plus, if you are going to spend all this cash, then why limit yourself to PCI (which has been around forever). And I am a SCSI guy, so I need a 64bit U320 SCSI controller. Also, I would prefer to have Firewire 2 built on the motherboard.

              One other thing (since I am just rambling), why do motherboard manufacturers have to build all that extra junk on their boards. Who wants a built in 6channel sound card, built-in video, etc. Why pay for stuff I won't use - I already have a M-audio delta 410 and a Matrox card. Not to mention the fact that they keep adding on bells & whistles, but they still can't the most basic stuff to work properly. It took ASUS 9 revisions before they got my motherboard right, how long before they get the PC-DL right? Ask those guys at 2cpu.com - they have a very long thread.
              Last edited by X-Caliber; 30 December 2003, 16:22.
              ASUS P2B-DS REV 1.06 D03 w/ DUAL 1.4GHZ Tualatins; Matrox Parhelia; M-Audio Delta 410

              Apple Powerbook G4 - 1.33GHZ

              Comment


              • #8
                Even if it's 2x, you should just be able to connect the little R68 pad on the card with a pencil and it should work.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Hi again!

                  X-Caliber- Yeah...64bit is out of the question for me....it just doesn't make sense given that all apps need to support it (which I don't think any of the ones I use do) and it's definitely pricey to get into. It looks like a dual Xeon rig (with the 2.4ghz cpus) can be put together for about us$700-ish. If I can get the g400-tv working there's no need to upgrade anything else atm and the setup will give a massive improvement over my single p4 1.4ghz. Yeah...the 2cpu folks are definitely nice....tons of info over there. In any case....I'm patient and will keep researching and perusing ebay for deals.

                  bsdgeek- Thanks for your response but you totally lost me. hehe I'm not familiar with the workings of the board itself. Is there a webpage that describes what I need to do if Matrox tells me my g400-tv won't work?
                  mmedia pc: 2x2.4/533 xeons@3.337ghz, asus pc-dl, 2g pc3500 ddram, 27g primary, 2x120 WD's, promise fastrack100, matrox g400-tv, hercules soundcard Server box: p4 1.4GHz, asus p4t, 1g ecc rdram, 27.3g primary, 3x80g maxtors, promise fastrack66, radeon ve, soundblaster Beat box: p3 500, asus p3bf6, 1024meg pc100, 45g primary, 3x45g maxtors, soundblaster, radeon ve, dazzle vcII

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hi again folks

                    Finally got the new rig together (mmedia pc in sig.) and thought I'd report back.

                    First off....omg this thing's fast! A re-encode of a dv (mainconcept) 720x480 avi to vcd-compliant mpeg1 (TmpgEnc, best quality) takes 1.18x actual time. A huge improvement over the old 1.4ghz!

                    It took 2.6x actual time running under win2k (no hyper-threading). Pretty wild what impact HT (and the operating sys.) has on the processing times!

                    On the cost side....it came out to roughly $1000 (mobo, ram, 2 cpus, power supply)...a lot more than I'd initially hoped it would be but this'll keep me satisfied for quite some time. (it'd been about 3 years since my last major upgrade).

                    Btw....huge thanks to Adis for the great vidtools for XP!
                    -funsoul
                    Last edited by funsoul; 2 March 2004, 07:46.
                    mmedia pc: 2x2.4/533 xeons@3.337ghz, asus pc-dl, 2g pc3500 ddram, 27g primary, 2x120 WD's, promise fastrack100, matrox g400-tv, hercules soundcard Server box: p4 1.4GHz, asus p4t, 1g ecc rdram, 27.3g primary, 3x80g maxtors, promise fastrack66, radeon ve, soundblaster Beat box: p3 500, asus p3bf6, 1024meg pc100, 45g primary, 3x45g maxtors, soundblaster, radeon ve, dazzle vcII

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by X-Caliber
                      The G400 will NOT work in this or any of the new 1.5V AGP slot boards.
                      Mistake!

                      Marvel G400-TV WORKS with 1,5V AGP slot motherboards

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Hiya Adis!
                        Yep...works fine in my setup!

                        PS- THANK YOU for all your great work on the videotools for winXP!!!
                        mmedia pc: 2x2.4/533 xeons@3.337ghz, asus pc-dl, 2g pc3500 ddram, 27g primary, 2x120 WD's, promise fastrack100, matrox g400-tv, hercules soundcard Server box: p4 1.4GHz, asus p4t, 1g ecc rdram, 27.3g primary, 3x80g maxtors, promise fastrack66, radeon ve, soundblaster Beat box: p3 500, asus p3bf6, 1024meg pc100, 45g primary, 3x45g maxtors, soundblaster, radeon ve, dazzle vcII

                        Comment

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