Show Us Your Rig [6]

[Dude]

Most TV tuners that do Over The Air Reception and Cable in the US and Canada are now dual tuners so you can record and watch a different channel at once. 2 of my computers do this and both have single tuner cards from 2011 and one has an add on tuner card got on clearance. We don't have cable and record stuff on the TV tuners and watch stuff on the other card on the TV, the PC up scales regular Region 1 DVDs and Region 2 DVDs from the UK and play Blu Rays flawlessly. HD shows on PBS and the Big Bang Theory is mostly what it is set up for. Don't forget you can always plug the PCIe TV Tuner into a full size x 8 slot. I did that with my sound cards.
You can go here to see what lengths you will have to go to pick up stations. I mounted a bowtie on the side of my house (healthier times).
TV Fool

I live about 60 miles between the nearest big cities with broadcast towers, picked up this antenna and get free HDTV

Amazon.com: Mohu Leaf Ultimate Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna: Electronics


Alan, thats going to be a nice build

 

[Britton30]

And the sickness continues as I gather parts for my mini-ITX ultra rig.

Looks nice Alan, those ITX boards are cute being so small. I'm gonna have to contact ASUS, they didn't send a pen with any of my 3 boards.

It's my new ASUS pen drive !

Oh, groan.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Further to the above Jeannie you could add the USB 3 card and stick a TV tuner in the USB port? There are several good models that usually get used with lappy's but hey it is round the back so who cares.

I could but I would rather not have devices hanging off the back. I prefer to keep as much inside the case as I can.

 

[Indianatone]

Further to the above Jeannie you could add the USB 3 card and stick a TV tuner in the USB port? There are several good models that usually get used with lappy's but hey it is round the back so who cares.

I could but I would rather not have devices hanging off the back. I prefer to keep as much inside the case as I can.

Me too actually. In the last 3 months I have spent over $1500 in upgrades on our machines and they are still working great. Must take some photos. The cases are huge and take everything in there easily. I am not feeling that great at the moment, the PAIN has reared its ugly head again and then some.

 

[Indianatone]

Looks nice Alan, those ITX boards are cute being so small. I'm gonna have to contact ASUS, they didn't send a pen with any of my 3 boards.

It's my new ASUS pen drive !

Oh, groan.

You asked for it Gary. All I got with mine was a TUF case sticker and some SATA cables.

 

[Britton30]

It's my new ASUS pen drive !

Oh, groan.

You asked for it Gary. All I got with mine was a TUF case sticker and some SATA cables.

Bait well taken.

Yes Tony when you feel well pictures are mandatory.

I hope the pain subsides for you mate.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I forgot I recently spent as much as I spent for my notebook to upgrade its HDD to a SSD and to double the RAM.

 

[essenbe]

Alan, The CPU socket takes up half the board. That thing is really small, but it looks pretty nice. Have you had a chance to bench test it yet? I, for one, would like a report on the pros and cons. It gives me some ideas.
Lady F. I know it may mess up your internal wiring slightly, but they do make internal USB expansions that will add a couple of USB Headers to the board, but the piece also has slots for 2 USB flash drives to be mounted to it internally. Something you aren't going to be changing a lot is what I'm sure they would be used for. Something like maybe a USB TV tuner, maybe. I bought one, but haven't done the build with it yet so can't give you a report. The best part for you though, is it does not use a PCIE lane. It just attaches to a motherboard USB header. If you have any interest, I can find the link fairly easily for you. Maybe Gary could give you some info on it, if I'm not wrong, I think he bought one I gave him the link for. I needed it be cause Asus, in their infinite wisdom, decided that on their most expensive and flagship Z77 board, they would only put 2 USB 2.0 headers on it. So, I ran out just from connecting FP connections, then needed one for the Corsair, link, card reader and a couple of other things. I've said this about dozens of things on here, but I have to wonder if the manufacturers who sell some of these components have ever tried to use them for themselves and install everyday stuff. If they did, people like us wouldn't complain about boards, cases, pcie lanes and stuff quite as much. And, I forgot the part about making them work right, for something real new, different and unusual. I say that as I send off my Maximus V Extreme for RMA for the 5Th time in about 15 months. An almost $400 motherboard that Asus has had more than I have. But, honestly, when it works right, there is not another board like it. It's a crime they can't figure out how to make it work and keep it that way. Jack would agree, I'm sure. [/RANT] back to your issues. Let me know if you would like a link to the USB expansion thing. If you have any interest at all, I think they are pretty cheap, so no big risk if you don't like it. Technically, you only gain 2 USB headers as it gives you 3 but takes 1 to make it work. But, that's a 100% gain for me. LOL

EDIT: OK here it is. It's only about 6" long Amazon.com : NZXT IU01 Internal USB Expansion (Black) : Desktop Computer Usb Port Cards : Electronics





.

 

[Britton30]

Steve you're a mind reader, I just PM'ed Jeannie about the USB expander and blamed you for it. I have hooked it up to test it but haven't "installed" it anywhere. It works nicely and takes power from a Molex connector. As a test I booted a flash drive with it and read/wrote some too. Just like having them on the board.

I agree with the rant, I have two mid range ASUS boards that both have 4 USB 2.0 headers, the more expensive Sabertooth has only 3.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

The bench tests will be down the road but I hope to test ram, cpu and boot to bios in like two weeks. This little mobo has all the features and overclock of the big boards but for really aggressive oc'g it needs the custom full water block that covers the caps and southbridge.

 

[essenbe]

Steve you're a mind reader, I just PM'ed Jeannie about the USB expander and blamed you for it. I have hooked it up to test it but haven't "installed" it anywhere. It works nicely and takes power from a Molex connector. As a test I booted a flash drive with it and read/wrote some too. Just like having them on the board.

I agree with the rant, I have two mid range ASUS boards that both have 4 USB 2.0 headers, the more expensive Sabertooth has only 3.

Right, I think Asus thinks as you go up in price, you need fewer ports to plug things into. I know it won't matter to a lot of people but I need and use the stew out of them, but my $400 board has 0 eSATA ports, if yo can believe that. But, they were kind enough to give you a sata port to be used for an eSATA connection at mid board, but just 1. I typically use a minimum of 2 and usually 3. I had to buy some neat attachments to make some.


EDIT: OK, I will freely admit to being crazy. I do a lot of backups to at least 3 different hard drives. I'm obsessive compulsive enough that I have backups of the backups. So, I use a lot of esata ports in my obsessivness. But, I do need a sale on Hard drives. I'm running low. I think I have only about 6 or 7 TB of extra drives. And crankypenguin thought he was crazy. He hasn't met me yet, really. I'm way over the top; about a lot of things.

 

[Britton30]

Steve you're a mind reader, I just PM'ed Jeannie about the USB expander and blamed you for it. I have hooked it up to test it but haven't "installed" it anywhere. It works nicely and takes power from a Molex connector. As a test I booted a flash drive with it and read/wrote some too. Just like having them on the board.

I agree with the rant, I have two mid range ASUS boards that both have 4 USB 2.0 headers, the more expensive Sabertooth has only 3.

Right, I think Asus thinks as you go up in price, you need fewer ports to plug things into. I know it won't matter to a lot of people but I need and use the stew out of them, but my $400 board has 0 eSATA ports, if yo can believe that. But, they were kind enough to give you a sata port to be used for an eSATA connection at mid board, but just 1. I typically use a minimum of 2 and usually 3. I had to buy some neat attachments to make some.

Gigabyte, which I won't ever buy again, has TWO USB 3.0 19 pin headers on a lot if their boards, ASUS only one on any of them.

 

[N00berG00ber]

Board comes tomorrow! Can't wait to start building this rig again!

The only thing that is stumping me rite now is how to connect one of my case fans to the mobo. The wire is too short to reach it. Might need to buy an extension.

 

[Britton30]

Or use a Y-cable, run two fans from one fan header. They will run up to 1W of fans.

 

[DocBrown]

Here is a USB Y-header splitter that I used to be able to have extra USB connection off of the MB

 

[essenbe]

Doc, the only fallacy about a lot of those expansion headers as well as USB docs is the same. You are still running everything through 1 port. At some point that port can only take so much traffic and will either slow down or stop working because it's overloaded. I know, what choice do we have and I still use all those goodies. I just try to use them in a judicious manner so I don't have problems.

 

[N00berG00ber]

Its for my top front case fan. It has to reach all the way down next to the 24pin connector. The cables are very short. I may need to order 2 extensions. I have enough ports but not long enough cables.

 

[essenbe]

1 fan extension will do it for you. I think the ones I buy are 12" long, which will reach almost anywhere on the board. just hiding the cable is the problem. Hook it to the rear of the case. Don't worry as much about where to hide it and what will it interfere with. Or, better still, use a fan controller.

 

[Britton30]

I should have pointed out the Y-cables add length too, I have some 4" and 8" ones.

 

[N00berG00ber]

I found a 12" extension. 2 for 5$ perfect