Shuttle PCs for Geovision use

Can anyone help me??

I'm doing a quote for a small shop using a Geovision as a DVR, i'm going to use a shuttle PC (XPC SS51G- SiS chipset) as a computer for geovision. It has 1 PCI slot and 1 AGP slot. What does AGP (4X) mean? can anyone recommend a graphics card for the following shuttle PC quote. Its for a GV 800, i know everyone prefers Intel chipsets, but this shuttle PC has been a massive seller in the UK for geovision. Ive done an installation before using this exact same PC but i had a problem with the graphics card, i used a MX440 AGP8X and it worked well for a few days but on some startups, the screen was giving all sorts of funny interferences etc.

Any other comments on shuttle PCs??

Chipset

SiS651 Chipset for 533/400MHz QuadFSB clock frequency

Northbridge: SiS651 (first version), SiS 651B (in SS51G/FS51 Version 2.0)

Southbridge: SiS962L

Socket 478 CPU Support

supports 478-Pin Intel Pentium 4 (Willamette and Northwood) and P4 Celeron

successfully tested with: P4 Celeron up to 1,8 GHz, P4 (Willamette 256KB Cache) up to 2,2GHz,

P4 (Northwood 400MHz FSB) up to 2,5GHz and P4 (Nortwood 533MHz FSB) up to 2,8GHz

The Prescott processor core is not supported.

Automatic Adjustment of CPU Vcore-voltage

Integrated 3D-Graphics Accelerator:

Integrated SiS315-graphics accelerator in chipset

Shared Memory in BIOS adjustable up to 64 MB.

Expansion Slots

1 x AGP 4X Slot

1 x 32 Bit PCI (Busmaster)

AGP- and PCI-Slot for simultaneous use!

Onboard IDE Controller

2-Channel Enhanced PCI IDE

for up to 4 IDE devices

supports up to UltraDMA/133

Integrated Network-Function

Realtek RTL8100B Fast Ethernet Controller with MAC Interface

supports 10/100MBit with RJ45-connector on the backpanel

Hardware monitoring

for voltage, temperature and fan

More interfaces

Backpanel (Connectors on the rear side of the mainboard)

1 x VGA

1 x PS/2-Mouse

1 x PS/2-Keyboard

2 x USB 2.0 (four more ports with USB 2.0 onboard)

1 x RJ45 Network connector

2 x Firewire IEEE1394 (one more for the frontpanel)

2 x Serial (16550 compatible, Fifo)

1 x Line-out

1 x Line-in (in multichannel operation for rear speakers)

1 x Bass/center-out

Frontpanel (Connectors on the front side of the case)

1 x Firewire IEEE1394 (two more on the backpanel)

2 x USB 2.0 (two more on the backpanel + 2 ports onboard)

Audio: microphone, line-out, SPDIF-out

Onboard (More connectors on the mainboard)

1 x Floppy drive (for 2 floppy drives up to 2,88 MB)

1 x Audio-in (CD-in)

3 x 12V-connectors for fan

20-pole ATX-power supply connector + 12V drive connector

Memory

2 x 184-Pin DIMM-Socket

for up to 2 GB DDR SDRAM capacity with 2,5V

PC2700 (DDR333), PC2100 (DDR266) or PC1600 (DDR200)

with sizes of 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024 MB

Soundfunction

Multi-Channel Audio Codec AC97 Ver. 2.2

supports 5.1 with 6 speakers

Power Management

ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)

supports power saving modes: Modi S1 (Snoop), S3 ( Suspend to RAM) and S5 (Soft-off)

Power on via modem (Ring Power up), Timer (Date/Time), PCI-card (PCIPME Power up)

On/Off-button with two functions: Suspend-mode / soft-off

BIOS

2 MBit Flash EPROM mit AWARD Bios

supports Green PC and Desktop Managment Interface (DMI)

Form Factor

FlexATX: 25,4 x 18,5 cm

Conformity

This device is classed as a technical information equipment (ITE) in class B and is intended for use in living room and office. The CE-mark approves the conformity by the EU-guidelines:

- EMV-guideline 89/336/EWG electromagnetic tolerance

- LVD-guideline 73/23/EWG use of electric devices within certain voltage-limits

First of all make sure that you have the Latest chipset & VGA drivers.

Try to use ATI VGA.

I haven't use Geo cards but I have use Chance-I card on Sis chipset PC with Ati VGA and it worked fine

Thanks for the reply, could you recommend any specific model for the specification i have given. I've been recommended nvidia geoforce, but no-one's given me a specific model for the range. Could someone describe the difference between AGP4X, and AGP8X, the spec of the shuttle is (AGP4X). Also i need the card to have de-interlace function and directdraw overlay, any model you would recommend. I appreciate the responses!!!

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=0

These are all cards that are AGP4x. You'd have to be more spefic for what version of DirectX you need. The Geforce 4 MX line should support up to directx 8.1 but check. You can also use an AGP8x card in there, it just won't be able to use all of the bandwith. The 4x/8x are the speeds of the standards of the bus. AGP 4x buses are 4 times as fast, 8x is 8 times as fast, ect, ect...

cheers thomas, the link seems to be broken for some reason, i just get a search option facility. I will be needing it for direct X 9.0 i think as V6.0 required 9.0. Anybody else use the XPC-SS51G?? or other shuttle PCs for geovision GV800>??

I would not use that PC for Geovision, for many reasons...

1/ It is an SIS chipset and although that may work it may have intermittant faults.

2/ The Bus speed is too slow.. I have just recieved version 6.1 for Beta testing and I can tell you that you would be better with a 800Mhz front side bus with what they are about to release.

3/ There are also some new features coming out that will work the video card harder, you will need twin view video cards for these features, when getting the right video card the thing to look for is that it supports hardware overlay, most of the G-Force boards do but I prefer the Radeon 9800 Pro series but a 9200 SE will also work, make sure you load Direct X 9 before loading the software.

4/ You only have 1 PCI slot, what are you to do if they want relays etc, usually a single PCI slot is shared with the AGP but I guess this is unlikely with this machine but I would be wary of it.

If you must use the XPC, don't waste your money on a graphics card, you'll get just the same results if you'll use the onboard graphics chip, and will probably have problems viewing your video streams in high resolution either way.

Overall, I don't recommend using this machine as a base for a dvr.

If you want a nice looking small case that will also fit MicroATX boards, take a look here:

http://www.antec-inc.com/us/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=15130

It has expansion slots for 4x Full-Height PCI's and you can fit an Intel based MicroATX motherboard into it. It costs around 100$ including 300W psu. Including a motherboard, that's about the same price as the barebone XPC.

What size pwersupply, is it standard.. is it the truvalue powersupply with fan or not... have you used them,, we sell a lot of Antec Stuff never seen this case before.. what si the model... thanx in advance

LOL... I actually have one here on display of those cases... bloody looks cool but the problem is it has its own powersupply, so if that fails you are stuck with having to buy a whole new case instead of a powersupply.. mind you.. the Antec gear is pretty rock solid... It only has one fan though which is pretty poor but is very quiet from what I am told..we sell computer bits as well.. check out my promo girls.. this should raise a laugh

http://www.altech.com.au/addon/cebit2004/PromoGirls3.jpg

Thanks for your supports everyone i really appreaciate it!. LOL, anybody else would think you're hugh hefner, dvr-expert. So do you use the Antec cube computer as a machine for geovision? I'm probably gonna steer away from the shuttle cube, after reading some of the responses! what motherboard would you recommed for a GV800? i usually use an MSI845E, but you probably know better, also what hard drives do use?, i've had some problems with maxtor and heard of problems with western digital.

Thats not me in that picture....!!!!!!!!! That is the head of our computer division.

Gee I hope I dont sound too much of a know it all, I really do not know better than anypone else and if I could change my name from expert I would.

Mate we use Seagate for the Buffer and the 3 yr warranty, western digital sucks and IBM has only just got its **** together, as for mainboards either the P4c800 Deluxe from Asus... also three year warrant or the ABIT boards as they seem pretty good.

Dvr_australia as i will now refer to you now!, I'm fairly new to the geovision business, i've probably done about 20-30 installation, not many, and on top of that i've had loadsssssaaaaa problems with them, mainly due to the components i use for the geovision. I've read a few of your replies and you seem as everyone else to have done tonnes more installations!

The components i use and the way i build my systems has really held me back from getting larger jobs and the info on this site has helped loads. Give you an example, we only realised a year later that you need to partition the hard drive and keep all the video files in a seperate partition! So a good spec for a gv-800 would be:

-P4c800 Deluxe from Asus

-2.8Ghz P4

-512MBRAM

-seagate 160GB Hd

-Win XP Pro

-Graphics card to match mboard?

that should do, you're correct about the shuttle, if the PSU goes down, you'll have a big problem. Thanks for support guys

I thought IBM sold most of it's Hard Drive division to Hitachi? Still wouldn't use them, the deskstars have the weirdest behavior.

All hard drives are just the same in the case of reliabilty.

People tend to be deterred of one brand just because of self expirience or rumors. Every company had its' glitches and faulty lines or stocks of drives.

Many won't forgive IBM for its' faulty GXP line and the way they treated their customers, which is worst than the drives being faulty.

I use IBM/Hitachi drives in my systems because of they're cheap in my location, very quiet and does not produce much heat. Didn't have a faulty drive yet (out of ~50).

Nevertheless, I don't recommend any brand over the other. Just buy what ever is cheaper for you. If you need high reliability for critical missions, use SCSI drives.

I tottaly agree with Loop, the problem was that IBM made the "DeathStar"...oops Deskstar drive with the brand new glass platters at the time, then they posted on thgeir website that they do not recommend that these drives run for more than 8Hrs a day, which is not really suitable for server apps, they did this because they knew they were weraing out, IBM has since changed manufacture but ..yes like everyone else I wont use them.. There are server grade Motherboards, cases, powersupplies, UPS, Video cards, Ram, but HDD's are all the same, it matters not much what you use, but I wont use Hitachi or IBM again, just in case.. I use either maxtor or Seagate, I choose seagate because of the onboard 8Meg buffer and because they have a three yr warranty and that is the main reason, this way when we offer 12 month warranty and it is returned to us faulty in 24 months, we can charge for a new one as the customer has no warranty and we are still covered for the drive.

This makes my VCD and Game collection drive catalogue, very large.... just kidding!!

I would not sue chjaep OEM ram though, make sure to use a good video card.. I use the Radeon 9800 Pro, but that is overkill you could easily use a 9200 but make sure to use the latest drivers for the full spreads of overlay features.

As for ram, it is pretty hard to go past Corsair!! they give a lifetime warranty.. and as you can guess warranty is everything.

The biggest problem you will face is that your competitiors wont do this, they will sue some cheap arse power supply without fuse or second fan, they wont use a UPS, they will us onboard graphics and a cheap case, they WILL beat you on price!! But thats not the point.. reputation is but it is harder to sell with more expensive gear.. for example, most people just add another drive.. I use removabel fan cooled bays, most peoiple use standard fans, i add two to the case and use a speed controller for noise reduction, most people just put the Geo card in... I put heatsinks on every chip, most people use a standard P4 CPU fan, i use a spoecial one with special heatsink.. This makes my prices more but lots less headaches.

To help sell it is best to say to the customer.. look at your fle server, it is not going to work as hard as this machine (DVR) so it needs all this for crunching video data, failure to do so may result i your system being unstable... This brings me back to the argument I have always had.. Standalones are more stable, but not by much on MY machines, but on people who scrimp and save.. you betcha!!

One shouldn't cheap out on the ram. And if god forbid you do use the off brand stuff, go grab a copy of memtest and do a 24-hour burn in test. Odds are pretty good that you'll see why it's the cheap stuff.

As for ram, it is pretty hard to go past Corsair!! they give a lifetime warranty.. and as you can guess warranty is everything.

 

What do you think of Kingston memory brand?

Thanks

From my personal tests Kingston holds up pretty well and compares favorably. I've used them alot and I have yet to have a stick fail a memtest.

We dont get it here but from what I am told by my friends it is good Ram, I have not heard a bad thing of it. a common mistake is not to Burn in before installing an OS, you can cook a meal in a kitchen but the waiter has to bring it to you and if he coughs in your soup then its not the cooks fault.. the same goies for the windows OS , it is too late to test after installing the OS because if it is faulty it can copy over currupted info when installing the OS.

Memtest runs from a bootable CD or floppy.

Yep, and you need to make sure you run it for 24 hours at least. Two passes won't tell you anything, you need to make it a proper stress test.

Is it possible to download a memory test program?

http://www.memtest86.com/

It's what I use.

I use the same one

Well my techs do Im too lazy to build a machine