I'm following the KRP Dragon 2.0 specs:

MOBO Intel DG965WH
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6320
RAM 1 GB DDR2-667 PC2-5300
GPU Asus EN7600GS
CDD Lite-On DVDRW LH-18A1P
CASE Silverstone LC17
TV Hauppauge PVR-500 MCE OEM
SPU Chaintech AV-710
HDD 320 GB WD3200YS
PSU Zalman ZM460B-APS

I'm getting the IR remote and receiver later.

Here are the questions that came up:

1. The motherboard has two audio headers on the motherboard, 'Audio' and 'HD Audio Link'.
The front panel has two plugs for the audio, 2 keyed 9 pin connectors marked "AZALIA" and "AC'97".
Which ones am I supposed to connect to the front?

Audio mobo header:


HD Audio Link header:


2. How am I supposed to connect the front panel audio?
The Chaintech AV-710 doesn't have front panel connectors of its own.
Can I use both the on-board sound as well as the PCI sound card? (on-board for the front panel, Chaintech for the rear)

2. The front panel USB cables have 4 pins plus one extra plug each, dangling freely. These extra plugs are marked 'GND' or 'SHIELD'. What are they for?

3. The 1394 front panel cable has two sets of wires, one in a 9 pin plug, the others are single pin plugs. Why the two sets when there's only one Firewire port in the front?

4. Does it matter which PCI ports I plug the TV and SPU in?

5. Is there any chance of intel's dolby-certified sound to get better support in future? What about the on-board video? The intel brochure that came with the board boasts all sort of features that I am installing extra cards for.[/code]

The Front audio is on the chaintech card. Towards the top, there are two jumpers there from the factory, you can remove those two jumpers and then plug in the AC97. The other two jumpers below can be moved to better line out quality I've read.

Would you use onboard sound & video if it was supported?

I answered "yes" on this question.. but this is kind of a trick question.. I prefer to send sound and video to the tv set... so they'll be used for startup.. and that's about it. (and maybe music)

// Brian

_________________
// Brian - Hardware:
ASUS P5P800 - P4 3Ghz, 500 GB PATA HD
ASUS P5K-V - P4 Core2 Duo, 500 GB SATA HD
Hauppauge PVR-350, IR Blaster, Comcast Digital Cable
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/KnoppMyth/
KnoppMyth R5F27 >> R5.5

Hi!


FYI, this deviates from the specs in nontrivial ways, but it's good that you used the specs as a starting point.

The AC'97 connector is used.

The front panel audio will not work with the Chaintech AV-710, unless you managed to find an adapter to go from the connectors on the AV-710 to the AC'97 cable.

This information should be in your motherboard manual, but the extra plug goes on next to the GND plug. For each pair of USB cables, one is plugged in with the SHIELD on the extra pin, and the other is not.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, here. The LC17 cases I've been using only have a single 1394 cable.

Possibly not, but I've been using the final slot next to the PSU for the soundcard.

Intel claims to be committed to Linux support, but they don't support hardware RAID, and their onboard digital audio has problems. The onboard video has performance and aspect ratio problems in MythTV, and it seems that if Intel is uninterested in improving any of these things, add-on cards will be needed for certain features.

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Don't I know it! I made a mistake buying the Hauppauge PVR500 -- only the Airstar is fully KRP compliant. All the EPG scripts assume I have the Airstar, so I will have to write my own.

Actually, it does, as SilverOne pointed out.

I'm looking at the mobo manual, and the USB2 header pins I described as follows:

Power (1) (2) Power
D- (3) (4) D-
D+ (5) (6) D+
GND (7) (8) GND
<KEY> (10) No Connection

I put the extra plug into (10). I suppose the dangling plug is for USB headers without the <KEY> or missing pin.


Same.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my questions!

I never noticed this before Thanks for pointing it out.

I tried connecting the FP_AUDIO connector to the AV-710, but it seems just a little too close to the spinning PSU fan blades. I'll have to test this carefully to see if any of the wire loops coming out of the connector are long enough to hit the fan. I suppose I could also change the slot that the AV-710 goes in, but the impact of changing slots needs to be tested, too.

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