Looking to get an istar

imagn · 2008-08-01, 03:35 AM

I want to get an istar but just want to make sure it is silent like the PCH and will work with GBPVR. I notices in the picture it has a large heatsink or fan,

Please comment as to where i should go with the istar or just stick with the pch, as i already have one and it works well, but am interestes in the sata connection the istar offers

Thanks

mvallevand · 2008-08-01, 04:33 AM

Your last post on the istar was in the right forum, but since no one responded to it I will answer this one here. I don't do any istarhd test of the mvpmcx2 client so there's a chance that it won't work but I think some recent posts have shown that mvpmcx2 will work across the NMT family.

The biggest risk is in the delays of releases of firmware. istar users seem to be behind the PCH for a noticeable time. There was one early release where sub and I added a new feature that wasn't available on the istar for quite a but that was probabaly the HDMI 1.3 version. I don't think istar do as an extensive test on the firmware as Syabas do on the PCH, and last month they had to do an patch firmware release.

To me the external sata is kind of a kludge too, if you must have a sata drive there seem to be nicer implementations.

Martin

imagn · 2008-08-01, 12:55 PM

Thanks for the response,

I think the Firmware thing for me is more important than Sata at this point so thanks for sharing that important piece of info and think sticking with the PCH is going to be the way to go

pBS · 2008-08-02, 12:40 AM

there are users who have used adapters to add a esata port to their pch...[pch forums]
tho it might not be hot-pluggable like usb, but there have been sata fixes added to the firmware tho not sure what exactly..sata drives do work with adapters and esata should work same..
depends on your modding skills...tho this one is as easy as it gets.. Smile

mvallevand · 2008-08-17, 02:47 AM

In a bit of a twist to my logic istar actually released their latest firmware before Popcorn Hour did.
http://www.mpcclub.com/modules.php?name=...909#135088

Given that this version failed QC for the PCH it looks like the vendor is overruling Syabas.

The end result is still that istar users can't follow the survival guide because it now doesn't apply,

Martin