# Peak Inside My New 921!!!!!!!!!!!!



## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

Pleasefollow this link where I posted my inside peak of an open 921!

http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5171


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

You're braver than I am, tahoerob...that's for sure.


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

Mark Lamutt said:


> You're braver than I am, tahoerob...that's for sure.


and the receiver actually worked after activation!


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## Cyclone (Jul 1, 2002)

Good job Rob.


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## Throwbot (Dec 24, 2003)

Way to go!
I give you the Phillips Screwdriver award for 2003
Question , how loud do you perceive the fan / hard drive to be?
Wondering if I need to put it a glass cabinate like I have my Dish DVHS DSR100, which by the way, is louder than my fridge.
Regards
Stuart


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

Throwbot said:


> Way to go!
> I give you the Phillips Screwdriver award for 2003
> Question , how loud do you perceive the fan / hard drive to be?
> Wondering if I need to put it a glass cabinate like I have my Dish DVHS DSR100, which by the way, is louder than my fridge.
> ...


I have it in a glass HT cabinet & cannot hear it.
However, when door is open it seems to be about as loud as a 501 (not bad).


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2004)

Thanks for a peak.

This board looks like a standard PC type board. The chip at the top with the big heat sink is the CPU. Judging from the ZIF socket size (370??) I would guess that it is a PIII or Athlon processor. The ZIF socket makes you want to upgade!!!

The chip below with the heat sink would be the MCH (memory controlller hub) and I assume that the IO hub is under the disk drive with the memory. Was the DRAM socketed?

Were the satellite receivers plugged into the PCI slots? I don't see the brown standard PCI connector at the bottom. It looks like there is a smaller socket for these cards. 

They satellite cards still could be connected through the PCI system but using a smaller size bus. The Broadcam chips (should be two here) output the data in a byte wide digital stream that should be less than 2.5 MByte/sec for HD. 

Assuming that PCI is the backbone for data movement, this would be no problem for a 32-bit 33 MHz PCI bus with burst bandwidth of 132 MBytes/sec. However, things would be more interesting if they limited the bus width to 8 bits. The max would only be 33 Mbyte/sec with 3 HD streams you would have some head room for the inefficiency of PCI transfers. I would hope that they have nice deep buffers on the satellite receiver cards.

It seems to me if they would sell the satellite receiver cards with a standard PCI bus interface and an output card. One could let third party developers take over this product. Just a thought.


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## dbdsac (Nov 17, 2003)

tahoerob-
Congrats on the acquisition of a 921!
I have to ask...what have you just done to your warranty?
!pu****!


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

dbdsac said:


> tahoerob-
> Congrats on the acquisition of a 921!
> I have to ask...what have you just done to your warranty?
> !pu****!


First of all, who at Dish will really know!
There was absolutely no warning labels anywhere. So does it _really_ mean a probelm with warranty???


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## dmodemd (Jul 5, 2002)

Sometimes they put a drop of something on a screw so they can tell it its been opened...


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## Throwbot (Dec 24, 2003)

dmodemd said:


> Sometimes they put a drop of something on a screw so they can tell it its been opened...


Plus they are all reading this thread at Dish!


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

since the receivers are basically video laden PCs, why not open them up???
We all have opened up & fiddled with home PC hundreds of times.
The spirit of any warranty is that if I open it up & break something, too bad for me. No different than if I drop on my granite countertop! 
Nothing really forbids looking inside.


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

just for fun, I will READ the warranty info supplied in the back on the users manual tonight & report back!!!!!


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## HDSAT (Jun 5, 2005)

I took a look inside my 921 the other day and notice some great discoveries. First that it had PCI expansion slots ( i think they maybe mac compatible), also that it had a second IDE hookup, and a drive opening for a 5" 1/4 drive that I managed to put a DVD-ROM drive in.
I am going to be experimenting with hooking up the second drive, and see if I can boot with it. the DVD-ROM drive seems to will work by itself with out the harddrive hookup!


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

The link didn't work.


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## dfergie (Feb 28, 2003)

HDSAT said:


> also that it had a second IDE hookup,


Hooked up a diamondmax 10 250 gig to and left for a day ... nothing happened except the new drive would not boot in any pc afterwards(was unformated when I put in 921)....


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## SoonerDude (Aug 29, 2003)

dang, they deleted the post. Got another link?


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

New link to post:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=4057&highlight=peak+inside+921


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

FYI:
I have actually sold my 921 & am doing just cable for now. (Has more GOOD HD than Dish!!!).
I will wait for MPEG 4 receivers from either D* or E*


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