[mythtv-users] Two Slow CPUs VS. One Fast CPU

[Brian Foddy]

On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Sk3tch wrote:
> Dual Celeron 366 (or 2 x 500 if I overclock - it is 99% stable)
> nVidia TNT2 32MB AGP
> 
> or
> 
> Single Pentium III 1.26 (512KB cache)
> ATI All in Wonder Radeon 7500 64MB AGP
> 
> Both setups would have 512MB of RAM, a Hauppauge PVR 250, and 7200RPM 8MB cache disk(s)...I'm just trying to decide between two workstations that I have available to me. 
> 
> I realize on paper the Pentium III system looks better, but from what I've read the ATI AIW cards are not fully supported by MythTV (although some have it working).  Also, perhaps the PIII system is overkill since the Hauppauge PVR 250's hardware encoder will significantly reduce CPU overhead.
> 

I've a strong believer in dual cpu machines, I have 2 and a third is dual 
ready.  However, I've also run myth on a dual P2-450 for almost a year
so I have some good insight in what you will see...

In short, the Celeron 366 will probably be too slow.  Myth will use a
dual cpu machine (primarily) IFF you are performing 2 tasks at the same
time (encode & decode; dual encode; etc).  If you are only going to
have 1 card (I had 3 in my P2), then the dual cpu machine won't help
you much.

Moreover, I had a PVR250 in my P2 machine.  While I could encode(record)
any show I wanted at any resolution, playback of a mpeg2 is not trivial
and I found the P2 machine could only playback about a 512x480 capture
(and the dual won't help you much on playback).
I don't have any feeling for your video cards, I don't think either is
has hardware decoding, so its probably a wash.

In summary, I was relatively happy with my dual P2 in that it would handle
3 cards (a PVR250 and 2-Wintv 401s) at the same time.  But they all had
to be set to a low resolution/quality, and as such wouldn't recommend
unless you don't care for the highest quality recordings.  I doubt
overclocking a Celeron to 500 would be much different than my normal
clocked 450s either.

I'd go with the single 1.2 P3 myself...  (Also a P3 gives you 
de-interlaced capability the Celeron won't support).

Brian