[mythtv-users] yet another hardware list

john lawler maillist at tgice.com
Wed Feb 18 19:14:14 EST 2004


Hi guys, I'm a newbie looking at purchasing all new hardware for a 
modest mythtv box (with some room to grow).  I checked out the specs of 
some of the machines that the developers use (since I figured that'd be 
a good place to start), and basicaly went with one of those, or maybe it 
was one of Jarod's machines.  Not sure.  Anyway, here're the specs:

MSI KM400 Chipset, Model KM4M-L (microATX)
	(w/ onboard AC '97 audio, ethernet, and "Integrated S3 Graphics 
UniChrome™ 2D/3D Graphics with motion compensation" which I guess is a 
video adapter)

Athlon XP 2400
256 MB PC2700 333Mhz (maybe 512, not sure yet)
Sony 16x DVD-ROM
Hauppauge PVR-250
Chaintech NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 64MB w/ S-video out
microATX case w/ 230W PS

[and I have a spare 60GB WD 7200rpm sitting around that I'll start with]

as of yesterday on pricewatch, this'd all cost me ~$400.00, which'll be 
pretty cheap as far as the hardware goes.

So, I'm just looking for any warnings anyone might have about chipsets, 
or compatibility issues at a quick glance.  I *believe* most of this 
hardware has been reported to work pretty well.

One other major question I had on it is this.  This mobo has an onboard 
video adapter.  Assuming I can get it working with Linux okay, and that 
I basically want this box to have TV-out-only functionality (no monitor 
after I get it setup), would you recommend that I buy one of those 
VGA->component (or S video, or w/e) adapters or for some other reason, 
should I buy the Chaintech with the S-video out as I originally planned?

If the recommendation is for one of those VGA->component adapters a) how 
does the quality compare to something like the Chaintech card and b) 
where might I buy one and for how much?

I'm grateful for your experience and recommendations.

Thanks,

John Lawler


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