[mythtv-users] yet another hardware list

[J. Donavan Stanley]

john lawler wrote:

> 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.
>

I'd recomend grabbing a Chaintech 7NIF2 MB instead.  You'll get an 
onboard Geforce 4 with TV-Out instead of the S3.  It'll save you a slot 
and it has the advantage of having the svideo connector right along side 
the other ports not on an external card.

You'll want the 512 (well more than 256 at least).  And with the 
Chaintech MB you can get two sticks of 256 running in dual channel DDR mode.