[mythtv-users] HD Frontend hardware: cases for enclosed spaces

Mark Kundinger mkundinger at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 25 03:08:13 EDT 2005



--- Sean Cier <scier at PostHorizon.com> wrote:

> I'm finally chucking the wretched XBox that has served as my living
> room 
> frontend for far too long, and building a proper machine.  I want
> HDTV 
> support (only have an SDTV there at the moment, and no HD sources,
> but the 
> latter will hopefully change before long, and the former will
> undoubtedly be 
> replaced some day).  That means a hefty processor; I'm planning on
> going 
> Athlon 64.  I'll have a hard drive just to avoid the headaches of
> remote 
> boot, but it'll spin down and presumably not be a factor heat-wise.
> 
> The catch is, I want to put this in my armoire-style TV cabinet. 
> That means 
> either:
> -- in a shelf under/over the TV (~5" high X 27" wide x 20" deep, but
> a case 
> must be no more than 4.2" high to actually be able to get it in
> there), 
> which is open on the front but enclosed on the sides/rear/top/bottom,
> or
> -- in the cabinet area, in which case it'd have a whole half of the
> cabinet 
> to itself (17"w x 19"h x 21" deep), but apart from a 1" vertical
> wire-access 
> slit in the rear, the doors will be closed and it'll be completely
> enclosed 
> effectively 24/7.
> 
>> With no tuners and such, the hardware demands are relatively light
> and I 
> never anticipate them growing too far (though perhaps evolving with
> new 
> video cards, new processors, etc someday) -- but I want something
> solid that 
> isn't going to give me grief, and something that'll last a while
> without 
> going completely obsolete.  And, I want *full* Myth
> PVR/music/DVD/video 
> functionality -- no embedded hardware that'll only do half of what my
> other 
> frontends will.


Well, the one thing that might be a sticker is how intensively you plan
on using it as a DVD player.  If you use that a lot, then I'd recommend
putting the Mythbox in the exposed location, for easy access.  That
means the narrow spot, and that meants getting a very low-profile case.
 This would cramp your expansion plans, but you'd still probably be
able to fit in an AGP card, HDD, and DVD drive, which I guess would be
all you would need for a frontend.







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