[mythtv-users] Hardware suggestions

[Wade Maxfield]

>On 7/25/06, Wade Maxfield 
><<mailto:mythtv at hotblack.co.nz>mythtv at hotblack.co.nz> wrote:
>
>
>That case is pretty much a NSK2400 with a VFD and volume knob.  I've
>just put together a system with the NSK2400 case and can strongly
>recommend it, quiet and easy to work with.  It'll take a mATX board
>so that should give you plenty of choices.
>
>I ended up with an Athlon64 3200+, Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9 M/B, and a
>Nvidia FX-7300 card (for TV-Out, PCI-e and fanless).  Just be sure to
>get a black DVD drive as anything else looks rather out of place with
>the silver plastic of the case.
>
>
>Hi Wade
>That sounds pretty-much perfect! Have you found the motherboard to 
>be stable?  What distro do you use?
>I'm paranoid now as I've had so many problems with my Epia!
>
>The FX-7300 seems to have a fan on it, so I'm more inclined to stick 
>with the passively-cooled FX-5200.  Do you think that would be 
>appropriate for my needs?
>
>Sorry for all the stupid questions - but I'm not that great with 
>hardware (I last "understood" it just before the 486 came out!), and 
>I've had my fingers burnt too many times on this project.  The "WAF" 
>is proving difficult!
>
>Thanks
>Steve
>


Hi Steve,

The graphics card I have is a Gigabyte GV-NX73G128D and it definitely 
has no fan.  The 5200 from memory is AGP only, so you'd need to get a 
5300 if your M/B is PCI-e (like the one I have).  I couldn't find any 
5300's so I went with the 7300.  I don't think it's going to make 
much of a difference though.

My machine is a F/E only using Fedora Core 4 and following Jarod's 
guide.  I've had no real issues with it, just a couple of teething 
problems (had to resort to downloading the nForce driver to my Mac 
and using a USB key to transfer/install it to get the onboard 
ethernet and sound going initially).

I also used a Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCU cooler for the CPU, quiet and 
cool enough, so you only need one of the 2 case fans running at the 
slowest speed.   The whole mahine is quiet enough to pass the 
girlfriend test. 8)

  - Wade