[mythtv-users] MythTV Hardware Recommendations - Stability is the Key

[Brian Wood]

On Jun 28, 2006, at 7:39 PM, Craig Meyer wrote:

>   MythTV Users,
>
> I am a long time MythTV user that recently retired my MythTV box when
> moving to another state. I am now ready to build a new box but I am
> looking for advice.
>
> My first box was based on an Athlon 2000+ motherboard with a Nvidia
> Nforce2 chipset and DDR2700 RAM. I bought the system for performance.
> Unfortunately I found it to be totally unstable. It had weird issues
> like system hangs, compilation problems and program crashes. It was
> running Gentoo on both 2.4 and then 2.6 series kernels. I moved it to
> become a Windows desktop and haven’t seen any of the same issues with
> the exact hardware. However, I still think it was hardware related
> because I ran into numorus Nforce2 related Linux glitches.
>
> My question is, what would be a good choice for a cheap but complete
> MicroATX motherboard and processor combination that will support  
> MythTV
> with rock solid stability? My primary concerns are STABILITY, heat and
> power consumption.


Chad's question about HD or SD is right on the mark, but you need to  
go further:

Even if only SD, how many tuners are you expecting to use, as this  
has bearing on your storage requirements, and some of the small low- 
heat cases can only handle 1 or 2 drives.

So it has to be asked if you are thinking of an integrated FE/BE, or  
perhaps separate machines for each function.

Many factors influence hardware decisions, but in general if it is  
stable under Linux  it should be stable with Myth.

If stability is a major concern, you might want to go with one of the  
packaged Myth distributions (MythDora, Knoppmyth, Amicus et al). Not  
that these installations are "better", but they do get more testing  
of the same software configuration, so you are perhaps less likely to  
be "surprised", and there is a large base of users to help you out if  
you do run into trouble.

The packaged releases also have forums that discuss what hardware is  
known to work well with them, (and to not work so well, or at all) so  
I'd read through those to get an idea of what hardware you should be  
looking at, should you decide to go with one of them.

If you want to roll your own, the archives of this list are probably  
the best source of information.

Many decades ago I asked a TV shop owner who made the best portable  
color TV, he said Sony, and when I asked why he said because he'd  
never seen the inside of one :-)