[mythtv-users] Re-doing my backend

R. G. Newbury newbury at mandamus.org
Tue Feb 5 03:47:34 UTC 2008


Steve Smith wrote:
> On 04/02/2008, Jean-Yves Avenard <jyavenard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> On Feb 4, 2008 11:46 AM, David Frascone <frasconebulk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Humm . . Mine is a 2.2 or so Ghz P4 -- think it can keep up?
>>>
>> Is this just a backend ?
>>
>> If yes then 2GHz is plenty of power with plenty to spare.
>>
>> I run a 200MHz machine with all the services you mentioned , and the
>> CPU never gets over 5% !
>>
>> To the person who also replied. A Core 2 Duo a 2.4Ghz is significantly
>> faster than a 3GHz P4 ... hardly a valid comparison

> A 200Mhz machine you say....interesting....
> 
> I'm currently doing a theoretical exercise trying to figure out the lowest
> power (as in electricity) backend you can get.
> 
> The Mini-ITX boards can go as low as ~20w idle (or less), but are very
> limited in PCI slots (useful in a backend!)
> 
> Anyone know if you can get multi-PCI slot boards with these kind of power
> requirements?
> 

You can get 2-slot PCI riser cards for Via mini-itx motherboards so you 
can run 2 cards. My Via SP13000 mb with PVR500, pcdhtv3000 and 2 hard 
drives running used 37 watts. I seriously doubt that even a 200MHz chip 
was that thrifty. In fact, I remember that my first couple of x86 based 
machines were quite hot!

For a backend however, a mini-itx would easily handle 2 PVR500's for 4 
tuners, and you can always add an HDHomeRun externally.

Geoff


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list