[mythtv-users] PVR Hardware Build

[Ian Clark]

2008/6/25 moodyjunk at frontiernet.net <moodyjunk at frontiernet.net>:

> After scouring the forums, here is what I've settled on for my PVR
> build using MythDora and the key reasons I chose it.
>
> [snippity]
> processor - Intel E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo)
> [snippity]
>
> Comments welcome before I start collecting parts.


Any particular reason for this processor? You can pick up a Q6600 (only
2.4GHz) which, whilst slower, does have 2 extra cores, which for a workload
like myth may actually be better. (especially if you wanted to run multiple
transcoding jobs.)

I have a dual core 2.4 AMD and I don't seem to hit high CPU usage, but I do
sometimes have quite a high load average. (which is basically lots of stuff
being ready to run.) this would probably be better served by more cores
rather than a faster core?

I may be going crazy though, what do others think?

Also, are you going for 32 or 64 bit? Is it worth getting more than 2G of
memory??

Hmm, you might be able to get away with a cheaper PSU too, I don't know how
much power your 3 tuners use, but I power mine (single cable tuner, dual
core cpu, 2 gig mem, couple of HDs) off a 380W PSU with no issues. (It draws
around 100W)

I don't mean a /cheap/ PSU, (I've got a Tagen, very happy with it.) but a
good quality lower power one may be worth considering? (Top PSU tip: Weigh
the bugger, the heavier the better.)

Oh, yeah, one other thing, have you considered some kind of RAID, or other
multi drive setup? Recording/transcoding/mysqling is all quite IO intensive,
so 2 500G in RAID0 would probably be more responsive than a single large
drive. (That being said, I only use 1 drive and haven't noticed an issue.)

I don't know about the Silverstone, but I will sing the praises of the Antec
P182 case too, a bit fiddly to get stuff in (and PSU size matters) but it's
increadably quiet (and the PSU sits at the bottom in a chamber with the HDs
so doesn't cook the processor, this means I can actually run my CPU without
a fan for most of the time!)

Just my 2p's worth. :)

Ian
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