[mythtv-users] Front end CPU recommendations?

[Travis Tabbal]

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 10:23 AM, Joe <jfwd at phlobus.net> wrote:


> So I'm in the market for an upgrade, and I was curious if anyone had some
> recommendations on what features I should look for.  More specifically:
>


What's your content source? ATSC isn't too hard to decode on modern parts. I
used an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with enough CPU left over to do a commflag job in
the background. H264 on the other hand, is a CPU hog. I had to upgrade to an
X2 6000+ to get the job done. So far, the HD-PVR users are reporting 3Ghz to
be about what you need. I've found that the new CPU can decode anything I've
thrown at it, though some streams do sometimes hit about 85% CPU on one of
the cores. I suspect that's due to the stream not having "slices" so it has
to use a single core for most of the work.

I haven't seen any issue with noise, but that's more about the case and
fans. I'm using a nice Antec case with 2 large fans running about 50% speed.
I can barely hear it from about 3 feet away. Heat has not been a problem.
The case was a little expensive, but it's been worth it, IMO. If you get a
cheap case, spring for some nice fans to replace the ones that come with the
case. Large and slow are better for noise.
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