[mythtv-users] Dual Core Atom for frontend

Scott D. Davilla davilla at 4pi.com
Tue Sep 30 19:22:03 UTC 2008


>What do you folks think of using one of the new Dual Core Atom 330s for a low
>power frontend?  The new one just came out and I can get it pretty cheap from
>my favorite supplier ($89)
>
>http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D945GCLF2/D945GCLF2-overview.htm
>
>Does MythTV take advantage of 2 cpus each for hyperthreading to speed up
>decoding?  Would this give it enough gets to handle HD later on, if I ever
>decide to go HD?
>
>Pros:
>
>Low power
>Intel GPU means good linux support.
>S-Video out onboard
>Dual core means more guts?
>
>Cons:
>Still low processing power
>Crummy little fan on northbridge may be noisy.
>
>
>What I'd REALLY like to see are some real world benchmarks in Linux comparing
>the Dual Core Atom with the single core version and perhaps the Celeron 220
>that was on the D201GLY2 (I've got one sitting on my shelf that I may put in
>a frontend.  Also throw in a couple of Via Epias and maybe a VIA Nano.

Funny you should ask, I just got in two D945GCLF2 for $96 each at 
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/boxd945gclf2. Have not tried a 
mythfrontend but under XBMC Live it looks processing for 720p 
including the higher profile.

Don't have a comparison to the D201GLY2 but I can compare it to the 
1GHz pentium-m in the AppleTV hardware. The single core atom is a 
little slower than the 1GHz pentium-m and the dual core seems about 
twice as fast. 720p mkv that would almost play on the AppleTV are 
taking about 120 percent CPU (via top).

You're not going to do 1080p (maybe with ffmpeg skip_loop_filter), 
but 720p so far looks promising. XBMC sees both real CPUs (and the 
hyperthreading) with a generic Ubuntu Hardy based system.

So far, Cons:

That really is a crummy fan ;)
VGA/S-Video out only.






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