[mythtv-users] ION boards, 230 vs 330, fans?

[Jim Stichnoth]

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 10:13 PM, Bill Bogstad <bogstad at pobox.com> wrote:
> I just bought a Zotac board with plans to do something like what you
> have done.  A couple of questions:
>
> 1. In the case when you used the metal tinbox, what kind of standoffs
> did you use to mount the motherboard?  (I'm worried about shorting
> something out.)  Also, did you consider drilling a bunch of small
> holes in the box rather then a few large ones?  I''m thinking that
> would eliminate the need for the rubber grommets and smaller holes
> would make it even less likely that something would fall in the top.

I used the kind of standoffs you would use for a normal computer case.
 I had to use a nut on the outside and a washer on the inside because
the metal was so thin and soft.  Drilling holes was a challenge
because of the thinness/softness of the metal.  Any burrs or flanges
are a big cutting hazard, hence the grommets.  Maybe a drill press
would allow one to get very smooth holes.

In the end, I felt that this kind of tin box was too much of a bother.
 I greatly preferred using the cardboard box and a utility knife.

> 2. It sounds like you eventually abandoned the use of the USB flash
> drive for network booting.
> Any issues with getting network booting working?  What base OS
> distribution are you
> booting (and what OS is hosting the boot environment)?  Any pointers
> to docs would be appreciated.  What is the boot time like for network
> vs. USB flash?  I'm wondering
> about WAF here...

I believe the boot time between a hard drive, a good quality flash
drive, and network booting is practically indistinguishable.  It's
about 1 minute from pressing the power button until mythfrontend
displays the main menu.

I'm using Fedora 10 -- actually MythDora 10.21, with the kernel
updated to 2.6.31.6 because of an NFS performance bug in 2.6.27, and
with the myth applications compiled from trunk.  I understand the
Ubuntu has tools for setting up netboot clients, but for Fedora I
needed to roll my own.  I found it very helpful to start by installing
onto a temporary hard drive or flash drive, then clone that onto the
NFS server, and then work on the netbooting infrastructure.  I
documented my own journey at
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/391239 .

> 3. For the moment, I've decided to put one of my HDHR's in the living
> room so I can use it's
> IR receiver with lirc to control the Zotac frontend.  If I change my
> mind, what USB IR did you use?

I happen to use a StreamZap IR receiver, which works well.

Jim