[mythtv-users] Low power FE/BE CPU

[Patrick Doyle]

On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 1:31 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>
> There are some AM2/AM2+ motherboards that say "AM3 ready", which apparently
> means they will work with an AM3 CPU if you use the latest BIOS. Unless it
> actually says "AM3 ready" it's a crapshoot whether a particular motherboard
> has a BIOS update available that will work with an AM3 chip.
>
> I have an Asus M3N78-VM board with an onboard nVidia 8200 that does in fact
> work with an AM3 chip, even though it does not say "AM3-ready", just as a
> data point.
>
> But I'd go with a discreet graphics card, far more flexibility and upgrade
> potential.
>

Is there such a thing as a uATX motherboard w/o integrated video?  Or,
to put it differently, how much power will it cost me to ignore the
integrated video in favor of a separate video card?

I seem to be drifting towards the Antek NSK-2480 case, which looks to
me like it supports 4 full height expansion cards.  (I can't find any
specifications about this though).  So, I don't think I'm going to be
limited in size, but I still want things to run cool & quiet.

Does anybody know if there are thermal power dissipation savings in
going up the model number tree for the nVidia cards?  Or is it only
"raw GPU power increases" going up the number tree?

--wpd