[mythtv-users] new rig ... help with specs

[Brian Wood]

On Saturday 19 September 2009 12:09:32 Mary Strimel wrote:
> hi,
> after 5 years I am replacing my mythtv box ... yay!  I'm pretty sure I
> want another AMD 64.  However, I have had problems with my hard disks
> being unreliable ... every couple years one will go bad, it seems. I
> have few general questions about how to proceed:

OK, I'll throw my $0.02 in.

>
> 1. Among the major / widely supported brands of motherboards, which
> are considered well-built, highest quality, long lasting, etc?
> Gigabyte seems to have several models available for AMD; I am
> interested in something really solid... comments?

I've always had good luck with Asus, though recently I have had two of them 
fail. One I was able to resurrect by replacing the caps, the other is now 
shot. I still think Asus makes good boards. 

>
> 1.A:  Shuttle touts its "all solid capacitor" mobo, I assume this
> implies quality, however, experiences in this group seem to be mixed
> w/r/t the drive controllers, lan cards, etc and they don't seem
> expandable (not that I care but I want a flexible enough system to
> have for a while.)  Any comments on this one
> (http://us.shuttle.com/G6_6800.aspx)?

Certainly the failure of electrolytic capacitors is a common fault with mobos, 
but I wouldn't buy one just because it didn't use them. There are plenty of 
good quality electrolytic caps available, they just cost more.

Shuttle has always seemes overpriced to me, but the cases are nice.

>
> 2. should I care about AMD X2 versus higher priced Phenom X3 or X4
> CPU?  I want plenty of extra power (just for HTPC, not gaming) but not
> plenty of extra heat The max stress on this system I can imagine would
> be taping 1 show in HD, watching another at the same time, while
> something is transcoding and let's say mythfilldatbase decides to run
> too.  Want a CPU that will be a great HTPC for at least 5 years.  But
> I assume the more CPU cycles, the more heat in the case (see below)?
> What AMD CPU will strike a good balance here?

I have been buying server class motherboards lately, with Asus and SuperMicro 
being my favorites. They may not fit into all cases, but I've pretty well 
gone to rackmount cases, this may not be a good answer for you, but it might 
be.

I'm using the AMD Opteron 2xx series (socket 940) CPUs, perhaps a bit dated 
but certainly capable of running anything Myth. A pair of 275s (total of four 
cores at 2.2Ghz.) will handle anything Myth will throw at it. Most server 
mobos these days have at least 2 CPU sockets, though you can use just one if 
you like, and have the potential to expand later without having to throw away 
the original CPU.

Used or refurbished server class mobos and systems are comparable in cost to 
new consumer units. It's like deciding whether to buy a new Chevrolet or a 
used Mercedes, it's up to you, but I've decided to go the used Mercedes route 
lately, and have no regrets.

For example:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=WSYS147-R&cat=SYS

A nice server-class machine that could handle anything you'd need, except 
perhaps small, quiet or power efficient :-)

>
> 3.  Would it help my hard drives live longr if i move up to a full ATX
> motherboard and give them room to "breathe"?  This probably seems like
> a stupid question but I am really at a loss for why my drives have
> been fritzy.  I had one get a bad circuit board, another is throwing
> I/O errors and I've been unable to determine the cause (ran memtests,
> fsck, etc. to no avail).  My case has 2 exhaust fans and seems to
> ventilate OK but the drives seem to run hot.  I'll be getting 2 new
> SATA drives for this box ... comments on reliability, brands, or ways
> to keep them healthy?  Does eSATA support matter for anything?

I like the Toshiba Deskstar drives, now that Seagate is not as reliable as 
they used to be. I have never had a Toshiba fail, but my sample size is too 
small to be valid. People seem to speak well of the WDs.

As for cooling, you have to look at the air path, not just the volume. If 
you're not moving sufficient air over the drives they will run hot. That's 
another plus for server class machines, they generally have better designed 
cooling than consumer units (at least IMHO). Hot swap drive bays are usually 
designed to allow good airflow around the drives.

>
> 4. One of the boards I am considering has onboard NVIDIA 8300 graphics
> (see asus below), another has ATI radeon 3000 onboard graphics.  Are
> onboard graphics a Bad Idea?  I see threads like this one
> (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=125246) and get a
> little scared.

Of course onboard graphics do create heat, but a chip will dissipate the same 
amount of heat whether on the mobo or on a separate graphics card. You want 
to be sure the system has overall good thermal and cooling design, you can't 
just throw a fan in every possible place and hope for the best, which seems 
to be what a lot of people do.


Right now nVidia graphic chips of the 8xxx or 9xxx series are probably the 
best choice for Myth, they are VDPAU capable, which will take a lot of load 
off your CPU. Unless of course you want to experiment with the IONs, or see 
what else comes down the pike in the near future.

So consider older commercial class gear when putting a system together. They 
are designed for reliability,  something nice for a 24/7 Myth system backend. 
They usually come with mimimal or no onboard graphics and no sound, but 
that's the frontend's job. You could of course install a graphics and/or 
sound card if necessary.

Just my $0.02US.

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org