[mythtv-users] Thoughts on a hardware lineup..

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Wed Apr 21 16:17:20 UTC 2010


On Wednesday 21 April 2010 10:00:47 am Eric Ladner wrote:
> My FE/BE machine died a while back (struck by lightning, fried
> motherboard) and I'm putting together a hardware lineup to replace it.
> 
> Any good/bad comments on the hardware below?  This is going in a
> regular case right now, but eventually probably into an HTPC case
> that'll support full height cards.
> 
> 
> Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 3 GHz 1333MHz 6 MB LGA775 CPU BX80570E8400
> 
> Scythe Shuriken Rev.B SCSK-1100 Low-Profile HTPC Media Center Copper
>  Heatpipe Quiet CPU Fan Cooler 10.5-31.67dBA 11.8-31.91CFM
> 
> ASUS P5N-D LGA775 Nvidia 750i DDR2-800 ATX Motherboard
> 
> ZOTAC nVidia GeForce GT240 ZONE 1 GB DDR3 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video
> Card ZT-20404-20L (fanless)
> 
> Patriot Extreme Performance 4 GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 Dual Channel Memory

I'm not sure "Extreme Performance" memory is required, or even that such a 
thing exists, except in the minds of the marketing people. Conventional RAM, 
with no extra-cost things like graphics or fancy names, is probably adequate.

> 
> SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Tuner
> 

A great device (I have one), but only if you have access to either unencrypted 
QAM or OTA channels. Clear QAM is disappearing fast, so I'd go this route only 
if you have several available OTA channels.

If you plan to get HD from cable or satellite, you will need an HD-PVR device, 
and a STB/receiver that outputs component HD.

If you have analog cable channels, or want to record the SD output of an STB, 
you might want a conventional PVR-150-type device, or its modern equivalent.

You didn't mention anything about drives, but they create a lot of heat and 
you will need fans of some sort to remove that heat, as well as the heat from 
the fanless video card and the CPU cooler. Quietly removing heat from chips 
still leaves that heat to be removed from the case.

I'd go for a quiet and efficient PSU as well, and also go with a good UPS to 
power the whole lot (might save you from another lightning event as well). 
Silent PSUs help a lot to reduce the overall noise.

You want your OS and DB to be on a separate spindle from your video storage.


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