[mythtv-users] Dell Optiplex 755 as Front End?

[Douglas Wagner]

I'd definately need a low profile card.  The agp 16 riser card that
provides dvi on the box is without question low profile.

I do have a couple of ati 1300's that I got at the same place as i got
the 755 that are low profile, but I know NOTHING about ATI cards (I've
always purchased nvidia).

How's that card spec?  It's probably at least a couple years old? Is
it accelerated like the nvidias are?  How tough is it going to be to
find a low profile nvidia card that runs off of agp 16x (I THINK the
slot is agp)

--Doug

On Friday, June 3, 2011, Matt Emmott <memmott at gmail.com> wrote:
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> On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 2:49 PM, Douglas Wagner <douglasw0 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> All:
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> Looking for a fast answer:  Anyone out there using a Dell Optiplex 755 as a front end for HD OTA TV/Recordings?  I know the CPU should work (Dual Core 2.33Ghz) and memory/etc isn't a problem, but i'm worried about the DVI Output/Built in Intel Chipset (Intel Q35 Express).
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> It's a supported chip under Ubuntu (Running it at work) but I don't know what kind of performance it'll get running HD over Network from a backend?
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> My home PC is an Optiplex 745 with a C2D 2.4GHZ. It has a GeForce card, but when using the Windows port of the Myth FE, it renders using the CPU only. I find that it's just barely enough to render H.264 recordings from my HD-PVR. It will work, but can get choppy once in a while and makes the box useless to use as a PC at the same time (which might not be of concern to you).
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> I believe you'd be doing CPU rendering with that chipset but somebody correct me if I'm wrong. I also don't know if there's more special sauce in Linux vs. Windows as far as CPU optimizations go.
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>  The rest of the machine is solid, you could always put a GT430 in there for around $60 if performance isn't quite what you need, although check to see if you need a low-profile card, which I did.
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