[mythtv-users] Best front-end machine?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 09/03/2011 11:02 AM, jedi wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 02, 2011 at 02:49:48AM -0400, Raymond Wagner wrote:
>> On 9/2/2011 02:16, john.baab wrote:
>>> There are some pre-built ion boxes too, which generally have smaller
>>> cases but don't give you the flexibility of building your own.
>> Pre-built or not, Atom-based systems have zero flexibility.  The CPU
>      That's pretty much true of any low profile machine. It's not just
> limited to Atom based machines. Lack of flexibility is a trade off for
> greatly reduced size.
>

Losing flexibility in adding more hardware is a trade off of choosing a 
small case.  Using a processor that can't process the data it's given in 
any case--large or small--is just choosing to limit yourself for no good 
reason, IMHO.

You can get a good processor in a low-profile machine.  The old Apple 
Mac Mini machines with nvidia GPUs were a good example (using a Core 2 
Duo)--though current Mac Minis use Intel or AMD GPUs, so aren't really 
appropriate, anymore.  And, now, the ASRock Vision 3D seems to be a 
modern example (allowing your choice of Core i3/i5/i7 mobile processors).

Mike