[mythtv-users] Any problem with main frontend also being household network server?

[Joseph Fry]

>
>
>  My question is, Is there any good reason why the main frontend should be
>> a different machine (to the backend and network server) or can I have
>> them all in one quiet attractive box that lives on the book case?
>>
>
> Well that's the real question. Can you fit everything in one quiet
> attractive box that lives on the book case? There's always going to be
> tradeoffs. Small and quiet means poor cooling, which means you need much
> more expansive laptop-grade hardware to get the same performance and
> storage. Quiet and inexpensive means you're going to have to go big, to
> have large heatsinks and large, slow fans, which are going to make
> "attractive" difficult. Small and attractive is easy, but then you end up
> with a vacuum cleaner in the corner of your room.
>
> You can do it, sure. However, many users find it is cheaper and quicker to
> split the two (or more) boxes. It's significantly easier to make a computer
> silent against the background of a TV, and turn it off when not in use,
> than it is to make it silent against a quiet room. There is always the
> third option of using a loud old machine in your garage, or other
> convenient room, and running audio/video/ir to your television remotely.


There is no reason not to combine the two, just be careful with your
component selection.

A good case with great thought to airflow is key... I like the Silverstone
GD04/05 if you want something that is shallow enough to sit with the rest
of your equipment.  These cases use 3 large 120mm+ fans blowing cool
turbulent air into the case for great cooling.  The fans don't need to spin
fast to cool well, so get a fan controller or wire them to run on 5V to
keep them quiet.  Coupled with a low thermal load CPU (<= 65watts) and the
Silverstone fanless heatsink (remove the shroud) recommended for that case,
and you can have a very quiet system.  Use an SSD for your system
drive/database so that your media drives can spin down when not in use; and
buy quiet 5400RPM drives for your media.  A bit of sound deadening pad on
the panels of the case to help kill any vibration can't hurt either.

Odds are, the fan on your projector will be louder than your system if you
plan it properly.

A visit to SPCR (http://www.silentpcreview.com/) is recommended... the
folks there are all about keeping computers quiet.
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