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

[Damian]

On 08/08/2012 17:54, Joseph Fry wrote:
>
>         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.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Food for thought while I'm on holiday. I'll get out the credit card when 
I'm back.

Damian

*Damian Surr* /Magician/

www.magic-weddings.com 
<http://www.magic-weddings.com/>|www.gingermagic.com 
<http://www.gingermagic.com/>

www.christmaspartymagician.co.uk 
<http://www.christmaspartymagician.co.uk> |Tel: 07712 575701

Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/gingermagic> Twitter 
<http://twitter.com/damiansurr>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20120810/c4ab1a35/attachment.html>