[mythtv-users] Backend/Frontend hardware (new system)

[Simon Hobson]

FWIW, if you are looking at separate FE & BE systems, then I've found 
an HP Microserver does quite a reasonable job as the backened with 
the proviso that it doesn't have the horsepower to do real-time 
transcoding (I find it takes about 6 hours to transcode 1 hour of SD 
video from MPEG (UK Freeview) to H264 (for iPad)).

Buy when they are on cashback (which seems to be all the time !) and 
they don't cost a lot for what they offer
http://www.ebuyer.com/281915-hp-proliant-turion-ii-n40l-microserver-100-cashback-658553-421

Mine runs at just under 50W with two hard drives and two HVR1300 
tuners in it. They've upgraded it since I bought mine - mines the 
slightly older N36L processor, it's now got an N40L.

Whether it would run a FE with a decent nVidia graphics card in it I 
don't know - never tried, but can't see any reason it wouldn't. It 
would be quiet enough - it's got a big 6" fan in the back which runs 
quite quietly. You would want a bit of black tape over the bright 
blue LED behind the HP logo though !


Couple of niggles with them though. While they provide the caddies 
and screws for a full complement of 4 HDs and an optical drive - 
there is no SATA cable, and the power cable is a 4 pin molex so 
you'll need a molex-SATA power adapter, for the optical drive.

-- 
Simon Hobson

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