<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Feb 15, 2007, at 4:12 PM, David Mythtv wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">Has anyone bought the Hannibal prebuilt Mythtv system from <A href="http://www.tvease.net">http://www.tvease.net</A>? I'm thinking of buying one to use as a high definition front end. The url to the model that I am thinking of getting is: <BR><A href="http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/tvease/Search?category=media+centers%3Ahannibal">http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/tvease/Search?category=media+centers%3Ahannibal</A><BR><BR>The machine's specs look pretty good for $499 and it can play high definition via vga, component video, or dvi. I plan to build the backend myself since it will be in a different room and can be noisy. The case used in the Hannibal was rated as the quietest in a test by arstechnica [or another tech site]. Are there any other vendors selling prebuilt Mythtv systems that I should be looking at that are silent or near silent around the same price? If I go with the Hannibal, I'll pull the hard drive out and netboot the system over the LAN. <BR><BR>Thanks in advance for any suggestions.<BR>]Interesting. For HD that CPU might be a little marginal, especially with only 256KB cache (assuming it's a 346 chip). That's only a $40 CPU.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The 512MB RAM might be marginal as well, especially with no local HDD for cache or OS.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The case looks very interesting though. That's what really makes the difference between a good and a great deal on that thing. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I'd look into buying the case and MOBO alone. For $20 to $30 more you could get a CPU with twice the cache and another .5Ghz of speed, and I'd think about more RAM, but you'd also have to look at the PSU rating as to whether it could handle more CPU cycles and more RAM.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I'd also think about losing the card reader and the DVD drive, they are just pulling watts for no real benefit if your video is stored elsewhere. Also I'd think about a 5200 video card, less power and it has chroma-key.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Just some thoughts.</DIV></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>