<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 12:33 PM, j2u4 j2u4 <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:j2u44u@gmail.com">j2u44u@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse;">I'm looking for a single slender box (maybe even mini-itx) that can serve as a BE and dual FE (powering 2 tvs, dual tuners). One TV is HD 1080p, the other is SD.<div>
<br></div><div>Does this look like it might have the goods, assuming I added an Nvidia with PureVideo HD (or two - or maybe use the built-in intel GMA x4500 for the SD, and an Nvidia for the HD)? <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/desktop-inspiron-537s/pd.aspx?refid=desktop-inspiron-537s&s=dhs&cs=19&ref=dthp" style="color: rgb(42, 93, 176);" target="_blank">http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/desktop-inspiron-537s/pd.aspx?refid=desktop-inspiron-537s&s=dhs&cs=19&ref=dthp</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>Or, am I trying too hard? Should I just go with a Zotac ION N330? Or maybe two N230s, one for each TV?</div><div><br></div><div>Is anyone running a single box as BE/dualFE, and what's that experience like?<br>
</div></span></blockquote></div><br><br>The biggest problem I can see is going to be disk I/O. You would be better off with more HDDs in there, but you could add them as needed. There are at least the 5.25" bays.With the OS, database, 2 recordings going and 2 playing back, you might have issues with a single drive. Personally, I like to run a large, ugly, loud, cheap BE server hidden away with small quiet good looking FE boxes at each TV. I've never considered running 2 FEs on one machine, but I have heard of people doing it. For NVidia cards, the PureVideo thing only applies to Windows. You need to look for VDPAU support. Most any modern card can handle it. 8000 series and newer. <br>
<br>I certainly hope it's wrong, but the Dell website specs those with 10/100 ethernet. No gigabit?!?! Even if you aren't using it now, it's nice to have for the future. And it's cheap, so if they cut corners there, I have to question the quality of the rest of the box. Even the Atom based boards have gigabit. <br>
<br>Honestly, I think it's going to prove much more complex to set up what you're talking about than the usual Myth systems. I would do Revos at the TVs and a cheap BE server with at least 2 disks. One can be slower/smaller for the OS and database. <br>
<br>If you're going to include Hulu, you need a fair bit of CPU at the TVs. GPU assisted decoding doesn't exist for Flash, so you are stuck doing everything in CPU. The dual-core Atom boards have been talked about for Hulu. I haven't tried it myself, I just don't find Hulu that interesting. <br>