<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11395" dir="ltr"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11467">I run 4 older atoms (using a couple different versions of Zotac Zboxes) as frontends. One is a combined frontend/backend with an HD-PVR. I don't do any transcoding, but I do commercial flagging without any problems. Although I rarely watch any programs same day, so I never pay attention to how long flagging takes on the atom. I imagine it would be slow, but everything else I do on them is fine. I agree with your decision to look for a low power i3 or i5. But if you had an atom it would be worth a shot.</span></div><br> <blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11926"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11925"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11924"> <div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11923"> <hr size="1"> <font size="2" face="Arial" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11928"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Andrew Stadt <acstadt@stadt.ca><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> mythtv-users@mythtv.org <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, September 16, 2015 8:01 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [mythtv-users] Intel Atom backend?<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11930"><br><br clear="none"><br clear="none">On 16/09/15 07:42 AM, Rich Freeman wrote:<br clear="none">> On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 7:12 AM, Christopher Sean Hilton<br clear="none">> <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:chris@vindaloo.com" href="mailto:chris@vindaloo.com" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1442409466468_11932">chris@vindaloo.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">>> Thanks for all the help folks! I think I'm going to search for a new i3<br clear="none">>> or an i5 on the basis of your advice. Based on what you've said the<br clear="none">>> Atom won't be up to the job of commflagging HD recordings done with my<br clear="none">>> HD-PVR.<br clear="none">>><br clear="none">> Unless something has changed you might want to look at the TCO of the<br clear="none">> AMD chips as well. From what I've seen the Intel chips are very<br clear="none">> pricey for their performance if you're just looking to spend $100.<br clear="none">> However, they will probably draw less power so you'll have to do the<br clear="none">> math on the long-term. At least for purchase price the Intel chips<br clear="none">> seem to shine mostly if you're looking to spend $200+ on a CPU.<br clear="none">><br clear="none">> The only reason to buy something other than an Atom is if you do<br clear="none">> CPU-intensive processing, especially transcoding, but perhaps<br clear="none">> commercial flagging as well. I've not done either on an Atom, but I<br clear="none">> happily run Gentoo on an Atom for my front-end and it handles HD just<br clear="none">> fine (with hardware support).<br clear="none">><br clear="none">> --<br clear="none">> Rich<br clear="none">I've never run one as a backend, but used a Zotac 1.6 Ghz dual <br clear="none">core/nvidia as a frontend for several years, first with it's own disk, <br clear="none">then diskless, then with an SSD. While it worked as a frontend, and is <br clear="none">reasonably responsive with a really stripped down theme, I always found <br clear="none">it just "lacked" something in the overall "MythTV experience". Your <br clear="none">mileage can and will vary, depending what you want/expect/desire/etc.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">I eventually replaced it with an i3-2120T, with a discrete GT430 <br clear="none">(fanless). Yes, at peak demand it can, and does draw more power then the <br clear="none">old Atom, but looking at the cumulative consumption (ran a kill-a-watt <br clear="none">meter on both for a week - don't have the numbers in front of me, but <br clear="none">can probably dig them up - it was almost a dead heat. In fairness the <br clear="none">Atom required me to run an external powered usb hub to make my CommandIR <br clear="none">work properly (some weird chipset thing) and had the SSD while to i3 was <br clear="none">diskless.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Andrew<div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br><br></div><div class="yqt7223957365" id="yqtfd90154"><br clear="none">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">mythtv-users mailing list<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:mythtv-users@mythtv.org" href="mailto:mythtv-users@mythtv.org">mythtv-users@mythtv.org</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users" target="_blank">http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette" target="_blank">http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette</a><br clear="none">MythTV Forums: <a shape="rect" href="https://forum.mythtv.org/" target="_blank">https://forum.mythtv.org</a><br clear="none"></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </blockquote> </div></body></html>