[mythtv-users] About Assembling a MythTV Box

[Gert van der Knokke]

Abhi wrote:

>
>
>    Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 350 - Input Adapter
>        buy.com $166
>
Hmm, why a 350 ? the TV-Out of the Pundit works OK for me.

>    CPU: Intel Celeron 2.0GHz
>
If you plan on going to transcode get a 'real' Pentium 4 otherwise this 
will do fine, I run mine with a 2.4 Celeron (Frontend only) as it was 
only a few euro's more expensive than the 2.0

>    RAM: 512MB DDR-333 (PC-2700)

Fine

>
>    Hard Drive: 7200rpm ATA/133 200GB Maxtor
>
Fine, although Maxtor isn't high on my list of reliable drives, be sure 
to get the one with 3 year warranty, don't know if they still have 1 
year warranty drives.

>    DVD Drive:

Just take care that the faster the DVD the noisier it will be, most DVD 
roms run full speed even when reading video DVD's. Some of the 16 speed 
are very noisy then. Of course when you are ripping/transcoding the 
DVD's the extra speed can come in handy.

>
>    Questions:
>    - Do I need a CPU fan for the CPU in the pundit?

My Pundit came with its own fan unit for the CPU, a standard unit won't 
fit/function properly as the Pundits CPU fan is designed to 
inhale/exhaust through the side panel.

>    - Are Seagates less noisy than the Maxtor above?

Samsung drives are also very very quiet, run quite cool and have 3 year 
warranty too. don't know if they make anything above 160 GB though.

>    - Is Celeron 2.0GHz good enough or should I prefer Pentiums?

Transcoding dependent (see above)

>    - Any other hardware I need to get for this? I believe a simple 
> remote comes with the Hauppauge.

With a simple Lirc serial receiver you can use any remote you like, 
including the Hauppauge one, useful if you're going to move the 250 to a 
separate backend lateron :-)

>
>    Thanks
>    - Abhi

Good luck.
Gert