[mythtv-users] Seeking advice about components

[azrael at azrael-uk.f2s.com]

Hi all, I'm planning to put together a mythtv box and I am trying to 
work out what components to buy.

The main question would be what sort of specification is required and 
where it becomes unnecessary. eg is 512ram enough, is there a 
recognisable advantage to 1GB ram? Is there noticable performance 
increase using an AMD XP 3200+ (barton) rather than just an AMD XP 2800+ 
(thoroughbred) ?

Now.. when it comes to motherboard, microATX is good for size reasons. 
But is there a loss of performance from using an ATX mobo? The two 
mobo's I have in mind are:

ATX - ASUS A7N8X-E-Deluxe - 
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=90710


microATX - AOpen SoA nForce2 MATX A V L - 
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/components/motherboardsandaccessories/productView.htm?quicklinx=2CR3

First takes BUS Speed CPU's up to 400, latter takes only 333 .. would 
there be any noticable difference in mythtv performance?

Are there any incompatabilities in certain motherboards I should be 
aware of so they can be avoided?

The rest of the spec:

Hauppuage WinTV PVR 350
Hauppuage DEC 1000t
802.11g PCI card
DVD Burner - Pioneer DVR107 ± DVD
RAM - 2 x 1.0Gb PC2700 (PC333) DDR Memory Major Non Ecc Retail



Additional comments:

What software do people use successfully for DVD burning under linux?

When it comes to DDR ram I'm a ltitle bit ignorant over the differences 
between ECC registered, non ecc, and what I would need for whichever 
mobo I finally decide on.

Anyone have problems installing mythtv on Mandrake 9.2? I am considering 
that to be my distro of choice.

I hope this e-mail isn't too jumbled and that someone can make sense of 
it and offer advice, many thanks.


-- 
                 Azrael

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