[mythtv-users] Mini-ITX or standard PC?

[Piers Kittel]

Ryan,

Nah, definitely not information overload!  Very interesting information 
- much appreciated!

Woah, didn't know it was possible to buy mobile AMD processors on their 
own - that's a fantastic thing.  Does Linux cope well with mobile AMD 
processors?  I.e. use its power management effectively?  Stupid question 
- can I use mobile AMD processors in a standard socket A?  As I've got 2 
old Pentium mobile processors, but they have a very unique socket (MMC-1 
IIRC) and will only fit in some ancient laptops.

Back to mini-itx boards - don't the M series have onboard hardware 
MPEG-2 compressor?  Also they've got a built in TV output?  So it'd mean 
I wouldn't need a powerful CPU to encode stuff, and dont' need a TV out 
graphics card?

Hammering together a quick spec list:

Abit AV-10 mobo
AMD XP-M 2400+ (undervolted and underclocked)
Thermalright XP 120 (Only if it'll fit! :))
Cheap quiet 120mm fan
Zalmann Fan controller (have a couple of those kicking around in a box)
512MB extra cheap value RAM
Geforce MX 4000 with TV-Out
Seagate Barracuda 200GB
DVD-RW
Hauppauge WinTV Go or would the WinTV PVR 250 be really worth the extra 
£50/USD$90/CAD$115/EUR€73?
Antec Overture (include Antec Trupower 380w and HDD rubber grommets)
Remote control (not needed if WinTV PVR 250 is obtained) but can't find 
any decent ones anywhere?
IR blaster
Wireless keyboard/mouse

Is this a good start?

Thanks very much for your help in advance!

Cheers - Piers

> The reason, I believe, most people go with mATX is because of the fear
> that the built in processors of the mini-itx just can't handle the
> load.  I would think they'd probably work equally as a front end only
> solution, provided you had a video card for the tv-out, but for
> crunching the encoding I have little faith in them.
<snip>