[mythtv-users] Killer system or overkill?

[Grant Horning]

I just got my new machine running MythTV on Slackware 10.2. It isn't
tweaked out yet but with kde 3.4 running, cpu0 remains relatively idle
while cpu1 stays at ~90% while watching live tv. I haven't tried
recording yet since my channel frequencies are all wrong. (adelphia)! 

Specs...
AMD 3800 X2
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D
Corsair 512mb x2 
XFX NVIDIA 6600 DDR2 256mb pcie
Hauppauge PVR-250
Western Digital RE2 400gb sata

I think the RAID might be a bad idea. Onboard SATA raid is software
raid. This is bad because software raid does NOT perform well under
heavy I/O loads.(at least from what ive read). If you want speed, maybe
go with a Raptor 10k drive and write a script that will "dd" your
recordings to a large drive every night. 

-Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Len Reed
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 10:29 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: [mythtv-users] Killer system or overkill?

I'm going to upgrade to a HD myth system soon.  I already have the TV, a

Mitsubishi 1080p 50".

The system I'm considering would serve as a back-end for high def (and 
some or all NTSC, too).  It would also be a front end to the HDTV. It 
would connect to other myth systems in the house via Gb and 100Mb
Ethernet.

Super low-noise is not a great concern: I can hide a mini tower under 
the 75 gallon fish tank near the TV.  That greatly attenuates the noise.

Here's what I'm considering:

MSI K8N Neo4 board
Althon 64 3800+ dual core
Nvidia TC256 FC6200 based PCI-X card
2x512MB PC3200 RAM (2 free slots for now)
expandsion TI-based IEEE1394 board

HD5000 for direct capture of unscrambled QAM
firewire from DTC6200
PVR-250 for hopelessly copy-protected channels

DVI-D to HDMI for video
on-board optical sound to the surround-system amp

I haven't decided on disk space yet.  I'm thinking of four 250 or 300GB 
SATA drives and software RAID5.

Questions:

Is dual-core overkill?  It's reasonable on the margin from a single core

3800+, but if a 3200+ single-core is sufficient, that's a lot cheaper.

Is this board a reasonable choice with a dual-core Athlon?

Thanks for any insight,
Le
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