[mythtv-users] Quiet HDTV frontend: AOpen XC Cube EY855-II?

[Alex]

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 00:54:42 +0000, Joel B <joel_123 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Has anybody looked at 
> TechReports review of the AOpen XC Cube EY855-II mini-barebones system?
> It's based around the Pentium M, and it seems to be exceptionally quiet.

> Other nice features for a frontend are builtin firewire
> and optical digital audio inputs and outputs.  There's a 4X AGP slot (but
> not a very wide one) as well as one PCI slot.  The main drawback is the
> price of the Pentium M, but the low power consumption of that processor is
> also what makes the quietness possible.
> 
> One question I have is whether anybody has used a Pentium M with HDTV. I
> have selected fast memory that would be run at DDR333 and is amenable to
> overclocking, but would the 1.6 GHz clock part do 1080i
> even with overclocking?  There's still a steep price ramp to the 2GHz
> Pentium M 2Ghz at $435. Also, will the fanless 64-bit FX5200's do 1080i?

I have also been considering using an 855GM or 915GM chipset based
Pentium M arrangement.  The later has dual-channel DDR, PCIe, and
integrated TVout (including component HD).  However I don't know how
well either of them are supported under Linux.  Anyone using a
"Centrino" system with a non-Windows operating system?  I expect the
915GM is too bleeding edge.

With regards to horse-power, the 1.6 PentiumM is similar in
performance to a 2.4 Ghz P4.  The 1.8 version (dothan has a larger
cache) might be a good compromise between 1.6 and 2.0.

Right now I am using an 865 based system.  My CPU and powersupply are
quiet enough (~22db), but the drives make more noise than I would
like.

Although the FX5200 should be able to drive 1080i, getting it to work
has been troublesome for many.