[mythtv-users] Hardware suggestions

scamp scampgb at gmail.com
Mon Jul 24 17:30:13 UTC 2006


Hi Jelte

Thanks very much for your reply.  I do think that I'm suffering from the DMA
problem, but no matter what I try I can't seem to fix it.  VIA haven't not
been particularly helpful with it.

I'd like to find a Micro-ITX board, then it'll fit in the Antec Fusion
case.  I've been hunting for a case that looks like it "should" live under
the TV, and this is the best that I've found!

I'm happy to use either AMD or Intel.  I'm just bothered about noise/heat.
Processing power isn't much of an issue, but I'll need to be able to play
DVDs - and it would be handy if I could do MPEG4 at some point in the
future.

Any suggestions as to specific models/ranges that I should look at?  I'm not
all that good at hardware!
Thanks
Steve



On 7/24/06, Jelte Veldstra <jelte.veldstra at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Steve,
>
> What you encountered is probably an issue related to VIA chipsets and high
> DMA loads. The ivtv drivers give a big stream of DMA requests and various
> VIA chipsets choke on it. I encountered it myself too.
> So I would recommend to stay away from VIA chipsets altogether. If you
> want to stick to the ITX formfactor then I guess you need to look for Intel
> alternatives. If you're not stuck the ITX platform and don't need a lot of
> computing power (> coppermine) might be worth considering.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Jelte
>
>  On 7/24/06, scamp <scampgb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >  Hi
> >
> > I've been using MythTV on a Via EPIA MII-10000 for a little while now,
> > but I've not been able to fix some annoying problems with regular system
> > lockups.  These happen at least once a day, and fsck has been quite busy of
> > late.
> > I've been following a thread on the VIA website about it, which seems to
> > conclude that it's a problem with one of the chipsets and it's not likely to
> > be fixed.
> >
> > So, I've decide to replace the thing.  I've done a fair amount of
> > browsing, but I'd like a little advice on a suitable motherboard.
> >
> > What I plan to build is:
> > Antec Fusion case (http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID739
> > )
> > NVidia FX5200
> > Motherboard, processor & memory
> > Existing 300Gb IDE hard drive, PVR-350 & WinTV-Nova-T-USB2
> >
> > The NVidia FX5200 seems inexpensive and seems to have good support.
> >
> > I'm looking for a Mini-ITX motherboard that is reliable/stable under
> > Linux.  My preferred distro is Debian.  I'm based in the UK, so something
> > that's available here would help :-)
> >
> > This box will sit under my TV, so I'll need it to be really quiet.  I'll
> > be using it for SD recording, both from digital terrestrial and the S-Video
> > input on the PVR-350 (connected to a satellite box).
> > I'd like to be able to use MythDVD and the visualisations on MythMusic.
> >
> > Would someone be kind enough to point me in the right direction?
> >
> > Thanks :-)
> >
> > Steve
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
>
>
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