[mythtv-users] Dell PowerEdge 2550 1 GHz as dedicated backend/storage..?

[Mark A. Hoover]

> ------------------------------
> From: Scott Alfter <mythtv at salfter.dyndns.org>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Dell PowerEdge 2550 1 GHz as	dedicated
> 	backend/storage..?
>>
>> I think commflagging and definately transcoding will take *forever* on
>> this box.  That's a pretty old box.  In my opinoin, you'd be better off
>> buying newer hardware with a much faster CPU.
>
> You could set up your frontend as a slave backend with no tuners.  The master
> backend (running on a slower box) could pass off CPU-intensive jobs to the
> slave backend.  (For me, commercial flagging would be the main CPU-intensive
> job.  Lossless transcoding (the only kind I let MythTV do) is mainly
> I/O-intensive and would best be run on the backend.)

I've got a Dell Poweredge 500SC with a 1133MHz PIII, 512MB of 
RAM, and a dual tuner PVR-500 card in it.  It acts as a dedicated 
backend/storage for my MythTV setup and performs fine.  I let it handle 
all the transcoding and commflagging.  I haven't actually timed either, 
but it finishes in what I consider reasonable time.  Especially when you 
consider most of what I record I'm not watching immediately after it 
finishes recording.  This is using a single 320GB Western Digital IDE hard 
drive.