[mythtv-users] comments on hardware for a combined frontend/backend

Jonathan Rogers jonner at teegra.net
Mon Oct 1 21:45:51 UTC 2007


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matt lutz wrote:
> If you have the time, can you please comment on my proposed
> frontend/backend?  I've recently run VGA & optical cabling from my basement
> to my living room, so I can use my backend as a frontend as well.  It
> removes a box to update, and any sound at all in my living room.

Is there sufficiently low signal loss running VGA that far? I also use a
combined frontend/backend for simplicity, but it has nice quiet case
with big, slow fans and elastic mounted drives, so the noise is usually
imperceptible while watching TV, though it's just a few feet away. I
also use DVI to my LCD TV, which seems to be a bit brighter than VGA.
Getting DVI to go long distances is probably trickier or more expensive
than VGA over the same distance, but may result in a better picture.

> 
> Anyway, here goes:
> 
> Motherboard - ASUS M2N-E
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131022
> 
> CPU - AMD Athlon 6000+
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773
> 

Unless you have four or more receivers and therefore want to want to
commflag or transcode many programs, that CPU is probably serious
overkill. I have a Athlon64 X2 4800 machine with 1GiB of RAM and two
ATSC receivers and a Radeon video card and it has no trouble recording
two programs while commflagging one or two programs and playing 1080i or
720p. I would probably prefer to use a lower power CPU than the 6000+,
which would save a bit of energy and allow for quieter cooling.

> Memory - G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB)
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
> 
> Video Card - nvidia 6200LE
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814121019
> 
> Hard Drive - WD SATA2 500GB
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822136143

If you do have two or more ATSC receivers, you might soon want more
storage, depending on how many of the programs are HD and how long you
typically keep a program before it can be deleted. If you're using a
recent enough SVN version of MythTV, you can easily add storage on a new
drive any time by adding a directory to the storage group. I much prefer
this to making a big filesystem using LVM, which decreases reliability
(I do use LVM, but don't put PVs from multiple drives in the same VG),
or RAID, which can increase reliability at the cost of more hardware and
increased complexity. RAID does typically require planning before
setting up any filesystems.

Jonathan Rogers
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