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

[Chris Isip]

In my opinion, the hardware is overkill.  I would focus on stability, not
power because you will have to run the system 24/7.  Also consider the cost
of running a powerful machine for all that time.    I have a trusty old VIA
KT 400 motherboard running 4 tuners and a couple of PATA drives with an
Athlon XP 2400 and 786 MB memory.  It does the job and other things as well
(Asterisk, IP masq, qmail, nagios, vncserver, snort, spamassassin, clamav,
mysql, ntp, httpd, etc) but I only record in SD.   It functions as a
frontend as well hooked up to a Slingbox for offsite mythtv access.   I have
a trusty old 1Ghz PIII on an Abit VH6 2 ( with leaky capacitors ) doing a
nice job for a frontend in the living room ( I have to let it sit at the
grub screen for 5 minutes, presumably for voltages to stabilize before
booting into linux, otherwise it just reboots 3 or 4 times before presenting
mythfrontend); a Dell with a Celeron D in another and a Medion laptop for a
mobile frontend wirelessly.  Myth doesn't need all that firepower, I think
unless you are recording HD.

On 10/1/07, Jonathan Rogers <jonner at teegra.net> wrote:
>
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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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