[mythtv-users] Questions about new hardware purchase

[Marc Randolph]

>  My thoughts on the CPU power required for HD playback are about the
>  same (experimental use only). Currently the encoding and decoding for
>  SD recordings is handled by my Hauppauge cards. I do commercial
>  skipping, but only allow jobs to run at night, and no transcoding, so
>  my CPU usage during viewing hours is low. BTW, I neglected to include
>  the link to the more expensive CPU I am considering, the Intel E6300
>  Conroe 1.86GHz:
>
>  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115005
>
>  That has a 1066 MHz FSB, but as you can see the clock speed is lower.
>  That's why I am asking about the relationship of clock speed to FSB
>  for the purpose of MythTV. I have seen recent suggestions of a $200
>  Intel processor, but no response as to the usefulness of all that
>  horsepower. If someone who is currently watching HD recordings using
>  Intel hardware could give me their impressions, that would be great. I
>  am pretty close to breaking the bank on this one.   ;-)

I personally don't believe there is any reason to go with the higher
FSB (or increased cache size that the E6xxx have) for this type of
application.  I bought the less expensive chip with the higher
multiplier (E2200).

The general rule of thumb for general processing that I've read (lots
of generalizations going on here!) is that each step up in cache size
is worth about a speed grade.  So the E6300 (1.86GHz) will complete
tasks in roughly the same amount of time as an E2180 (2 GHz).  Said
another way, this would imply that the E2220 (2.4 GHz) would be
roughly equivalent to an E4500 (2.2 GHz) or E6400, and would fall
between the E6320 and E6420 (which have larger cache than the
E6300/6400).

Have fun,

   Marc