[mythtv-users] recommendations for building new FE/BE HDTV system?

[John-Marc Chandonia]

Hi,

    I'm upgrading a combined FE/BE box to be able to handle HDTV.  I
have a D-Vine HTPC case that I will use with the new system, but the
mobo/cpu need to be upgraded, and I plan to use DVI or HDMI out to
replace the PVR-350 that I currently use for output (I plan to keep
the 350 and a 500 as SD tuners, and add at least one HD tuner, either
a HDHomeRun, firewire to a STB, or the new Hauppauge HD PVR to capture
video from a STB).  My receiver has coax digital in, and no optical.

    Any thoughts on the Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H?  I see it was
discussed briefly on this list a few months ago--are people still
happy with it?  It looks like the integrated graphics will work well
with all types of VDPAU decoding.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128363

    It looks like I'll need to use my current coax SPDIF connector to
attach to the header on the mobo, and I'll need to buy a cable to
connect the parallel cable header on the mobo to the LCD display on my
case (which is driven by a parallel port).

    Can anybody confirm whether or not the fan connectors on this
board can be controlled through ACPI under linux?  My case has 2
large fans in the back, but I don't want them to be constantly
running.

    Is the Wolfdale 2.8GHz CPU sufficient power to decode anything
that's currently out there?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115206
or should I go with one with a the faster FSB--e.g., the 3.16 GHz:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

    Have other people tried replacing the CPU fan with a passive
cooling system, or adding passive cooling to this board?  I've seen
reviews that it runs hot, but remains stable.

    Is 4Gb of memory sufficient for this system?  Are you running
a IA-64 linux distribution, or a 32-bit distro?

    I will probably get 2 WD Green 1TB drives, and run them in
(software) RAID-0 for storing recordings.  I'll put long-term
storage on NFS, over a gigabit network.

    Finally, any recommendation on power supplies?  I currently
use a fairly quiet 350W Ahanix PSU, if that's sufficient power
to run this system.

Thanks,
JMC
-- 
John-Marc Chandonia (jmc at dolorespark.org)
http://www.dolorespark.org/