[mythtv-users] Looking to build first mythtv box

[stefan_jones at comcast.net]

---- "Donald J. Organ IV" <dorgan at donaldorgan.com> wrote: 
> I am going to build a new box and so far i am considering the following: 

> GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394 
> 
> AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688 
> 
> I am looking to be able to record HD and playback HD on the same box when why I want the HDMI out. 
> 
> This will be a frontend and a backend. 
> 
> Comments and suggestions are welcomed. 

Two things stand out about the motherboard: 

1) It is a fast high-end one. Kind of overkill, even for capture and recording of HD. You could probably do just fine with one with a slower bus that supports DD2 800 memory. (My system, which can capture THREE HD streams and play one at the same time, has 2 GB of DD2 800 memory.) 

2) It has a Radeon chipset. While plenty of folks have MythBoxes with Radeon sets, most of the experience and therefore support has been with nVidia chips. There are boards with nVidia and HDMI on-board. 

Your processor choice seems fine. My box has the 2.7 GHz version and does just fine. Plenty of extra horsepower to do post-processing in a timely manner. 

Or: Get a higher-end nVIDIA card with VDPAU support. (You can look it up on the wiki.) This lets you get by with a much lighter-duty processor. 

What else: Get a case that lets you use a nice quiet 120mm fan. 

A fast hard drive. Don't skimp on quality. 

It's nice to have a DVD-RW drive. 

Fewer devices means less need for cooling and a smaller power supply. 

Because more cable companies are scrambling channels, you might consider at least one analog capture board, so you can get output from a STB. (My old PVR-150, which I thought I'd be retiriing when I got a second digital capture board, is filling that role.) 


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