[mythtv-users] Hardware Purchase

[Alex Butcher]

On Sun, 3 Apr 2011, Greg Hormann wrote:

> NVidia GT220

The GT430/GT440 might provide better bang for the buck according to some who
use it. I like fanless graphics cards in my MythTV systems, but couldn't
find a passively-cooled GT220, so went for a GT240 instead (which is
reportedly overkill for MythTV...)

> ASUS P7P55D-E LX Motherboard (has 2 PCI slots, just in case I keep the
> old PVR-250 going from the old box.)

I went for an Asus P7H55 for my most recent MythTV system. Works great, but
with hindsight, the P55 is probably a better choice of chipset than the H55:
it has two more PCI-E lanes (8) and two more USB 2.0 ports (14).  If one's
using a discrete graphics card, one probably won't ever need the FDI
support of the H55 either (and the P7H55 doesn't have a VGA socket anyway!)

There are P55 boards with 3 PCI slots though, which might be handy for a
MythTV system (either for tuner cards or NICs).

> Core i3-550 Clarkdale 3.2GHz -- Should be more than enough given video
> hardware.

I went for an i5-760, but I see that's substantially more expensive these
days. OTOH, ditching the built-in GPU for an extra two cores, TurboBoost
(aka dynamic overclocking) and more cache is appealing.

> Thanks for any input,
> Greg.

HTH,
Alex