[mythtv-users] Re: Re: Yet another noobie sanity check ;-)
Couvrette, Jeffrey C.
JEFFREY.C.COUVRETTE at saic.com
Thu Jul 8 15:56:24 EDT 2004
It's getting old, but the Asus Pundit is still a great system for a MythTV
Frontend/Backend. It's quite and small and cheap. For $150 (newegg.com),
you get a case, PSU, and motherboard with graphics, 5.1 audio, network,
firewire, USB2, 2 PCI ports, PCMCIA Port - in a nice package. I use one and
would highly recommend it. The picture quality is good, as is the sound (I
use optical). I can't hear it running in my quiet living room. I would
also recommend an infrared keyboard/mouse unit and then programming a
universal remote to enter your key strokes. But a remote does come with the
PVR-250 as well. There is also lots of help in the community from other
Pundit users and very specific set up guides with Fedora Core 1.
Pundit $150
Hard Drive $200 250G
Memory $80 512MB
PVR-250 $133
DVD-ROM $50
Processor $70 2.4GHz Celeron
TOTAL $683
US->CN$ $898
Just my two cents, though.
Jeff
>I've checked out the CoolerMaster, and do like it. However, getting
>that and then the other required bits (power supply, fan, etc) pushes
>the price up for the system more than I'm willing to go (heck, I'm
>not even sure all this is going to work yet). I can get the Aria for
>$139 (CDN) with PS, while the Coolermaster is $153 and I still need
>to buy those other parts. Basically, I'm bumping my head on my
>self-imposed $1000 (cdn) budget for this project.
>
>As this is solely meant as a server, I'm not looking for killer
>speed. MythTV is definitely the biggest load on the system. I much
>more concerned with keeping it quiet and thus cool.
>
>It sounded like people were warning me away from the AMD Thoroughbred
>XP2000 due to heat concerns. The processor I'm thinking of using now
>is "AMD MOBILE ATHLON XP-M 2400+ 1.8GHz 266FSB BARTON 45W 1.45V OEM"
>($125), basically the lowest end mobile proc I can find. I can use
>this in a Socket A board? Anything weird I need to know about
>(heatsinc, fan issues perhaps)? If I went the other direction and got
>a Duron 1800, is that powerful enough to handle things like MPEG2 to
>MPEG4 transcoding and DVD decoding? Would that produce even less
>heat? Its definitely a lot cheaper ($75).
>
>I think the motherboard may be a little overkill too actually.
>Considering that I'm not using the built-in video at all (I will only
>need TV out or S-video once its all set up), I think I'm paying a
>premium for that in the Shuttle MN31N. I really wanted an AMD mobo
>with onboard tv-out, 5.1, spdif, firewire, usb2, and gigbit ethernet
>(to talk to my screaming fast mac). I know now that expecting so much
>was folly! ;-) The shuttle seamed a good choice as it offered most of
>what I wanted onboard, except TVout which could be added in the AGP,
>preserving the 3 PCI slots for 2 PVR x50's and leaving one slot for
>gigabit ethernet if I dare (providing this thing isn't literally
>smoking by then). Anyone aware of a better/cheaper mATX mobo that
>could fit my bill?
>
>Thanks again for all the help so far!
>
>Brad
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