[mythtv-users] Hardware Specs

[Chris K]

Rob Ogle wrote:
> OK gang, I've read through the past few month's archives and I'm *almost* as
> lost on what hardware to go with as I was before I started. Although I did
> pick up a few good tid-bits. I'm very glad to see that the list so active. 
>
> Down to the nitty-gritty...before I start purchasing stuff I'd like to run
> my hardware specs by the masses because I'm sure I've missed something along
> the way. My initial setup will be to have one back-end system and one
> front-end system. Once I've got that running smoothly, I'll probably add two
> more front-end systems into the mix.
>
> Back-End System:
> Ubuntu 6.0
> Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 (for Picture in Picture or multi-show records)
> GIGABYTE GA-8I945GZME-RH LGA775 INTEL 945 CORE 2 DUO DUAL DDRII
> Intel Pentium D 920 2.80GHz 2x2MB L2 800 MHz LGA775 Dual-Core
> Kingston 1GB DDR2 533MHz
> WD SE 400GB SATA RAID HD 8.9MS 16MB 7200RPM
> eVGA 256-P2-N356-LX Geforce 6500 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express
> SONY DVDRW DWG120A 16x16x Dual Layer (so I can burn records off for later
> viewing)
> Integrated Digital Audio
> RaidMax MILLANO MID Tower Case 420W PS
> Integrated 10/100 Mbp
>
> Front-End System:
> Ubuntu 6.0
> Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150
> DELL Optiplex 210L (Celeron D 2660)
> 40GB SATAII
> 256MB RAM
>
>
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>   
Rob -

Are you running both machines as combined frontend/backend systems?  
Based on how you've placed the hardware it looks that way.
Assuming that you are running strict frontend/backend systems (the 
frontend is only frontend, the backend is only backend, and neither is 
doing anything but MythTV), I'd do things differently.
 - It seems to me that you've got way more horsepower (CPU speed) than 
you need in that backend.  I'd spend the $$$ on hard drive space (more 
storage is always better).
 - Stick the PVR-150 into the backend.
 - Similarly, take the high-power video card and put it in the 
frontend.  A dedicated backend only needs fairly reasonable video for 
setting up.  The frontend will need all the video HP it can get.
 - More frontend RAM, you don't need that much in the backend.

Understand, if I'm making incorrect assumptions about how you're using 
this setup, then my advice won't be as helpful.  For example, if both 
machines are combined frontend/backend, and both machines are doing 
other duty as general purpose PCs, then what I say above is irrelevant, 
and you should listen to someone who's successfully running a setup 
closer to what you're planning.

Now, I'm a total cheapskate (I'm a technological bottom-feeder), but to 
give you an idea what's possible, I'm doing SDTV (combined 
frontend/backend) on an 800 Mhz Celeron, using a PVR-150 and an nvidia 
video card, both of which take the video processing load largely off the 
CPU. We record in DVD-quality resolution (saves running FFmpeg to burn a 
DVD).  I run 1Gb of RAM, and 2 hard drives, a 40MB for general-purpose 
use, and a 200Gb for media storage.  The only thing I wish I had was 
more HD space for media, but I haven't been able to score a bigger HD 
cheap enough for my tastes yet.

Chris K.