[mythtv-users] Cost of MythTV Machines

[Urban Nightmare]

John Biundo wrote:
> Brian Wood wrote:
>   
>> With some recent discussion here about CPUs and costs I wonder what  
>> the "average" cost of a MythTV machine might be.
>>
>>     
Just thought I would weigh in on this as a bit of a warning.  When I 
first started playing around with capture cards and a home built dvr I 
spent close to $3000 Canadian.  Why so darn much?  Well first thing I 
did was purchase a few non-encoding cards (3 to be exact).  Two of them 
worked with the bttv/cx drivers.  One I never did get working and gave 
it to a friend of mine with a windows box.  I also went through two 
mother boards before I found one I like.  4 HD's (slowing getting up to 
250 Gigs).  And two processors (slow duron and a faster athlon).  Then 
there are the monitors (2) and all the cabling in the house.

The moral of the story.  Plan your hard ware purchases!  Don't always go 
for cheapest and don't always go for newest.  Listen to people when they 
say to get a PVR-1/2/350 as they are the best I've found.  Don't just 
settle for a 100 gig HD as you will run this out of space if you record 
alot.  Wait for the next paycheck and get at least 250.  My advice to my 
co-worker was to pick up the pieces as you can but make sure you get 
what you know from others will work.

Stephen