[mythtv-users] Dell GX260 P4 2.8GHz as HD front end system -- opinions?

[Nick]

On 20/10/06, Alan Marchiori <alan at alanmarian.com> wrote:
> Saw this on eBay for buy it now + ship $269.90.  Seems like it would be
> cheaper than building up an amd/intel box from scratch?  2 PCI + 1 AGP, so I
> could add a cheap geforce 6 AGP w/ DVI out my TV plus a PCI sound card for
> SPDIF out if the motherboard's outputs don't work.  Should be a complete
> front end for under $350.
>
> But is P4 2.8GHz / 256MB ram enough for good HD?  If so is it safe to drop
> down to the 2.6G / 2.4G/ 2.2/ 2.0/ etc...?

If you get a suitable XvMC-capable NVidia card (a fanless AGP FX5200
w/DVI would be ideal) you "should" be okay with an Intel CPU as lowly
as a 2GHz Celeron (check the wiki page here for many more system
comparisons: http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/XvMC). I'd also increase
the RAM to 512MB (there's no real need to go to 1GB). If you do not
get an XvMC capable card, I think you'll need around 3GHz P4 for good
1080i HD, based on posts to this list (AMD CPUs are certainly more
popular on the wiki page).

Note that if you get a 6-series or later NVidia card, the OSD will be
black and white, due to the lack of chroma keying support in the newer
cards. If you manage to get an earlier 4- or 5-series card you can
have the regular colour OSD using the hack on the wiki page.

Nick
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