[mythtv-users] Processor recommendations - low power, low heat, enough oomph was: Awsome Case

[Brian]

With a case as small as the Hiper, I'd be very concerned of heat problems.
The specs for the case state a max CPU cooler height of 40mm and a single
50mm fan. That's not much room to play with. The little 50mm fan at 3000rpm
would be fairly loud. I guess the only way is to try it out. They listed
another case that appears to come without a motherboard (HMC-2K53A-A0) but
it's not available yet. (A forum posting somewhere mentioned they're only
available to system integrators at the moment). 
 
I was intending to use the Antec Fusion but I really like the
appearance/size of the Hiper case. Unfortunately, I'd prefer two internal
HDDs as I'd rather not have my HTPC dependant on another box right now but
want alot of storage space. Given my requirements, I may be stuck with both
a FE and a BE. 
 
I *was* considering an Opteron 170 for my new FE/BE but I've had poor
results temperature-wise with my Opteron 185 workstation. It runs extremely
hot (40C idle, 64C load) and I'm debating on returning the processor. While
I haven't measured, I'm sure the CPU cooler on my Opty 185 is MUCH taller
than 40mm. This is a bummer as I have four 939 m/bs and 8Gb of DDR400 RAM
kicking around. Maybe it's time to do some selling on eBay. (ugh!) 
 
What processors offer the best performance/cost/heat/power consumption
combination right now? The Intel Core Duo 2s? The mobile Intel Cores? 
 
I'd like to build a single FE/BE with HDMI w/ audio, one or two 750Gb SATA
HDDs (software RAID 0 if two) and a PVR-350 (for survellience cameras). I'd
like enough processor to record up to 4 HD streams over firewire at the same
time, be able to commflag as needed. If possible, I'd the system to also
handle my cable Internet connection as well (iptables/nat, dhcpd, ntpd,
named, vpn). I really don't want to spend more than $300 on a processor
though. Any recommendations? 
 
Would an AMD64-4000 be enough to play HD content? 
 
Thanks! 
-Brian
 
 
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