[mythtv-users] hardware upgrade advice

[Ryan Rustong]

I'm sorry to make another H/W post, but I'm a little confused about what
could be causing my problem.  This is my current setup:

Asus A8N-Deluxe MB (VIA chipset)
Athlon 64 3400+
1 Gig RAM
GeForce 5600 video card
ATA HD with root and OS installed
SATA HD's for recordings/videos

My box works awesome for everything except HD.  I have XvMC working  and my
CPU generally hovers around 60% when watching a 1080i channel.  It plays
smooth most of the time, but still seems to stutter every once in a while.
Once it starts stuttering it gets bad for a few minutes, then generally goes
away.  Sometimes if I stop and restart the recording (or live TV) it will
get better.  From what I've seen, it seems like my 3400 *should* be enough
to handle HD without XvMC, but run better with it.  It stutters horribly
without it, and some with it, so I'm thinking that is my problem.  However,
I've seen people have problems with the VIA chipset also.  FWIW, I can't use
the VIA XvMC setting in TV > Playback, it stutters worse than without XvMC,
but Standard XvMC works OK.

Here are my question(s):  Could it be something in my install causing the
problem? or the way I have XvMC set up?  In other words, should my CPU be
enough to handle HD if properly set up?  Or could it be the VIA chipset
causing issues?  Or maybe because I was an idiot during initial install and
put my OS on a PATA drive with recordings on SATA?  I have a little bit of
extra money right now so I'm willing to do a small upgrade to get the HD
working smooth.  I've been looking at an Athlon 64 X2 4200 on newegg for
about $120 that would fit in my current motherboard (socket 939).  Or is it
likely I will still have the same problems because of configuration or other
hardware problems?  I don't have enough money right now to go with a new MB
to get rid of the VIA chipset because I would end up getting a new CPU and
video card to fit current MB's with PCIe.  But if that is my best option, I
will just live with it for now until I can afford a full upgrade.

Hopefully I haven't completely lost you and someone can lend some advice.

Thanks,
Ryan
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