[mythtv-users] Hardware Installation Support for Basic PC

[Mark Golledge]

Hiya,

Many thanks for the advive.

I've just had a look on the motherboard spec and I can upgrade to a Pentium
4 2.8Ghz (although I think 2.4Ghz will be more readily available) and
potentially 3GB RAM (as each DIMM slot can hold 1GB RAM each). I'm probably
going to go with 1.5GB to start with (512MB x 3).

As for the graphics card, I think I might be limited to NVIDIA GeForce2
MX200 16MB or GeForce2 MX400 32MB (according to the manual). Any preferred
options?

Finally, thanks for the note about the tuner. I'll have a look at that.


Mark


On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 10:40 PM, Robert <RobertCL at iname.com> wrote:

> Mark Golledge wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm thinking about setting up MythTV for the first time.
> >
> > I've recently managed to get hold of a Compaq Evo 500 Small Form Factor
> > PC (D5S) similar to the one here:
> >
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1386319
> >
> > I've only got the motherboard and case at the moment, but I'm aiming to
> > purchase the rest (RAM, CPU, HDD, Graphics Card) giving me:
> >
> > Pentium 4 1.7Ghz Processor (Socket 478)
> > 512MB RAM
> > 120GB HDD
> >
> > Unfortunately the case isn't too high so I need a half height AGP Card
> > and there is only one PCI slot (although on-board sound).
> >
> > I want to be able to watch and record live digital TV (as I'm living in
> > the UK) through mythtv (perhaps using XBMC which I currently have
> > operating as the frontend).
> >
> > Can you let me know whether this spec would be up to the challenge. I
> > presume because there is only 1 PCI card, I wouldn't be able to watch
> > live tv and record another channel at the same time as I'd need two
> tuners.
>
> I have a similar PC running as my combined frontend / backend and it
> works just fine.  Mine is a slightly later model, but similar case and
> spec - it's a P4 2.66Ghz with 1Gb RAM and I bought it for £30!
>
> I have a half height NVidia graphics card - so you can get them - I
> think sometimes you can buy them with interchangeable back plates so the
> same card does full height and half height.  Sometimes the HH plate is
> included, sometimes you have to buy it separately.
>
> I have an old WinTv framegrabber card (using software encoding) and a
> DVB-S card for satellite in mine - fortunately I have 2 pci slots.
>
> As for tuners, you should be able to get a dual DVB-T tuner - I think
> the Hauppauge dual tuner one is supported under linux.  Recording
> digital TV shouldn't tax the processor at all, and I'd imagine the 1.7
> celeron should be able to play back without any problems at all.
>
> Robert.
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>



-- 

Mark Golledge
E: mark at markgolledge.com
W: www.markgolledge.com
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