[mythtv-users] Combined Atom FE/BE /w GT220 ?

[James Harris]

Hi All --

Long time sub, first time poster. Customary thanks to all dev's, been using myth for 5+ years, loving it. [and high WAF too!]

Power bills getting more expensive, Mrs getting more grumpy, so it's time to low power update the myth setup. 

Its probably safe to say I want the world from the component manufactures, but I think the time has come for them to actually be able to deliver. 

Background:

I've moved to Australia. So DVB-T 1080i HD MPEG2 and DVB-T 576i SD MPEG2 is the order of the day. No Comm flagging. No transcoding. Nothing "high power". Just IO to disk and upscale/de-int to 1080p output. 

I also keep my media library digital and transcode on another machine when needed, so I need xvid, x264 and AVC upscale and output. [mix of SD, 720p and 1080p].

Hardware:

What I think I want/need.

* Atom. I'd prefer the newer D510 to be safe with a bit more power. 330 is probably fine [and there have been some reports of Combined FE/BE running fine on the 330]. 

* Nvidia GT220 PCI-E x16 card for VDPAU advanced 2x de-int and Audio over HDMI into my amp. 

Thats it! [Assume I can sort the power brick/case/HD/etc/etc out]

I've found 2 Atom mobo's that have a 16x slot, but heres where my angst is coming in. 

The Zotax NM10-B-E

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500048

Is a DTX board [slightly wider, thats OK I can manage a case for it] and lists a x16 slot BUT with a x1 lane. 

Will this work? Have sufficient bandwidth for my de-interlacer? Will the board even be able to provide enough juice to power a 60w GT220 card?

I haven't found any reports of anyone seeming to run a GT220 card in an Atom system??

The other option [and probably my preferred option due to Asus probably being more reliable], but with older Atom

Asus AT3IONT-I

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131635

It has ION [which I don't need amusingly]. Smaller form factor, but probably cant fit a half-height GT220 in there anyway, so it doesn't really bother me about the case size. 


My thinkings.

* See if anyone has run one of the above configs, if good, buy it!

* Buy it anyway!

* Ditch the GT220, run ION only, possibly struggle with some of the encoded media playback [?]

* Ditch the Atom dream, buy the lowest clock AMD or Intel CPU with a Mini-ITX board with a proper x16 slot, accept slightly higher power usage for guaranteed performance and flexibility. 


Hope you guys can help. I think #3 might end up being a bit disappointing for me, knowing that I could have gone the whole hog and only went half way. #4 is probably sensible but maybe i'll always have that feeling that I could've done the same thing with half the power and cheaper!

Cheers,
James.