[mythtv-users] recommendation for new combined frontend+backend?

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Mon Oct 31 18:11:56 UTC 2011


On 10/31/2011 04:07 AM, Tim Draper wrote:
>> Would the
>> * 1.5 GHz AMD Turion II Neo, or the
>> * 1.3 GHz AMD Athlon II Neo
>>
>> as found in the HP proliant miniservers manage to decode above streams?
> not sure about the Neo's, i beleive they're the ultra-low powered (and
> underpowered!) AMD chips, comparable to the intel Atoms.

Yeah, they're a bit less cut-down than the Atoms, but still not "real" 
processors.

>   which imo is a no
> go for a BE.
> im running an intel E6550 (2.33ghz) on my BE and thats perfect. i've
> managed to get that hardware down to 55w idle at the mains..... E6550, 2x
> DIMMs, dual tuner DVB-S2, 2.5" 7200rpm HDD (with the DB on it), and a WD
> Green 1TB hdd for storage, powered by an enermax Pro82+ 525w PSU.
>
> i'm very happy with that.
>
> the BE really needs to be a full-fat cpu to handle the requirements of a
> full BE system (transcoding, advert detection etc). you can get the intel
> core-i chips in 35w TDP vs the normal 65w TDP's. theres about a £10 GBP
> premium on the 35w models.

Note, also, that even if you go with the Tom's design, assuming you can 
fit a discrete nvidia video card into it, it will not significantly 
raise the idle mode power draw.  A good GT430 tends to have an idle 
power draw around 7-9W (though this can vary from card to card depending 
on vendor, etc.) and a good GT220 has an idle power draw around 9-12W or so.

Generally, 12W run 24/7/52 (24 hours/day, 7 days/week, 52 
weeks/year--yeah, I'm trying to change the "broken" saying of 24/7/365) 
will cost about $12.50 for the year assuming a US national average price 
for electricity of about $0.12/kWh.  Best way to save electricity/money, 
though, is to shut off whatever system you get when you're not using it.

And, if you get a passively-cooled video card, it's not going to add 
additional noise (unless you have insufficient airflow in your case and 
it causes the case/CPU fan to run faster or something).

Mike


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