[mythtv-users] New system advice

[Simon Hobson]

Damian wrote:

>- Needs to be quiet .. almost silent! (My wife is incredibly sound sensitive)
>- The machine will also be the house network server, so needs at 
>least a 1TB HD and will be left turned on all of the time.

I use an HP Microserver for a backend - which seem to be on permanent 
cashback offer from HP :
http://www.ebuyer.com/281915-hp-proliant-turion-ii-n40l-microserver-100-cashback-658553-421
(mine's the earlier N36 with slightly lower specs)

Can't say what it would be like running a fronend with it, but as a 
backend it can sit there and only pulls 40-50W depending on what you 
stuff in it.

It's incredibly quiet - it's cooled by a very big fan that fills a 
good area of the back panel - so it can run slowly and quietly.

>- The machine will also be the house network server, so needs at 
>least a 1TB HD and will be left turned on all of the time.

It's got four slots for drives, plus a 5 1/4 space in the top for an 
optical drive or an HD if you use an adapter cradle.

>- I only need to access the 'Freeview' channels through a standard 
>ariel. We don't pay for any extra channels.

I'm using a couple of Hauppage HVR cards (1200 or 1300 IIRC). Only 
Freeview SD channels, no HD support. Might try a TBS6280 or nanoStick 
T2 290e at some point.
If running a combined FE/BE then a USB tuner would be a benefit since 
there are only two half-height/half-length PCIe slots (a 1x and a 
16x) in the Microserver.

>- The 'screen' of the machine is currently a 480p projector. I'll 
>upgrade to a HD one at some point, but probably not until this one 
>dies.

The Microserver has a VGA output, but I run the machine headless and 
text-only so I've no idea how capable it is. lspci says it's got "VGA 
compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M880G [Mobility Radeon HD 
4200]".
You always have the option of putting a card in if there's a suitable 
card that will fit in half-height/half-length slot.


Oh, and it has an incredibly bright "HP" logo on the front with a 
blue LED behind it. With the right driver it should be capable of 
turning yellow for errors, but uou'll most likely want to stick black 
tape over it.
-- 
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
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