User:DirkGecko

Gear

I use Gentoo Linux as my OS of choice. I've tried them all though (Slack, RH, FC, SUSE, Deb, you name it) and I do appreciate the "just works-ness" of Ubuntu. But I prefer to admin a Gentoo box. Just don't forget to enable DMA like I did. Couldn't figure out my DVD skippage. Turns out it's not started "by default" on a Gentoo box. ;-)

Master Backend / Frontend:

• STATUS: 96% complete. Just some polishing with a few remote buttons, maybe tweak the DisplaySize. Used daily.
• AMD X2 4800+ Brisbane
• ASUS M2NBP-VM CSM (highly recommend, uber stable, has 4 SATA & 2 IDE channels)
• 2GB PC6400 (1GB x 2)
• MSI nvidia GeForge 7300LE
• (2) 250GB Maxtor IDE drives in RAID 1 (OS, home dirs, etc)
• (4) 400GB Samsung SATA drives in RAID 5 w/ LVM (recordings, media storage). 200GB unallocated yet for a rainy day.
• CoolerMaster 4-in-3 drive cage (highly recommend for greater storage density. cool drives live much longer, too)
• Plextor IDE DVD burner
• PVR-500
• HD HomeRun (tried QAM, it sucked, need to fix house wiring to go ATSC)
• MCE2 USB receiver & remote
• Custom VGA-over-ethernet wiring to HP Plasma upstairs

Bedroom Frontend:

• STATUS: 80% complete. Fighting with wifi & remote. Works hardwired in my office. Also need to work some power management magic.
• EPIA EX15000G w/ SVN OpenChrome, plays back MPEG-2 & MPEG-4 w/o XvMC
• 256MB RAM
• 60GB laptop HD (it's what was in my parts bin)
• Dynex wifi card (eliminates HD possibilities, but that's okay for us)
• Silverstone low profile case
• Packard-Bell serial remote (to be upgraded to MCE remote for and ease of use)
• Connected via VGA to Toshiba 20HLV86

Home Theater Frontend:

• STATUS: 75% complete. No real rush on this one. Has mainly been a testbed and still dual-boots XP. Home theater is in disarray while room is being rearranged and rest of speakers are being build. The machine is too noisy and not all that stable, anyway. Looking to replace 08Q1, making this hardware a test box. Some time this winter I'll scrape it all back together.
• AMD XP 2400 (2.0Ghz clock)
• 1GB RAM
• Some ancient half-dead ASUS mobo
• Chaintech GF 5900XT
• SB Live w/ SPDIF daughterboard
• USB Keyboard
• Connected via DVI->HDMI cable to Samsung DLP HL-S5086W