On Monday 24 October 2005 22:28, Robert Denier wrote: > Is some of the transcoding done on the backend? I haven't checked where > it is being done yet.. > > At any rate if the backend does transcoding then springing for a decent > cpu, especially if a substantially better one is say $20 or so is > probably worthwhile. Basically I'd look at prices if your buying new. > Sometimes spending only a tiny amount more can get a signifcantly better > cpu, and who knows if you will be using that machine for myth forever.. > > A quick glance at pricewatch shows > athlon xp 2600 333 $66 > xp 2700 333 $72 > xp 1600 $49 > > athlon 64 3000 $119 (It might be worthwhile going 64 bit if your going > for brand new equipment, but it is a tossup I guess.) > > I suppose also, if your running it continually, the cost of providing > energy should factor in over the lifetime of the unit, but I couldn't > begin to estimate how that would effect the long term cost. > > I do think the nforce recommendation is a good one. I remember some > posts about via? being less than ideal for the hauppage pvr cards. I'm > using an nforce 2 board I think cost about $50 from newegg. On the > other hand, there is probably no reason to go nforce 4, so nforce 2 or 3 > is likely good. > > Of course if you have something older that will work so you don't have > to buy anything then the solution is simple. > > Good luck.. > -Robert > > On Mon, 2005-10-24 at 20:47 -0400, Steve Adeff wrote: > > On Monday 24 October 2005 20:18, Jon Solomon wrote: > > > I am building my first Mythtv Backend from scratch. I plan on using 3 > > > Hauppauge PVR 500's to record 4-6 stearms at time. My question is how > > > fast of a processor and how much ram should I get? Which Motherboard > > > would you recommend that have little or no issues with the PVR 500s and > > > SATA HD? > > > > > > Thanks I advanced for the help. > > > > CPU speed won't matter much, so if you've got an old P3-ish system use > > that. If you want to build a new computer, look for an nForce3 based > > board with pci and agp and SATA. get the cheapest cpu you can find or the > > board and 512megs of ram. It'll be an Athlon of some sort so it'll be > > fast enough. > > > > Steve
there are very few nforce 4 boards with agp and 5x pci, and the ones that exist are expensive. I've recently been working on putting together a machine for 3x HD3000 cards and a PVR500. I've found newegg.com to be the best prices for the convenience of buying all in one place. I might be able to save ~$20 shopping around, but screw that... Anyway, the best bang-for-buck for my needs is an nforce3 board for $70, and an Athlon64 3000. I've already got an AGP fx5200 so I'd basically get in for about $500, then get a nice HTPC case. I plan on buying a new 320gig SATA drives specificaly for MythTV as well (and prbly a few more to replace some aging and smaller ATA drives on my file server), they can be had for $140 w/ a 3yr warranty. I've currently got a an Athlon64 3200+ on an nForce4 board, it runs great and was a snap to get MythTV running, so as long as I can do the 3x HD3000 cards and get them working with a PVR500 I'll be good to go! what I need to do is see if its worth it to rent a few more DCT6200 boxes from Comcast and use firewire instead of paying for the HD3000 cards. now that i think of it, I think it might be.... Steve _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users