Ross Campbell wrote: > On 1/22/06, Brian Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>With some recent discussion here about CPUs and costs I wonder what >>the "average" cost of a MythTV machine might be. > > > That's sort of like asking a bunch of gamers what the "average" cost > is for a gaming PC is. I know gamers who would spend $600 on a > graphics card ... > > Here are some questions to consider: > > - How much is silence in your living room worth? > - Do you (and other family members) want an "ugly" old computer > showcased in your living room? > - How much did you spend on audio/video gear in the past? > - How much money do you normally spend on your computer hobby? > - How many hours of recordings do you want to keep? (HINT: it's more > than you would ever think when your building your first mythtv box) > - When one of your hard drives fails and you lose your > system/recordings, how much would it be worth to you to be able to go > back in time and set up RAID? > > > My MythTV box is now at around 600gb and that seems like just about > enough storage for me for now with non-HD recordings, but I can see a > day in the not too distant future where the bulk of my mythtv expense > will be STORAGE, and not computer parts. > > I'd be interested to know how much storage the "average" mythtv user > has on their system. I'd also be interested to know the % of mythtv > users who don't use RAID. > > -Ross > _______________________________________________ > mythtv-users mailing list > mythtv-users@mythtv.org > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users > >
Good points, Ross. I put together my myth box just over a year ago and spent almost $1200CDN on it. The original configuration had one PVR-350, P4 2.4GHz, ASUS P4P800SE mobo, 40G + 180G (IDE) for recordings. It has since expanded with the addition of a PVR500 and another 300G SATA drive. All inside an Antec Overture case. Noise is minimal but certainly not absent. I also had to wield the ever-useful Dremel tool to get the CPU heatsink to fit beside the Overture's drive bay. The storage is non-RAID; This is only TV, after all. The mythconverg data gets dumped into a backup directory on the recordings partition in the event of disaster, but otherwise I could just as easily rebuild the box as restore it (Thanks, Jarod!). Your recordings will expand to fill the volume alloted to them, much like an ideal gas. If I can't get around to watching something in the approximately three months it takes to become eligible for auto-expire, I can go without. Having the scheduler re-record it if it shows up again is a nice bonus, though. If I have to add more storage, I will seriously consider a separate storage server with better cooling and tuck it away in the basement. With the Olympics coming up, I can see a flurry of auto-expires taking place if I don't format-shift a bunch of movies onto DVD, though. Cheers, Les -- Les Gondor, Total Graphics [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you don't know what you're doing, do it neatly _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users