Over the years I have converted two GX-270 boxes into mythtv boxes. Both boxes were "slim" 1/2 height boxes. If you look at the image on Dell's generic spec page, the boxes I used were the middle sized unit. Here were my experiences on R5.5, which was the current release when I did this:

1. On one both I added a half-height nvidia 5200 graphics card; on the other I added a half-height nvidia 6000 series card (don't recall the exact model number.)

2. One box had a P4-2.666ghz processor with Hyper Threading. It had just enough horse power to deal with simultaneous recording + playback. I do not recall for sure if I used hardware decoding or software decoding, but I think it was software with 2 processors enabled. (Main processor + HT processor. mpeg2 playback can take heavy advantage of the HT processor.) Playback was to a 1280x720 plasma TV. Recordings were hidef from cable, which are very similar to OTA hidef. (1280i, 720P, etc.)

3. The other box was a P4-3.0gz + HT and died after ~1-year of use. During that year it was cable of handling dual ATSC recording, HD playback and transcoding to xvid without problems. I don't know for certain, but I suspect the "cause of death" was the capacitor problem referenced earlier.

abstube, the 2.4ghz processor probably does not have hyper threading, but worth checking. If it does, it might be sufficient, but it will be "on the edge". The nvidia card I used is a very old model -- would not recommend it today - you need something that support VDPAU. The nvidia 9000 series cards support VDPAU. I am not sure if the 8000 series cards do or do not support VDPAU. The 5000, 6000, & 7000 series cards definitely do not have the hardware to support VDPAU. The 5200 card I used support a different form of hardware acceleration (XvMC) that is, unfortunately, notoriously flaky, so you probably don't want to go that route.

[Update: The 8000 series cards to support VDPAU, as documented here. ]

Abigailsweetashoney, I would not purchase that GX270 unless it is cheap enough that you don't mind if it simply dies.

By the way, I've always been curious -- does "abigail" refer to you, or to someone you know? In my mind, I've always pictured it as your daughter's name -- not sure why -- maybe the many years I spent as a single dad...

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Marc

The views expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

Jersey >> I'm in NJ. Specifically southern New Jersey.

Yes, I've been outed. Abby is a pseudonym.

My company sells GX-2?0's for $30 a piece. I have a given dozens to schools and my local church. It's a good tax write-off.

Unfortunately the best I've seen come my way is a dual core 2.8 ghz and I've seen only two of those. Most others are around 2.4 ghz or less.

Thanks. -Abs

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R6.04, dual core 3ghz, 3 gig memory, Zotac 8400 passive heat sink dvi/hdmi out video, 500 gig sata, dual tuner hdhomerun, streamzap remote

Abby

I have a GX270 that I run as a front end only machine. (full specs)
I was using it as a test box, but it started to get flaky. I installed a capacitor kit from badcaps.net and everything has been good since.
I had a PCI GeForce 8400GS laying around (it didn't work in any other computer I tried it in) so I put it in here and it worked fine. It's driving an older TV at 1080i via component. My concern was heat build up as the riser card puts the video card horizontally overtop of the power supply but after watching a BluRay rip, nvidia-settings reported 57C. Probably good that the video card has a fan on it.