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| Noob building HD3000 based box, hardware recomendations? http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2894 |
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| Author: | dgath [ Sat Nov 13, 2004 12:18 am ] |
| Post subject: | Noob building HD3000 based box, hardware recomendations? |
Tried out KnoppMyth with a old system I pieced together the other day, and while everything wasn't natively compatible or easy to get working right, it at least gave me a taste of Myth and I really want to get a box set up know. Going through the huge hassle of setting up KnoppMyth to work perfectly with an ATI 7000 (specifically TV-Out), Remote Wonder, and TV Wonder VE wasn't worth it for a big and clunky Dell 8100 with 128 megs ram. Good fileserver, bad HTPC. So.... I've already ordered a HD3000 (needed one anyways before the flag implementation) and need the other components. I'm a linux noob, but quickly learning and having quite a bit of fun. I like the challenge. So at this point I'll probably go KnoppMyth as it was a breeze to install, though a full distro + Myth isn't out of the realm of possibility. I also have a couple ATI remote Wonders I & II lying around that I'd love to be able to use, which I also hoping shouldn't be much of a hassle getting set up. I don't have a hi def TV yet, and probably won't for quite some time, but from what I've heard I shouldn't have much of problem using this for standard television, right? At this point, I'm not going to need to control my Motorola DTC2524 cable box as that is probably last on my list, but I'd like to eventually get it set up for that. I could upgrade that box to a Hi def box that my cable company can also provide, but again, that'll come later. So here's what I'm looking for... a desktop HTPC style case for the provided HD3000 HDTV tuner card. I'm leaning towards a Coolermaster Cavalier series or an Antec Overture. I'm not looking for spend more than $100 or so, if I could find a nice looking case for around $70 with PSU that would rock! But style is the #1 factor to me right now. I'm also looking for recommendations for the motherboard and video card. In the past I've mostly built with Intel and ATI, but am definitely switching over this round because of the price and compatibility issues. So that is mostly why I'm here and need help. Right now I'm looking something in the Asus A7N series line as it is regarded as one of the best socket A boards and it has the soundstorm. But I'm definitely open to suggestions on that. Something a bit cheaper would be nice too. Speed isn't a huge factor in this system and the easier it'll be for me to get set up... the better. Video card wise I would like something with TV or SVideo out for 24/7 use, VGA for initial set up, and DVI for future HDTV use. NVideas are typically better supported under linux, correct? I guess that points me in the direction of a GF4 series card or maybe a 5200. Something passively cooled would be great. As far as the processor goes, I'm looking for something around the range of a 2600+M right now and maybe underclock it if need be. I don't think this will need to be that powerful of a machine and the quieter I can make it the better. But whatever... that appears to be the right range of where I need to go, 64 would be unused power. I'll also need wireless set up for transferring files from my WinXP based computer. I'm really hoping this won't be a huge hassle, but have never set up a wireless card on a linux machine. I have an Edimax-G card lying around and if I had to go with something more compatible I would, but would like to use that if possible. I think that is it for now. Any info you could give me as far as getting stuff set up, other websites out there for Myth and KnoppMyth discussion, HD3000 issues (should I consider also getting a PVR250 for ease of set up since I won't be using the HD yet), and also the hardware recommendations stated above. I'd really like this installation and maintenance to go smoothly so native compatibility with KnoppMyth is a pretty big factor for me. Any help with this I'd really be grateful. I've looked over the Tier 1 recommendations and no package I've seen so far works perfect for me. I've looked these boards up and down over the past few days and they've been a great help thus far. As someone who has set up a number of Windows based HTPCs and frontends, I gotta say, Myth blew me away. Better than anything out there! Thanks again. |
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| Author: | Xsecrets [ Sat Nov 13, 2004 12:38 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
ok I'll hit the points I see right off. ATI remote wonder piece of cake one command to setup, unless you want to play with the keymaps then a bit more difficult, but the defaults are fairly sane. I know you are not looking at this yet, but hdtv from cable company most likely will not work with any computer card ever. If you are wanting to go hdtv in the future the a64 may not be overkill, as from what I hear xvmc is still having problems. not sure on this just hearsay (delving into this foray myself in the next couple of weeks). I would suggest going with a 5200 you can get them cheap, some are fanless, and have dvi, vga, and svid output all supported well under linux. plus if xvmc does come around they support idtc as well as motion compensation where gf4 only does motion compensation. have no idea what that wireless card is, but some B cards will work "out of the box". I have a netgear ma311 pci card and it worked with no tinkering at all. others you will most likely have to load/compile drivers. there will be more driver support in R5 when it comes out, but there are still many wireless cards not supported by linux at all, so research before buying. also I don't know if you've had a gander at the wiki but it's worth a look. For instance the remote wonder instructions are found there. |
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| Author: | tjc [ Sat Nov 13, 2004 1:47 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
You may want to read this thread. http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2511 To support HDTV you'll need more CPU and DVI or some other form of TV output. S-Video is up to it. As for wireless, at the high end (g) it just barely has enough bandwidth for standard NTSC or PAL TV, but not for HDTV. |
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| Author: | Xsecrets [ Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:35 am ] |
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I don't know about that comment on the wireless, I know everyone says things like that, but I actually had a frontend running pretty well on my 802.11B only studder every several minutes or so, and I really blame that on the fact that my reception is not so great on the complete other side of the house. it should only take about 2.5Mbps for NTSC which is just slightly less than my real life throughput on my 802.11B and hdtv should take about 19Mbps or so which I know I've seen at least some reviews claiming 25Mbps sustained real world throughput on 802.11g. And of course that whole argument is completely mute if you are only going to use that one machine as a frontend/backend combo and not connect other frontends to it. Just for downloading guide data any type of connection should work, some even use dialup. |
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| Author: | tjc [ Sat Nov 13, 2004 10:14 am ] |
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Guess I was confusing 'b' and 'g'... Of course then you're down to the question of supported 'g' cards... |
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| Author: | Xsecrets [ Sat Nov 13, 2004 12:19 pm ] |
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yes and sadly that is a very short list on R4V5. Not even sure if any are supported. Unfortunately lots of G cards are still not supported in linux at all. the situation is improving, but even the ones that do have support are still in the early stages. |
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