hi all,

I am new to the PVR/DVR world. I have been reading about various hardware and software on and off for a few months, and I think I am ready to begin building a system. The fact that my girlfriend really, really wants one doesnt hurt, either. The thing is, while I have worked with Linux before, I have never been particularly good at figuring out which hardware is compatible and/or the "best" for my needs. I have read a lot of information from various people about systems that they have, but I have no idea of they are what I need. That is where you wonderful people come in to make some recommendations.

For starters, I plan on using KnoppMyth (hence why I am posting this here). I like the Myth interface, and I very much like that things are simplified. Here is what we are looking to get out of a potential system:

* I would like to be able to record a show and watch like TV at the same time, so I am assuming I will need to tuner cards. Everyone seems real amped about the Hauppauge PVR-250 cards, so let's assume I get two of those.

* Rip a whole bunch of our DVDs and save them directly on the system. I am planning on purching the largest, fastest hard drive I can afford, so I guess my major concern with this is having enough horsepower for video playback. I'm not sure if the requirements are different from TV recordings, so I figured I'd ask.

* More than likely, we'll end up doing some game emulation.

* And of course, I don't want to break the bank building it!

I would like to build a smaller-profile system, one that would be able to fit into a shelf of our entertainment unit next to the receiver. A micro-ATX form factor wouldn't be necessary for that, but it could be a good way to go. I was thinking of something along the dimensions of a low-profile rack server, but I doubt those are cost-effective.

I suppose what I really need recommendations on are motherboard, videocard, sound card (if needed), and case.

This has turned out to be a fairly verbose posting, huh?

Thanks!

all of the stuff you mentioned can be done on a fairly normal machine. My one caution on microATX would be that there are only 3pci slots, and two of them are going to be taken by tuners, so you would have to be very carefull that everything is onboard or it's very easy to run out.

Now the big question that you didn't mention one way or the other. Do you have any plans for HDTV? if you do then you pretty much have to go top end. You pretty much have to figure that you need a cpu running 3G actual clock to handle HDTV playback. which means pIV 3G or higher or higher end A64.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Sorry, you're right. I am not planning on doing HDTV for now. It seems like the support for it isn't quite ready yet, and 95% of what I want to record isn't HDTV yet anyway.

MircoATX does worry me, so I think I will avoid it, yeap.

I figured it was mostly a standard system that I need, but I am nervous about incompatability between the chipset and videocard and other arcane things, also on the quality of the motherboard/video card which I would purchase.

well one thing to keep in mind about hdtv is that if you want the abillity to do what you want with it, then you will have to purchase a card before july of this year, else the broadcast flag will be in effect.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

I would make sure there is enough space in you case for plenty of hard drives. I have had to add an ide expansion card and go with some non-traditional hard drive mounting.

_________________
Athlon XP 2400+
nForce2 Ultra 400
Hauppauge PVR-350
256MB PC2700
90GB, 200GB

I would be sure to avoid SATA drives. You might also consider seperate frontend and backend machines.

http://knoppmythwiki.homelinux.org/index.php?page=PickingComponents
I've been fiddling with the configuration for an upgrade machine for a couple months now and figure that with an Athlon 64 which ought to be capable of supporting HDTV it'll run me about $700. This is before adding a second PVR-250, but with some other bells and whistles...

On the other hand here's a list of parts that should produce a very quiet, very capable machine, totals under $500, and is only missing the tuner card:

Antec Black ATX Mini Tower PC Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK1650B" - Retail
Specifications:
Case Type: Mini Tower
Color: Black
Material: Steel
Drive Bays: 5.25" x 3/0, 3.5" x 2/3 (external/internal)
Expansion Slots: 7
Front Ports: 2 x USB
Power Supply: Antec 350W(SL350)
Cooling System: 1 x 120mm rear fan, CPU air guide
Motherboard Compatibility: Standard ATX
Special Features: Ultra-quiet 350 Watt SmartPower ATX12V power supply more info-> N82E16811129150
$60.50

ABIT "NF7-S" nForce2 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU - Retail
Specifications:
Supported CPU: AMD Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP Processors
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 SPP + MCP-T
FSB: 400/333/266MHz
RAM: 3x DIMM for DDR333/266 Max 3GB, 2x DIMM for DDR400 Max 2GB
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X/4X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS/2,2xCOM,1xLPT,SPDIF Out,6xUSB2.0(Rear 2),1xLAN,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: nVIDIA SoundStorm APU(Dolby 5.1) + 6-Channel AC97 CODEC
Onboard LAN: 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x Serial ATA, RAID 0/1
Onboard 1394: 2 Ports
Form Factor: ATX more info-> N82E16813127166
$81.00

APOLLO nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "BLOODY MONSTER 3 GEFORCE FX 5200" -RETAIL
Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: nVIDIA GeForce FX5200/250MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 128MB DDR/400MHz
BUS: AGP 4x/8x
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub)+TV-Out(S-Video Out)+DVI connector
Support 3D API: DirectX®9, OpenGL®1.4
Cable/Accessories: S-Video Cable, Driver CD
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536@75Hz
Retail Box (See pics for details) more info-> N82E16814140017
$52.00

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 55W 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - OEM
Specifications:
Model: AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Core: Barton
Operating Frequency: 1.83GHz
FSB: 333MHz
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/512K
Voltage:55W 1.5V
Process: 0.13Micron
Socket: Socket A
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, 3DNOW!, 3DNOW!+
Packaging: OEM(Processor Only) more info-> N82E16819103506
$78.00

Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Kingston
Speed: DDR400(PC3200)
Type: 184 Pin DDR SDRAM
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Cas Latency: 3-3-3
Support Voltage: 2.6V
Bandwidth: 3.2GB/s
Organization: 64M x 64 -Bit
Warranty: Lifetime more info-> N82E16820141424
$69.00

Seagate 200GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model ST3200822A, OEM
Specifications:
Capacity: 200GB
Average Seek Time: 8.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM
Interface: IDE Ultra ATA100
Features: 350 Gs non-op shock, 3D Defense System
Manufacturer Warranty: 5 years
Packaging: OEM more info-> N82E16822148032
$119.00

LITE-ON SK7551 Wireless Keyboard w/ pointing device PS/2 86keys -RETAIL
Specifications:
Interface: PS/2
Number Of Keys: 86 keys + 12 Function keys
Wireless Technology: Infrared
Design Style: Standard
Features: Operating Angle:+/- 45 degrees in Horizontal, +/- 30 degrees in Vertical, Protocol: Universal IR or customized, Integrated pointing device and two mouse buttons - full range mouse control more info-> N82E16823107114
$17.25

Arctic Cooling CPU Cooler For AMD Athlon Socket 462 up to 3400+, Model "Copper Silent 2M" -RETAIL
Specifications:
Compatibility: AMD Athlon Socket 462 up to 3400+
Dimensions: Fan:80x80x37mm, Heatsink:84x76x41mm
Rated Fan Speed(RPM): 1400-2800
HeatSink Material: Copper Core/Aluminum Sink
Rated Voltage: 12V
more info-> N82E16835186105
$14.49

Subtotal » $491.24

Hmmm... I could have sworn there was a DVD burner in that list... This one is very well rated and cheap:

NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black, Model ND-3520A BK, OEM
Specifications:
Write Speed: 16X DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 4X DVD+R DL, 16X DVD-R, 6X DVD-RW, 48X CD-R, 24X CD-RW
Read Speed: 48X CD-ROM, 16X DVD-ROM
Interface: ATAPI / E-IDE
Buffer: 2MB
$62.99