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| Sub $400 stand alone box http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=348 |
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| Author: | BigTim [ Sun Dec 28, 2003 8:25 am ] |
| Post subject: | Sub $400 stand alone box |
Alright, in a hardware thread http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=251 I stated I was working on a cheap stand alone box. I now have said box up and running and *working* well. This box can be assembled for under $400 including shipping for all the parts I used to create the final product. My goal was to have a box I could retail (I am a white-box reseller) for $399, doesn't look like I hit my goal, yet. But I do have a working product and it works very well and does everything you would expect in a MythTV box. Here's the finished product and where to get the parts: Chaintek N7NIF2 Mobo - $90 eWiz.com Leadtek WinfastXP 2000 Capture Card - $45 eWiz.com Maxtor 120GB 8MB cache Hard drive - $97 eWiz.com MSI 16x DVD-ROM - $38 eWiz.com 1.3Ghz AMD Duron OEM CPU - $29 tcwo.com CPU Fan - $9 tcwo.com (Don't buy cpu without fan or you get 20 day warranty with cpu, this way you get 1 year) 256MB PC2700 DDR - $44 tcwo.com Mid Tower case w/350 watt Power Supply - $26 I buy these in the wholesale channel, figure $50 for a case elsewhere. I come to $382 for the parts and another $15 for shipping so you can build a compleate working, functional box for under $400 and other than the case anybody can get these prices. Now as to assembly, everything you need to know has already been covered in the forum and I spent probably 12 hours installing KnoppMyth a dozen times before I came up with a finished product that works all the way. I'm working on a webpage for myself detailing all the steps I took to get a install I was happy with since I do plan on building more of these boxes to resell. I wanted to use the Hauppauge dbx card, but since I won't be able to redistibute the Hauppauge drivers I substituted for the Leadtek card, which is also $25 less costly, but not btaudio compliant. That is my next hurdle, a btaudio compliant card that costs less than the Leadtek card and works well. I chose to work with as few suppliers as possible to keep shipping costs to a minimum as well,and with eWiz.com offering free ground on most products, and tcwo.com with their upto 150lbs for $8 ground shipping, I may have paid a few dollars more than needed on a part here or there, but overall I hit my current goal of finished for under $400 Anyway, for those questioning the performance of this box, I have a term running via ssh into the box and while recording a program and viewing a previously recorded program, top shows between 50-80% CPU usage, all memory and about 64mb of swap. Watching a previously recored program shows me no flaws in the recording during playback, and only when I was dumping 40gb of data onto the drive over the network did I notice any choppyness in the video. My TV is a pile o' junk and I need to use a S-Video to RF converter avalible at Wally World for $18, but bang for buck, this hopefully will satisfy those of you on the fence of building a MythTV box on the cheap. |
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| Author: | cesman [ Sun Dec 28, 2003 12:26 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
You can use the Hauppauge dbx card. The Hauppauge drivers are for the PVR 2/350. Along as you don't modify KnoppMyth and call it your own, I have no problems with you including it w/ your systems. |
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| Author: | krackato [ Sun Dec 28, 2003 2:52 pm ] |
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That's awesome. You're definetly thinking along the same lines as me. Low cost and good performance with as little fuss as possible. It's very cool that you actually built this with the idea to sell them. I've wanted to make my box so that I could easily repeat it should any of my friends want one. Anyway, excellent work. I can't wait to see the website with more details. |
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| Author: | BigTim [ Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:13 pm ] |
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Well, what exactly do you consider modify? Rewritting code is not my goal at all, no need to re-invent the wheel, you've done a fine job of it already. Changing config files to work is a must, but modifying this or calling it my work is far from my mind, I'd actually prefer a spash screen at boot that advertises MythTV and hides all the hardware detection and modules and daemons loading. Not much you can do about the Nvidia splash screen as X loads, but it's a good name in peoples mind, so no big deal anyway. |
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| Author: | cesman [ Sun Dec 28, 2003 6:17 pm ] |
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Actually, I didn't start KnoppMyth with the intent of selling hardware. I don't consider configuration as modifications. You can (albeit dependant on the version of the nvidia driver's you are using) disable the nvidia splash when X starts. |
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| Author: | josephmc [ Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:03 pm ] |
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Option "NoLogo" "1" under the device section of XFConfig-4 should do that, although I think it is a very good looking splash if nvidia was supporting myth box develpment by donating cards or something but it just saves boot time. |
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