Hi all,

I'm new to MythTV, but I'm ready to buy myself a system. I'm looking for any comments, suggestions, recommendations, or nods of approval I can get before I spend a few hundred dollars on this.

Here's the plan:

FROM NEWEGG.COM:

Processor:
$70 + $4s/h AMD Sempron 64 2600+ Palermo 800MHz HT Socket 754 Processor Model SDA2600BXBOX - Retail

Motherboard:
$59 + $4s/h BIOSTAR TForce6100 Socket 754 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Memory:
$33 + $5 CORSAIR ValueSelect 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model VS512MB400 - Retail

Case:
$49 + $13s/h IN WIN IW-D500T.240BFU2AD Black Best Performed SECC Japanese Steel metal. MicroATX Desktop Computer Case 240W, SFX 12V form factor Power Supply - Retail

Optical Drive:
$28 + $0s/h LITE-ON Combo Drive Black IDE Model SOHC-5236V BK RTL - Retail

Keyboard/Mouse:
$27 + $8s/h Logitech Cordless Internet Pro Desktop 967461-0403 Black PS/2 RF Wireless Slim Desktop Mouse Included - OEM

FROM BUY.COM
$135 + $0s/h Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 350 - Input Adapter - 990

OTHER:
Hard Disk:
(Already owned) 40GB Western Digital IDE Drive (for operating system & programs)
(Already owned) 300GB Western Digital SATA-I Drive (for video storage)

Video:
Onboard video on motherboard.

Sound:
Onboard sound on motherboard.

Power Supply:
240W power supply included with case.



Please let me know your comments and suggestions soon, I'm looking to buy today or tomorrow!

Thanks!

- CPU is too slow for HDTV, if that's not a concern it's fine.

- The support for that motherboard only shows up in th 8xxx series drivers from Nvidia, which have other know issues, such the the MythTV release notes have warnings about staying with 7xxx versions instead.

Not saying that this won't work, but you'll be making your own life harder...

For another twelve bucks at New Egg you can get a dvd burner, like the NEC 3550. It would be nice for backing up/burning any "must have programs".

I have the pvr350, and LOVE it, thanks to snapperdragon!!!

Like tjc said, if you are not doing HDTV, the cpu will be fine, because the pvr350 chews away! I have 1400 T-Bird that works just fine.

You can never have enough storage...

Good luck with your build!

_________________
LinHES 8.4.3 Backend on MSI Z97 PC Mate with Pentium CPU, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, Two HD Homeruns + One HD Homerun Prime, 20 TB of storage

Thanks for the great comments, guys. Just what I'm looking for.

tjc: Good catch on the motherboard model. I found the place in the mythtv release notes where it recommends version 7676. How do you find out what release of the drivers a motherboard supports? I searched nvidia's driver release notes, couldn't find anything... I'd like to find a board that does support that driver version, but don't know what I should be looking for.

cantator: I think I will upgrade... I've never had much use for burning before, didn't even occur to me that I may want to burn lots of video...

both: Yeah, not planning on worrying about HDTV for a while, so I'm going to stick with a nice cheap cpu. My goal is to build a sub-$500 system here, so I'm staying cheap wherever possible.

Drat!

Figured some stuff out...

Nvidia added support for the geforce 6100 in driver release 8174. So I cannot use a geforce 6100 or later for my build.

So I have to use a nforce4 or nforce3 motherboard if I'm going to stick to a nvidia north bridge... (I'm a fan of nvidia, all their stuff has been rock solid for me, and I appreciate their linux support).

There aren't any nforce4 or nforce3 boards on newegg that have onboard video... which means I have to buy a video card...

If I'm buying a video card, I can use the video out on the video card rather than the video out on the PVR-350...

And if I'm doing that... why get the 350 at all, since the cpu is powerful enough to support mpeg2 encoding without the extra help? I can save money and get the PVR-150 or 250...

That rearranges my whole system. Blah!

Anything with and NForce3 or NForce4 should be fine.

Burners are very useful for backups, upgrades, ... Not to mention archiving recordings...

After trying to fix the hole caused by the incompatible motherboard and finding nothing, I'm abandoning this system and starting from scratch with a completely new set of components. Thanks to tjc for the very useful feedback - saved me a lot of trouble!

Just to make sure no one else tries to copy this system, I'm adding the following note to make sure it's noticable.

WARNING: This machine won't work!

In case anyone else wants to build their system, don't copy this one!

The motherboard has known driver issues (isn't support 7676 drivers, which are recommended by MythTV) that make the components combination fall apart. I'll be starting again from scratch and making a new post soon.