[plug] MythTV project

[William Kenworthy]

About noise - I have had an athlon combined FE/BE system going for over
5 years now - noise is a BIG problem with any normal system.  Quieting
existing desktop systems is not easy, and buying quiet systems is
problematic because evaluating low fan and disk noise can be subjective
- you may even need to buy some components, test and return until happy.
Sadly, buying by recommendation didnt work for me - one persons "I cant
hear it" can be anothers fingernail scraping on a blackboard and
manufacturers specs can be a bit marketing biased :)

Currently the BE/FE is on a plasma in the living area behind a vented
panel - can hear it late at night but not a problem in that room.  For
the theatre and bedroom, I am using diskless N330 atoms in small boxes
for FE only.  Works a treat with hdmi etc. and very quiet.  I have left
the standard fans in, and can just hear them when things are very very
quiet but I have heard of people removing the fans or replacing them
with low noise items.  What I find most annoying is the whine/drone many
disk drives make so a diskless system is great for this.

Cant help with the tuner, but I have two kworld USB ones to add to
another planned backend without enough PCI slots - I have not installed
them yet but USB may be an option for you.

BillK

On Fri, 2011-02-11 at 11:00 +0800, Tim Bowden wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm looking (finally) at building a cheap(ish?) MythTV box.  Building
> small form factor or low power systems is something I've not done
> before, so I've got some rather basic questions.
> 
> The system will have a combined front end and back end, at least two
> and at most three tuner cards, with at least two 1Tb SATA hdd's I've
> got lying around.  I've got more spare SATA drives, but I'm not
> expecting to fit more than two into a case without size and heat
> issues.
> 
> * Does anyone have any recommendations for cases, motherboards or
> tuner cards available locally at a 'reasonable' cost?
> 
> * Do all modern tuner cards pick up the new digital channels?  I
> assume so, but I'd rather ask a dumb question than get stung.
> 
> * PLE has Leadtek WinFast DTV1000S PCI tuner cards going cheap ($27).
> http://ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemId=601666
> I have seen various reports on the success or otherwise of getting
> them to work under linux, though as of kernel 2.6.33 the driver is
> included.  Does anyone here have any experience using them?  I'm
> tempted to grab a couple and take the risk unless there are better
> cards at a similar price.
> 
> * This system will be on 24/7 in the living room, so excessive noise
> and power consumption is an issue.
> 
> * Form factor- Micro ATX or Mini ITX?  Do any of the Mini ITX boards
> have enough PCI slots for multiple tuner cards or should I only look
> at Micro ATX boards?
> 
> I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions as I get my head around this.
> 
> Regards,
> Tim Bowden
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au>
Home in Perth!