Mythbuntu box

[Poppa_Meth]

I'd like to try building a Mythbuntu box since I have some PC parts lying around. I need input on whether these parts are adequate for a decent frontend/backend combo and what other parts I need.

SAPPHIRE 100595 Radeon X700PRO 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1.8GHz Socket 939 Single-Core Processor ADA3000BPBOX

GIGABYTE GN-WP01GS PCI Wireless Adapter

350 Watt Antec PSU that came with a Sonata case

CORSAIR 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory Model VS512MB400

NEC DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3540A - OEM

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive (will add on later)

Motherboard will need replaced, probably with an Asus since it seems to be the most widely availabe 939 board around

I have a 512 MB RAM module for it which I'll upgrade if necessary.

New small case will be bought

Now I just need to know what tuner card to get and whether this system will perform well as a backend/frontend combo.

These parts are from my girlfriends computer which blew the mobo not long ago. I rebuilt it into an i3 system so there wasn't much left I could use. I have most of what I need here for a computer less the case and mobo.

Any input is appreciated.

[yoda313]

If you're stuck with a single core processor you can kiss hd out the door. Unless you simply want to use it as a capture box to record off the air signals. That would not be a problem so long as your capture software can run on your computer and you have enough free space (hd captures can be quite large for over two hour recordings so lots of disc space is needed).

If you just want to record and transfer to another pc for viewing and editing than that box SHOULD be ok. Not for watching.

I imagine that should be more than adequate for standard definition xvid/divx stuff. Not sure about the new h264 divx - that might be too taxing for a single core. You have a dvd burner and a dedicated graphics card so you should be all set for simply using it as a regular dvd player with vlc or mpchc.

If you'll be doing a lot of multitasking and ANY type of video work you'll probably want to upgrade the ram to at least a 1gig. On basic web surfing stuff 512 is adequate but multitasking and multimedia start to eat it up pretty quickly.

[Poppa_Meth]

I'm basically recording regular on air broadcast to xvid. No HD here at the moment. Comcast is too crappy to provide decent HD signal anyway. I'm mainly wanting this to record a few programs that I may miss since I haven't had a VCR in years now. I'm waiting for the new Walking Dead series to start next week! I may upgrade it in the future but for now I just want something to play with since I have so many parts left here. I'm having trouble finding the correct tuner to purchase though.

[yoda313]

Yeah for realtime xvid encoding that will be more difficult on an older processor. Check for cards that say they can direct encode to divx/xvid. I think the pinnacle usb sticks did but they may need more power to run than your single core.

[Steve Stepoway]

I don't know that graphics card, and you don't have enough disk space, but otherwise you are in good shape. I'm running a MythDora system on an old AMD Sempron 2800+, 1G memory, a Hauppauge HVR-950 USB tuner, and an Nvidia FX5200 graphics card (I think that's the card in that machine; it has HW support for MPEG decoding). I can record and watch HD on-air broadcasts with no trouble. I tried upgrading the graphics card one time to another Nvidia card that did not have HW MPEG (6200 series, I think), and that was not successful. The system doesn't transcode in real-time (about half real-time for HD; i.e. 15 fps or so), but I don't really care about that.

The critical issue is the graphics card, and you are going to need a lot more disk. But you can get a 500G for $50. Check the Myth, Mythbuntu, and Mythdora forums to see what success people have had with that graphics. The critical thing for watching is being able to decode the broadcast in real-time; you don't need to be able to transcode in real time.

[hydra3333]

A critical issue with the older boxes is the FSB speed regardless of the higher spec memory you shove in it. I used to have an AMD3000 and iirc it/mobo was only 333Mhz. I upgraded to 400Mhz FSB AMD 3500 with new mobo/memory matching @ 400Mhz and was happier with less capture glitches and watching glitches.

Good luck with it.

[Poppa_Meth]

Thanks for the input. The graphics card might have to go anyway. It's ATI and I haven't had the greatest success with Ubuntu and ATI in the past. NVIDIA has always been much better with Linux from what I hear.