[mythtvnz] Debating the ionitx - single or dual core?

[Nick Rout]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:29 PM, Mark de Reeper <mark.dereeper at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 10:05 AM, Nick Rout <nick.rout at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I am debating with myself whether to go single or dual core on an
>> ionitx board. Quiet is my mantra (its for the bedroom), but I don't
>> want to miss out on playing any material or any gui experience if the
>> single core won't do the work.
>>
>> This is a frontend only, and will probably run xbmc as well as myth
>> 0.22 (when released). It will likely netboot and have no local drive
>> (except perhaps a CF card). So the only noise will be the motherboard
>> fan if I get a dual core.
>>
>> So the real question is, does the dual core really need a fan?
>>
>> alternatively
>>
>> Can a single core (which certainly doesn't need a fan) do what I want ?
>>
>> I have seen reports that the single core can certainly do the
>> playback, but what about the heavy lifting on the new MythUI and
>> themes?
>
> I was able to try a single core board before I put down some hard cash
> (thanks SteveV) and whilst it handled all that I tried on it (including NZ
> Freeview HD content), I ended up going for the dual core model just because
> I wanted to have a bit of longevity. If it lasts as long as the solultion it
> is replacing, an old sw modded xbox, I will be very happy. I mostly use it
> with XBMC as its myth support is really coming along, just can't do
> recodings from it yet.
>
> Compiling XBMC goes well with 2 cores, something I had to do quite a lot
> while changes were being made to XBMC trunk to support NZ Freeview HD and
> mythtv .22 changes.
>
> The heatsink does get very hot so I installed the provided fan. The noise
> level is aceptable, especially compared to my old xbox. It boots off the net
> so there are no other moving parts. The noise is not noticable when you are
> actually playing some content. I think the fan is full-on all the time, the
> linux sensors stuff does not yet seem to support this board chipset combo so
> I don't have any temps/fan speeds to go on.

Thanks, its the noise when we are trying to sleep that concerns me.
The GAF of the noise of the power supply in my EPIA M9000 system is
very low. After falling asleep in front of TV its a bother to have to
crawl out of bed to turn the myth box off.

Maybe I'll install a big lazy speed fan and some sort of manual speed control.