[mythtvnz] Hardware build, compatibility questions

[AlanP]

I'm (finally) going to order the remaining components for my Mythbox. The 
150 is here, the 2xSkystar2 shouldn't be too far away (Nick Read is a 
generous, good man), and I only have a few remaining quibbles.

My current build plan is as follows :-

Motherboard - Asrock 775V88+ - $114
         A nice, ol' fashioned mobo with gazillions of PCI slots and an AGP 
slot that will still support not-too-old CPUs.

GFX -- Gigabyte FX5200 - $87
         It'll dissuade my family from trying to play UT2k4 on it, and it 
does TV out. Combine that with $80-$90, and I'm convinced.

TwinMOS 512MB DDR400 - $97
         One stick for $97? I can remember when it cost $100+ for 1MB, in 
four sticks!

Intel Celeron D 331 - $115
         Nice 'n cheap. I don't plan on transcoding, and I'll be using 
PVR150s (hardware MPEG2) and Skystar2s (I'm willing to assume hardware 
MPEG2 on these, considering Technisat pimp them as TV cards.)

Seagate 300G - $216
         The only major spendy item. I don't want a Maxtor that will die 
right after recording Something Important, and I don't want a TinyDrive 
that will store two shows before choking.

LiteOn DVDRW - about $100
         I'll mainly use it for reading audio CDs and movie DVDs, but once 
I figure out how to make creating DVDs of recorded content easier for my 
non-linux-knowing family, it'll burn stuff too.


Things I already have :-

PVR150MCE
Case and PSU (3R brand, might replace these in future)
IBM keyb (not a good one, but meh) and Genius mouse
display for installation and testing :-)
Tentative 2xSkystar2

My major question is hardware compatibility. Will Debian play nice with the 
Asrock, and will the SATA-2 hdd be readable?

The AtomicTV CD (custom KnoppMyth magazine coverCD that doesn't recognise 
my damn PVR150MCE, no ivtv) doesn't recognise my SATA storage drive either, 
so I think this is a valid question. Last time I installed Linux, it was to 
my P-90 Toshiba which has oldfashioned IDE and a very oldfashioned chipset.

Another minor question is whether I can do better in terms of 
performance-cost optimisation.

--
Alan Podjursky                  ICQ 24423014
"Yay, evil evil! Happy torture!" -- Gwyneth
"When in doubt, use brute force." -- Ken Thompson
http://www.fanfiction.net/~mercva