[mythtvnz] Newbie hardware help

[Stephen Worthington]

On Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:01:05 +1300, you wrote:

>Hi everyone, 
>
>I'm a newbie looking to set up a MythTV box and would like some feedback
>& suggestions on hardware. 
>
>At this stage I'm thinking of building a new computer which will  be
>used mainly for MythTV but will also dual boot into Windows for family /
>friends to play games PC games now and then.  
>
>We have Sky so I want to record output from the sky decoder and have an
>irblaster set up to control scheduling etc. 
>
>Here's what I'm thinking as far as hardware.  Would you please give me
>feedback and any suggestions - i.e.: certain motherboard chipsets to
>avoid etc.
>
>Intel E6750 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6GHZ CPU
>Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Motherboard 
>2Gb DDR2 800 RAM
>Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM Drive
>Albatron 8600GT-256XS Video Card
>Hauppauge Wintv PVR 150 MCE 
>Microsoft MCE remote control
>Wireless keyboard & mouse 
>
>I don't need a satellite card at the moment as I'm happy with Sky TV
>(unless there's a NASA TV feed available off the sky satellite?)
>
>Anything missing or anything that should be changed?
>
>Any suggestions / feedback would be appreciated. 
>
>Thanks!

That much RAM is overkill for a Linux/MythTV box - 1 Gibyte is enough.
You will want it if you really do dual boot to Windows though, and RAM
is cheap now.  I think once you have been using MythTV for a week or
so, you will find that the box becomes indispensable for that purpose
and will not be wanting to boot Windows much.

More hard disk is better!  If you record as I do, using the native
hardware MPEG recording off my Hauppauge cards, then you will be
needing over 3 Gibytes per hour, so think about 500 Gibytes or more.