[mythtvnz] Basic hardware help

[matthew pearce]

Ok

Thanks for all the coments.

First of all the RAM. Part of the fun in my case is to try and build
the mythbox for as little cost as possible. So currently I have only
192Mb in there. I do plan to upgrade this in the near future to at
least 256Mb. If anybody has got some spare 256 or 512 Mb sdram pc100
or 133 dimms lying around I would be very interested.
This seems to be a paticually hot topic. I know more RAM the merier
but for the moment it is a "proof of concept" box as Toby said. I am
happy to go with an underpowered system as long as it will not be
compleatly useless as a mythbox. i.e it will work well enough to do
basic things well.
If this goes well and I really like my mythbox then I may buy new
hardware but at the moment it is an expirement and I want to spend as
little as possible.

I was going to ask Jonathan's question. If I do get freeview will a
1.2Ghz hack it?
Also is it worth getting a internal PCI freeview decoder or should I
use a "set top box"?
Also do the freeview set top boxes work with the Hauppauge cards. i.e
should I get a Hauppauge card and be safe in the knowledge that it
will not be junk if I swittch to Freeview.
One last thing, is Prime ever going to be on Freeview?
Do you need to download the epg data from http://epg.pvr.geek.nz/ when
you have freeview?
Whats a DVB card?

I am very interested in the Hauppauge pvr 500 cards that Steven Ellis has.

While I am here, does anybody know why Celerons are cheaper than Pentiums?

It seems like a 120Gb hard drive is way to small it you are using the
mythbox full time
. I was under the delusion that 120Gb was more than enough. Must have
been reading old data.

Nvidia PCI 128mb graphics cards are available on trademe. What sort of
grapics card do you need to run mythtv. How low can you go? 16mb?
S-video out is needed I supose. Does anybody have a PCI nvidia grapics
card lying around? I (again) would be very interested.

Thanks again for all the Info/opinions/facts etc

By the way. So far it has cost me $25 for all the hardware. (HDD cost
$25. Rest was given to me or I had lying around)

Matthew