Building my own media centre PC - advice sought!

[ciphergoth]

Now we have a jolly huge TV and a GBP 25 DVD player, I find myself very tempted to build myself a Linux-based Media Centre PC. I'd love some advice on what I'm thinking of buying.

I want:

• Linux-based media centre PC running MythTV.
• Fits on TV stand (thus desktop case)
• Fast enough for software decoding while doing other stuff
• Not too noisy
• Ideally one that doesn't use too much power (environmental impact)
• Cheap
• Slight preference for AMD 64 for coolness value. (given up on this one)

I don't want

• Games machine (will never run Windows so no point)
• Very quiet indeed (no-one in the house seems to mind PC roar)
• Lots of compatibility hassles making it work

I already have

• DVD +-RW rewriter (ATA)
• AGP graphics card with TV out (NVidia MX400 MS-8826)
• Cheap sound card if I can't make the onboard one work with Linux

I'm thinking of buying: (prices include VAT) Updated with cheaper, quieter, slower choices.

56.09	Processor and fan	2.66GHz Intel Celeron 330D, 256K L2, socket 478, 533MHz FSB
97.98	Motherboard, case, PSU	Black ASUS Pundit barebones system
45.88	Memory	Ebuyer 512mb DDR PC3200 400MHz Tesco Value Ram
76.73	Hard drive	200 Gb Seagate Barracuda
62.64	TV card	Hauppage DVB-T PCI Nova 909
6.68	Video cable	Belkin PC-DVD to TV Cable Kit
5.86	Postage and packing
352.76	Total cost

So, what have I forgotten? What am I buying wrong? What won't work with what? What do I need to check about my existing bits of hardware? Where should I be saving money/spending more?

Comments

[simm42.livejournal.com]

Well since you are after small the zalman silent case is out - the hush case is a rather nice option for a passively cooled system

I'd say your other option for quiet is going to be water cooling - you really sont want fans in it for a media center

[lovingboth]

Hmm, the TV card has somewhat mixed reviews.

You're also paying for RAID on the motherboard but only having one hard drive...

Have you seen this link?

[envoy.livejournal.com]

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000167021291/

How-To: BroadCatching using RSS BitTorrent to automatically download TV shows - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Have you been to www.doom9.net? There's a lot of info about encoding and DVD matters there, which have a lot of relevence to that kind of PC.

I've had good luck with the ASUS motherboards, and I've heard nothing but good things about the Hauppage decoder cards. I would consider putting in two decoder cards however, as sometimes being able to records two shows at once is a livesaver.

myth tv ----

[retrogoth.livejournal.com]

This is my pet product :-) I am currently running mythTV [www.mythtv.org] over fedora though it runs on genntoo debian to name just a few,
I have machine with the Hauppauge pvr250 , Hauppauge DVB-T PCI Nova 909 and the avermedia 777 dvb-t card... The Hauppauge DVB-T PCI Nova 909 and the avermedia 777 dvb-t both perform just as well, though the Hauppauge DVB-T has better support from linux-dvb and video4linux... so easier to install...


I run a pundit [http://www.asus.com/products/desktop/pundit/overview.htm]
with 250 GB drive , the PSU and cpu fan are both activilty controlled by the mother board so 90% of the time the case runs V silient.... comes with onboard video / TV out as well and has a pcmcia slot [handy for wireless ]... My system has been running for 1 year now [with 2 upgrades] and is rock solid..... dvb generall produce 2 - 3GB per 2 hour movie... so get the largest HD you can get.......
total cost:
£120case [includes mother board]
£80 processor [I am running pentium 4 1.4Ghz]
£80 200Gig HD
£80 dvb-t card
£30 256 Ram
~£400 pound :-)

http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php :this lists other users setup and hardware configs......


Myth TV is WELL supported with a active mailing list [that is also available on line] see the links below.....

The Beauty of DVB is the files dropped to your HD are already Mpeg2 format so very easy to turn these into .VOB files to produce DVD backups....


Sites of interest are:
www.mythtv.org --
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/
http://www.linuxstb.org/dvb-t/index.shtml
http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/coverage.html
http://www.ethics-gradient.net/myth/mythdvb.html
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php


later

Alex

[jhg.livejournal.com]

No Hauppage. Do not buy any Hauppage products. They are utterly, completely crap. I had a predecessor to that one, and it broke my old PC. Plus the software is crap, unintuitive, ugly and unstable.

I've got an ATI Radeon All-in-wonder TV and Graphics card, and it is excellent - though it's a) all in one, and b) terrestrial - though of course you can plug digiboxes etc. into it.

Otherwise looks fine, though if you're recording TV onto it your hard-drive cannot be too big.

[kimble.livejournal.com]

I've had mixed results with the Tesco Value RAM from ebuyer... although looking at their current prices, it's probably worth giving it a chance - I bought some equivalent RAM this summer, and it was only about 2 quid more for Crucial, vs about 15 quid now.

They do give you a warranty on the value RAM, and aren't too arsey about replacing it, which is nice.

[gnomatron.livejournal.com]

Here's an interesting option, that you may want to at least consider - the microsoft X-box. Powerful, cheap (99 quid plus cost of hard drive and possibly chip, total ~200 quid), quiet, and does most of what you want (except for not having a burner of any sort). With a small amount of modding it'll run linux, it has a network card, and you can put a bigger hard drive in very easily. It is possibly more faff than a normal machine, but it's a very, very cheap option, and works surprisingly well. A friend of mine runs one, and it's damn good if done well.

Also plays x-box games, but most of them are shit.

Anyway, thought I'd mention it as an option.

[babysimon]

I'm slightly surprised you want AMD64 - you don't need that much power for the task at hand, Debian support is slightly ropy, and I would assume more CPU power == more heat == more cooling noise. But I've already failed to convince you on cooling noise...

[babysimon]

Oh, anyone have any idea if there's ever any way to get RGB SCART rather than composite from any computer with TV-out? For my current Freeview box it makes a noticeable difference, but everything I've seen implies (but does not state) that it's always composite - since that's all Americans ever have.

[babysimon]

Oh, and finally, you were asking how much the shuttle cases cost? They use a proprietary motherboard, so you have to buy a "barebones" system with case, PSU, mobo and CPU fan for £130-£230.

These people seem to sell them. The ST62K is (whisper it) the quietest...

Linux Entertainment

[ablueskyboy.livejournal.com]

Found you in the power grid post-mortum ;).

Speaking as a user of --yes-- OS/2 Warp 4, I have to say it is entirely possible to do this in linux, but I'm still converting from OS/2 to Linux. I would greatly appreciate knowing how it all works out for you, because I'm doing this too!! I have some OS/2 commandlines for sound recording that I want working in Linux for scripting purposes, for example.

The current bottleneck I have is my new Soundblaster Audigy 2 (including the drive bay). Apparently, it won't output line-out, so I have to feed the headphones to my amp! Worse, I have to use the headphone port on the bay, which, incidentally turned out to NOT be shielded from CPU noise. GRRRR ...

Anyway, do let me know how it works out for you :) One idea I have is to get a whole stash of EEPROMS for music backup, since I keep killing off the CDRs da da da...