Hardware recommendations for a multimedia box
Tobias Roth
roth at iam.unibe.ch
Mon Apr 4 10:25:57 PDT 2005
On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 01:03:59PM -0400, Randy Pratt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm finally getting around to getting a new machine that will be
> primarily for multimedia. Here's some of the components I'm
> considering:
>
> Soyo K7VKPE M/B - KT600 Chipset w/ AMD Athlon XP 2800+
> 1 GB DDR PC2700 333Mhz RAM (2 x 512MB)
> Matrox G550 Video Card w/ 32MB DDR/DVI & VGA
> Hauppauge PVR350 w/remote
if you're concerned about noise, get a pentium-m. they still are a bit
expensive, but can easily be cooled passively and offer plenty of
processing power.
for a hd, get one of the samsung spinpoint series.
the choice in power supplies is vast, go for a passive one or maybe
a nearly passive (where the fan kicks in only at high temperatures).
an aluminium case will help wiit heat reduction, although you may want
to consider a dampened case.
> I don't do video gaming of any sort. Its main use will be for
> viewing DVD's and recording TV broadcasts (a la freevo).
>
> It appears that the Matrox G550 is supported:
>
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-x11/2005-January/001511.html
>
> I looked in the "xorgconfig" utility but didn't see it listed by
> the "G550" designation. Is it the "Matrox Millenium" driver?
>
> I searched the archives but didn't find anything indicating that the
> tv-out function was working under FreeBSD. Is this still the case?
>
> I'm also thinking that the Hauppauge PVR350 is fully working at
> this point. Am I mistaken on this?
afaik, tv-out of the 350 does not work yet. can someone lease prove me
wrong? also, if you plan to use the tv-out of the matrox, buying a pvr
350 will be a waste of money. get one of the 250/150/500 instead. i
don't know if they are all supported though.
> Any suggestions, pointers or alternate hardware suggestions would
> be much appreciated.
silent components don't cost the world anymore. the noisiest component
will be the dvd drive, i didn't have much luck in silencing it yet.
then the hd, and finally the fans.
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