Hello,

I have been KnoppMyth forums as well as the ones at www.SilentPCRview.com to try and decide on appropriate hardware for my MythTV box.

The only thing I've got so far are 3 PVR 250s.

Before all my research I was pretty sure I was going with a Micro ATX case. My candidates were the CoolerMaster 620 and the Antec Aria, but I've read many messages on air flow problems and overheating for these cases.

So, now I'm thinking I might go for a case that accepts an ATX motherboard. So far I've ruled out the Antec Overture, as again, I've read about problems with overheating.

From reading these boards, I know I want to have nothing to do with VIA chipsets.

I want a system powerful enough to take advantage of MythTV components such as MythGame, but one that also runs cool.

I'm going for the Athlon 64 CPU because it works with the raved about ThermalRight XP-120.

I appreciate your comments on the following choices:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000 (Socket 754) http://tinyurl.com/6yqd6
Heatsink: ThermalRight XP-120 http://tinyurl.com/3wsmv
Heatsink fan: Globe S1202512L-3M (anybody know where I can find this?)
PSU: Seasonic Super Tornado 300 (Its 300W enough?) http://tinyurl.com/6rpvr
Motherboard: Asus K8N-E Deluxe http://tinyurl.com/6t539 (said to fit above HeatSink http://www.thermalright.com)
Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda 200GB http://tinyurl.com/6raub
RAM: 512MB PC3200
Tuner/Encoders: 3 Hauppauge PVR 250s
DVD Writer: ??
Case: ??
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse: ??

Any recommendations and advice would be greatly appreciated,

-LeeMan-

I have 3 250s running in my backend which is an AMD Athlon 2400+ running in a Giga-Byte Nforce 2 board. I'm using the stock 300 WATT PS. I have the boards staggered in the 5 PCI slots for cooling reasons. IE: Card, empty slot, Card, empty slot, Card. Other than an extra fan in the back to help pull out the warm air, I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary for cooling. It's in an A-Open desktop case, but I may move everything into a 19' rack mount box to make it pretty later. I used to have a VIA board that crashed and locked up during bootup (search for blinky keyboard lights). The NForce2 has been rock solid for months now.

For awhile I was using it as a frontend/backend, but now it resides in my rack in the basement as strictly a backend. I use Xboxs throughout the house for frontends because of the low price, easy setup and because they're a fairly quiet solution compared to a PC.

As for your list of hardware, it might be a bit on the overkill side to use an Athlon 64 since the 250s will do most of the work. But hey, if you've got the money to burn go for it. You can never have too much power For a DVD writer I'd get a NEC 3500A from NewEgg. If you check TechBargains you can usually find one for around $80 which is a heck of a deal if you ask me. It's a very good drive.

Hope that helps,
Gonz

Thanks for the info Dr. G! The staggering PVR cards makes good sense.

I really like your setup of using XBoxes for the front ends, but I think I'm going to stick with a single MythTV box for now.

Thanks for the DVD writer recommendation, too! That's one more blank filled in!

I'm still looking for recommendations on the ATX case. Silence and good airflow is much more important than aesthetics to me.

-LeeMan-