I tried to find something with a similar hardware setup in the forum already, but unfortunately my search-fu is weak. I spent about an hour looking through the existing configurations but haven't found anything similar. I'm thinking that this setup will work ok, but was wondering if anyone saw any alarm bells with the equipment.

System is a Dell Precision 650 workstation
2.4ghz Xeon
1GB DDR 2100 ECC
Nvidia Quadro FX (NV30) 128mb (dual DVI & svideo)
36gb seagate scsi drive
1 DVD burner, 1 DVD drive
3 pci-x, 2 pci
2 HD-5000AV tuners

I can't find what chipset it has onboard unfortunately, but I'm sure its an intel, probably a 7501/5(?) something or other.

Anyone see anything bad about this?

It is most likely a Intel server chipset. Here is a example of a system loaded with Debian (Which Knoppmyth is based):

http://www.togaware.com/linux/survivor/ ... sion0.html

I would either replace the hard drive with something bigger than 36 GB or add a second hard drive. You are going to run out of room fast recording HD content. Playback of HD content may be a issue with that speed of processor but I would think the extra cache that the Xeon processors have would make it fine.

I'd be a little worried about the 2.4 GHz processor with HD. I fear it might not be quite enough, especially if it's not Hyperthreading. You may need to look into XVMC to get smooth HD playback. Only way your going to know is to try. XVMC should work OK as you have an Nvidia graphics card but being that it's a workstation card I don't think there is much if any info on how XVMC works with it.

The SCSI hard drive will probably also give you some headaches. You will want to check if the necessary SCSI modules are present in Knoppmyth. They probably are but I'd check. You will almost certainly have to do a manual install (similar to those with SATA disks) in order to get Knoppmyth to install on the SCSI drive. You should be able to follow the same basic steps as those with SATA so that shouldn't be a show stopped but will probably move you down to a Tier 2 install. No worries if you don't mind getting your hands a little "dirty".

Good Luck,

Martian

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ABIT NF-M2 nView | Athlon 64 X2 3800+ | 2GB DDR2 800 | HDHomerun | GeForce 6150 (onboard) | WD 640 GB SATA HD | DVD-RW (sata) | StreamZap IR receiver with Logitech Harmony remote

Vizio 37" LCD HDTV (1080p)

I was also worried about HD playback, but seeing as it is a Xeon, and does support hyperthreading, I'm willing to take the chance. As for the hdd size, I have a pair of 147gb drives I'm liberating from work, so that also shouldn't be too bad.

This machine is coming from my office, because they're upgrading to some new hardware. Lucky me gets to take it home for free.

Since I have the same controllers in my 650 as the one you linked to novellahub, I guess it will work just fine.

As soon as we get the new hardware in, I'm taking this one home, so I'll update when I get it.