I'd like to build a combination frontend/backend Myth system from an Epia mini-itx board. I'm finding a lot of conflicting information (from searching here, from other forums, etc) about whether this is a good idea or not. Not going to be doing HD or games or anything... just your basic recording (would use one of the Hauppage cards, probably a -150) and playback.

So.. is it still the case that I should stick with the older boards, based on the CLE266 chipset? Are the CN400 and CN700 boards completely unsuitable, or what? Some of the CN700 boards look great on paper, but I keep reading bad things about them. And I'm not sure about the CN400's.

Any help would be appreciated!

I have a combined FE/BE on a M10000 (CLE266) which works perfectly (or did after I upgraded from 256MB RAM to 512MB RAM)

I have 2 Nova-T cards so a 150 or 2 should be fine.

thanks for the info. I think I am going to go with one of the older, CLE266-based ones... thinking of the MII12000. The newer ones look very nice but I just don't think the software side is ready yet.

Well..I just bought a MII 12000. And then read this: http://people.mech.kuleuven.be/~wmeeusse/linux.html#specifications
Right now I´m dowloading R5D1 and will try it on the board with a PVR 350 and 512MB ram. I´ll let you know when I have a result.