You can find details about the hardware pricing and where I bought it from the following link:
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=17012
Suffice to say, this is a tier 1 system for under $500.

Let me start by saying that I am doing this from memory. I didn't take notes and I will not be held responsible if someone follows this and makes a fireball or any other form of destruction.

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Part 1: Hardware

Let's look at the hardware, first:
Case:


DVD Drive:


RAM:


Remote:


Processor:


Hard drive:


TV Tuner card:


Motherboard:


I started by taking the case apart. Remove the two circled screws and the top slides off, then the front panel pops right off. Then the hard drive/DVD drive chassis comes out by removing a couple screws and sliding it out:


As you can see, on mine the front plate was already removed on one side of the case (the right side if you're looking at the front). I put the DVD drive on that side.



I put the hard drive on the other. As you can see, there is really no room for airflow underneath the hard drive. I am disappointed there, because I have felt it after the system has been running for an extended period of time, and it was pretty warm to the touch.



I put the chassis back into the case, then replaced the front panel:



Then I installed the motherboard and all of the necessary cards following the instruction manual (sorry, I didn't slow down to take pictures of progress, but you can probably follow the cables in the picture). Note that the IDE cable I show in the picture is the WRONG one. It should be the "HDD cable". I also circled 2 holes that did not line up with the case. I was afraid that they might end up shorting some solder points, so I cut out some small pieces of the anti-static bag and placed them as an insulator.

3 additional things to note:
1. The power cable that was included with the case did not fit into the power supply properly for me. I just used another one I had sitting around and had no problems.

2. The power supply was set to 230V instead of 115V when I got it. Don't forget to check it! Or else you could be smelling something very quickly.

3. The power supply info is hard to find online. Here is a picture of the one that came in my case:

At this point I was ready to get started with the Knoppmyth installation. I connected an old VGA monitor, packard bell keyboard, and LAN cable.

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Part 2: Software

Upon powering, I went into BIOS (del button) and made a few changes. -First, I enabled Cool'n'quiet. (I don't know if this actually does anything with this particular Linux kernel)
-Next, I changed the boot order to CD-ROM first.
-Then I set the output display to NTSC-M

Finally it was time to boot the Knoppmyth CD. I went through the entire setup on my monitor. I did an automatic installation and just followed the messages on the screen.

To get into setup, press <alt>+s
In the setup, I didn't have to change anything in the general menu, I just made sure TV format was set to NTSC and Channel frequency table to us-cable. Those were my proper settings. Those of you outside the US, enter your appropriate settings.

Next I went to Capture Cards -> (New capture card) And changed
card type: "MPEG-2 encoder card (PVR-x50, PVR-500)
Video device: "/dev/video0"
Default input: "Tuner 1"


Clicked finish, then (New capture card) again with the same settings except:
Video device: "/dev/video1"


And the capture card menu then showed this:


Going back to the main menu I selected Video sources->(New video source) and entered my username and password that I setup on Schedules Direct. Then click Retrieve Lineups and finish.

My cable provider is Insight


Next Input connections->[ MPEG : /dev/video0 ] (Tuner 1) -> (None)
Set video source: name of your video source
then click fetch channels from listings source
HINT: Do not scan for channels or you may not get the proper channel names imported.
Then click finish


Repeat with [ MPEG : /dev/video1 ] (Tuner 2) -> (None)




Exit out of setup and it will tell you to run mythfilldatabase. So run mythfilldatabase


Open the frontend (<alt+m>:

Utilities/Setup -> Setup -> TV Settings -> Recording Profiles -> MPEG-2 Encoders (PVR-x50, PVR-500) -> Default

Warning: This is just some guess and check work by me, your settings may work better different than mine. I set resolution to 720 x 480, Stream type to DVD-Special 2, Aspect Ratio 4:3, Bitrate: 4000/4400 (note: this does not match the picture)

Then under Live TV I used the same settings except bitrate 3600/4000 (note: this does not match the picture)


Utilities/Setup -> Setup -> TV Settings -> Playback I used these settings:


and left everything else unchanged.

At this point it should be ready to watch TV and record tv at the same time. Some people have asked how loud the case is, and I will tel you that it is louder than I would like... and I'm fairly tolerant. When the TV is off, you can definitely hear it, but it's not bad when you have some noise from the TV. I am planning on replacing the two 60 mm case fans (which are part #D60SM-12B) with 2 VANTEC thermoflow fans. There is also a spot for an 80 mm fan that I am going to use a VANTEC quiet case fan for. I will update you on that when I get them.

Everything else has been going well with this system. I have been tweaking video stuff for days now, and I'm not sure if I'm done yet or not. The settings I have given seem pretty tolerable to me at this point. I did have some issues with this box locking up early on, but I am going to attribute that to having it set to use the libmpeg instead of standard codec. I have not had an problems since I switched back to standard (crosses fingers).

As far as diagnostics, it says that the motherboard temperature has fluctuated from 34-43 degrees Celcius since I have started it up. I haven't done any transcoding, so the load on the processor has been pretty light. It says that the processor has been running at 24 degrees Celsius the whole time. My feeling is that the processor and motherboard temps are reversed and there is no actual motherboard monitoring. I can't confirm that, though.

If anyone wants any further information or images, let me know and I will do whatever I can to help.

Edit 1 (Oct 23, 2007): Sometimes I would be watching TV and when a scheduled recording would start, it would force me to a) switch to that channel, b) exit live tv, c) cancel the recording. I have since gone in with the frontend and checked the box:
Setup->TV Settings->General
"Avoid conflicts between live TV and scheduled shows"

Edit 2 (Oct 29, 2007): I forgot to mention earlier that in order to get sound I had to open an xterm window <alt>+x and type "alsamixer". Unmute the appropriate controls using M, then adjust the levels to appropriate values. Then type "alsactl" to store the values.

I received the fans today and I actually can't tell much of a difference in sound. The volume might be lower, but the pitch is higher. I think the case temp is under 30C, so they shouldn't be spinning incredibly fast... I'll have to figure this one out.

Finally, my rrd tool was reporting the wrong temperatures, so I went ahead and switched some things around. In:
/usr/local/bin/rrd_MBtemp.pl file I found the line that read:

and changed it to:

because $mbt3 was cpu temp, and $mbt1 was case/motherboard temp.

Have you considered using a 60 mm to 80 mm fan adapter brackets and not using any 60 mm fans? 80 mm fans can be significantly quieter than 60 mm and can move more air.

http://www.directron.com/akm1683.html

I had considered it briefly, but I don't think that makes for a very clean install. I have never used them before, and if I was going to use a larger fan I would probably want to just cut a bigger hole anyway

But if you look at this picture in particular:
http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=00023fd0.jpg you can see that those 60 mm fans are basically resting on a ledge. I don't know much about the 60->80 mm adapters, but I could see that causing a problem.

Anyway, I'll be getting the fans in on Monday and I will edit my post to reflect that. I will also try to include screenshots of motherboard temp before and after (even though it is not in a very climate controlled environment). Unfortunately RRD tool is only showing one temperature properly and I am not sure how to fix it, but I would rather live with it than screw something else up trying.

There are a couple other things I will need to change on their at the same time... I have had to check the box that prevents recordings from using the default liveTV tuner, and I forgot to mention the 2 steps it took to get sound enabled. Forward looking, I would like to get the SPDIF bracket for it as well since my surround sound receiver will only accept the SPDIF input for surround sound and only stereo analog. Weak, I know.

After seeing the picture with the power supply still installed, it appears that the fan adapters would be a issue. Looking at this picture:

http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=00003my5.jpg

It appears you can mount a exhaust fan in the case (I am guessing a 80 mm one).

Also looking at the newegg reviews for the case, it appears that one reviewer mounted a new 80 mm fan replacing the one of the power supply.

I am undecided on how to mount the fans at the present moment. I know it is best to have the exhaust up and the intake from the side, but if I do that I will have the 80 mm exhaust fan working against the processor fan. I think I will probably mount it opposite.

I haven't decided what I will do about the power supply fan yet. I saw that newegg review as well. I think the fan is hardwired into the power supply itself, so I would not be real excited about replacing it unless it is super loud. As I said, I have some fans on the way, so I will provide an update when I decide what I will do with them.