As of KnoppMyth R5A22, Dragon is Tier 1. The installation is 99% automated, and nothing has to be tweaked by hand.

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KnoppMyth R5.5
MythiC Dragon v2.0
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Thanks for your hard work on this. Human contributed several scripts to help improve the configuration process for all!

It felt more like fun than hard work I love automation, and it was great working with everyone on R5A22!

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KnoppMyth R5.5
MythiC Dragon v2.0
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Just out of curiosity, what's the 1% require?

Prompting for installation type, usernames and passwords requires user input. Users still need to navigate the setup menu to scan for channels, and enter their starting channel in the GUI. I think everything else is automated. We even know your zipcode from your zap2it account info, so we set up your mythweather locale for you.

Eventually, we'll work on a headband that reads brain activity and bridges the gap between the current state and full automation

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KnoppMyth R5.5
MythiC Dragon v2.0
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Why you just read it from their DNA, just add a fingerprint scanner to the Dragon, or a retina scanner and you should be right.

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Girkers

Well it should read from your brain in whatever thought detector is used, and before you have a chance to think about it, it will have thunk, before you thought about it.

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Mythic Dragon V1.0, R5F27
--
Stars Up, Lights Down...
Be a good neighbor, shield your lights, save electricity, and be more secure. Darksky.org

From the price of this thing it should make a cup of coffee for me in the morning as well. Good work gentlemen.

Hi,
Coffee you say,
Here is a good starting point:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Coffee.html

Mike

Human,

I have a question for you....and this isn't to doubt your expertise or anything, but I was wondering what made you choose to build the Dragon with an Athlon 64 and an NX6200TC card? (As you'll see in my sig, I chose some components in my myth box based on the Dragon.)

I've read many posts saying that Pentiums are the way to go and that they beat out the Athlon XP. Does the Athlon 64 beat out an equivalent Athlon XP? (Looking at HD of course, SD would be obviously easy to run on easier CPU.)

Also, I've read that the FX5200 is better (more compatible, better at video overlay, etc.) than the FX6200. What was it about the FX6200 that made you choose it?

Again, not doubting your knowledge, I just wanted to learn a little more insight on it.

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Currently running: R5.5, HD5000 x 2, PVR150, Athlon 64 3000+, Chaintech VNF4, 1GB RAM, 2 x 250GB in LVM, MSI NX6200TC -> AA 9A60 -> HDTV

Hi, ed3120!

Generally, when people say that XYZ is "the way to go" they are collapsing all their personal requirements into that statement and you lose the decision process. I'll share ours with you, though.

We chose the Athlon 64 because it was both efficient and sufficient.

High efficiency means low heat generation, which is compatible with our goals of making Dragon a quiet box. I don't think you can say the same for the Athlon XP or most of the Pentium line except the Pentium-m and its derivatives. (At the time we made the decision on the motherboard and CPU for Dragon, I think there was a single Pentium-m motherboard and it was significantly more than our solution.)

The CPU we use in Dragon is sufficient to play back 1080i content with room to spare, which was the goal. A more powerful CPU would not play back 1080i better.

It's also a 64-bit processor, meaning that when the time comes to have a 64-bit KnoppMyth (there is no timeline for this just yet) all Athlon 64s will see a boost in CPU performance without any hardware changes.

We chose the EN6200TC video card to meet several criteria: facilitate 1080i playback, have DVI out, use passive cooling, use a PCI-express slot, be available for the foreseeable future (implicit requirement for the Athlon 64, too, but CPUs tend to be around forever).

When you design a computer to perform a given set of tasks, you try to find hardware that performs those tasks and still leaves some room for expansion. To me, it would not make sense to put in a CPU so powerful and power-hungry that it offset the heat/noise characteristics of the entire system. The question is not whether or not there are more powerful CPUs or GPUs out there - there certainly are. The question is whether or not those make sense for Dragon.

I hope this answers your questions

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KnoppMyth R5.5
MythiC Dragon v2.0
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Does Tier 1 imply no mechanical issues? It looks like the Northbridge heatsink is going to interfere with one of the capacitors on the Asus 6200TC. Anyone else see this? I'm planning to do some minor surgery on the heatsink...

This is exactly what we do. Cut the closest tine of the heatsink by about 8mm, and trim the adjacent two tines as needed.

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KnoppMyth R5.5
MythiC Dragon v2.0
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I used a different card, but it too, looked like it would have trouble. But the heatsink has very flexible mounting, you can slide it and angle it, and it's a lot bigger than the contact portion on the northbridge chip, giving lots of flexibility. I was able to get by with no mods to the tines, but that would be easy to do.

That could work fine, if you're careful. My only concern in doing this would be that the heatsink may migrate to a position where it's in contact with the capacitor. Then you'd have a situation where there's extra heat conducting itself into the capacitor, plus the possibility of vibration wearing down the capacitor coating.

It does depend a lot on your choice of video card, of course, and it depends on whether or not anything would compel the heatsink to rotate out of the position you placed it in. I'm not saying not to do it - just pointing out possible risks.

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KnoppMyth R5.5
MythiC Dragon v2.0
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