Upgraded MythTV setup!
Posted by Ryan on October 5, 2009 in ComputerInfo, Entertainment, Linux
The hardware in my MythTV setup I previously mentioned is no more! Why? Well two reasons really:
I kept finding myself processor bound when trying to watch HD, let alone recording SD or HD at the same time (that was a lost cause)
AND
I was getting very odd I/O errors in the mysql/mythtv logs. I found many sites that stated faulty hardware as the culprit. After looking into it a bit, I found a fan broken on the south bridge of my motherboard.
So I dropped $200 on a few goodies. Here’s my current setup.
- Intel E6300 dual-core (NEW)
- 2GB of DDR2 1066 RAM (NEW)
- ASUS p5QL pro motherboard (NEW)
- 2x 1TB hard drives, configured in a software RAID 1
- NVidia GeForce 6200 PCIx
- Hauppauge HVR-1600 PCI
Now I can happily report everything is running great! I’m seeing about 55% cpu utilization when running HD, which you may think is a little on the higher side..but this is comparison to the literally 100% utilization and the gradually increasing load numbers I saw before. With all that said I’m still running the Nvidia GeForce 6200 PCIX card from before. I’m sure I would see much better CPU utilization with a better video card.
As far as the motherboard? Once I replaced the motherboard I haven’t found another error. I’m assuming it may have been a heat issue from the broken fan.
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