Recommended Hardware List??

[archived]

Hi, I'm new around here, but I'm impressed with your system and capabilities.

I'm investigating the possibility of doing some business in this area and would like to build my own system to get a feel for it, which makes your open sourced software very appealing.  I'll probably just start out with a multipurpose core for a single room A/V, but whole house lighting, to start since I've got some X-10 going.

I know you've addressed some general hardware requirements;
My question is:  Do you have a recommended hardware list?  I know you could break this list down into A/V, lighting and  any number of devices controlled by the core system, but I'm more interested in the core (Core, Media Director) PC components  at the moment.

Like what sound cards, video/TV cards work best.  I'm sure you have some ideas.  What, in you experience works best, and what should we stay away from?  (ATI, nVidia, SoundBlaster et al.)

If I want to have a 100 hour PVR what size disk?  (Sure a terabyte disk rack would be ideal but that'll come later.)  Who makes the most reliable HD for your application in your experience.  And, eIDE or SATA?

Motherboards and chipsets?

100mb/s or gb/s networking?  I'd probably go with gigbit networking myself, but are affordable drivers & routers available?  Is 100mb/s more than sufficient?

I realize that getting specific with manufacturers might be problematic (or not) but any help you can provide would be greatly appeciated.

Thanks, JB

[archived]

Here is a list with supported devices
http://plutohome.com/index.php?section=compatibility
I think you should read this too
http://plutohome.com/index.php?section=pluto_system_overview

[archived]

Here is a list with supported devices
http://plutohome.com/index.php?section=compatibility
I think you should read this too
http://plutohome.com/index.php?section=pluto_system_overview

Thanks Dan, I appreciate the reply.  I had seen those pages; I guess I was just looking for something a little more specific in the PC area.  For instance: back in the Windows world, I 've used and generally had good experiences with ATI hardware.  As such, I've got a couple of ATI all-in-wonders, the latest being a 9800 Pro.  

While this works great on a windows machine, I've found it problematic with SuSE 9.3 Pro.  ATI is slowly getting into Linux support, but I would not call it "robust" by any stretch and probably not well suited for your system.

Now if that's a wrong assumption on my part in regards to your system; that's great cause it will save me some $$$ on a new video card for trialing a system.

And I know I could dig though all your software components and try and research what drivers for what equipment/cards and peripherals are best supported for each component, but I just figured you guys could point us in the right direction for the various needs of a system.  nVidia for pvr/TV out funtionality?  SoundBlaster or some other for audio and the like.

So maybe a component like MythTV might work with a number of different video/TV cards; is there one that stands out with your system?

What do the PC compnents need; what do YOU guys like?

Thanks again!

[archived]

Hi there.
Just thought i'd post what pc kit i'm working with

Motherboard: Abit AV8
CPU: Athlon 64 3200
1G ram
Nvidia 6600GT AGP card
Avermedia 771 DVB-T TV cards

2nd netgear Network Card

PDAs PocketLOOX 420s

a Global Cache Unit for IR control


Been running into problems getting the nvidia kernel drivers to load. Without them i'm getting no xv video playback, so i'm getting jaggy playback of video and dvds

Would be good to have a list of pc gear people are using and any problems with them.