LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: 101101 on August 12, 2007, 12:04:54 am

Title: Will this system work with LMCE?
Post by: 101101 on August 12, 2007, 12:04:54 am
If this is the wrong forum, sorry - it's just the one that made the most sense out of the choices available.

Onto the material here - I'm going to build a LMCE system and have come up with a shopping list.  I just wanted to make sure all the components would play nice with LMCE as I've never built a Linux system before and have heard stories of incompatibilities.  I have built Windows systems, so I have some idea of how components plug in  ;)

The system will comprise of:

I've left out the random things like CPU cooling, power supply, optical drive, and case which will have little / no effect on the system's compatibility.  If something in here won't work, please let me know.
Title: Re: Will this system work with LMCE?
Post by: jimmah6786 on August 13, 2007, 04:43:34 pm
Looks to me like your on the right track. You might want to get a fast CPU if you plan on encoding multiple threads at a time. But its looking good, I have almost the exact same one, just less RAM[money :-( ] and faster CPU.

Title: Re: Will this system work with LMCE?
Post by: teedge77 on August 13, 2007, 05:37:17 pm
thats the same motherboard i have and everything i checked on it works great so far. a couple things...make sure you disable the onboard sound if you plan on using another card...i used a soundblaster audigy 2. also...update the BIOS before you start loading anything on it. i had some installation issues at first that were fixed when i updated the BIOS. you may not have the problem now, as that was when it was still 1.0 on ubuntu. i also didnt check SPDIF since i used the other soundcard.
Title: Re: Will this system work with LMCE?
Post by: Zaerc on August 13, 2007, 05:55:19 pm
You might want to look at these:

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Asus_M2NPV-VM
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-PVR-150_MCE
Title: Re: Will this system work with LMCE?
Post by: 101101 on August 13, 2007, 06:54:51 pm
Quote from: jimmah6786 on August 13, 2007, 04:43:34 pm
You might want to get a fast CPU if you plan on encoding multiple threads at a time.
How fast of a CPU would be needed to make a box that should last years and have the ability to feed to probably up to 3 or 4 front-ends?  I'd like to just build this box now, use it on one TV for the time being, then when I move to a bigger place just add something like a Fiire thin client on other TV's.  I didn't think it would need too fast of a CPU if the tuners had hardware encoders (like the hauppauge I have from an older system does)
Quote from: teedge77 on August 13, 2007, 05:37:17 pm
thats the same motherboard i have and everything i checked on it works great so far. a couple things...make sure you disable the onboard sound if you plan on using another card...i used a soundblaster audigy 2. also...update the BIOS before you start loading anything on it. i had some installation issues at first that were fixed when i updated the BIOS. you may not have the problem now, as that was when it was still 1.0 on ubuntu. i also didnt check SPDIF since i used the other soundcard.
I'm probably going to use onboard sound (to save PCI slots for future tuners), but good to hear it works for you.  Do you by chance remember what version the BIOS was when you started with the mobo and what you had to upgrade to for everything to work?  I'd rather not have to search for a floppy drive to update the BIOS unless I need to when I get this.
Title: Re: Will this system work with LMCE?
Post by: teedge77 on August 13, 2007, 09:29:29 pm
im sorry i really dont know what version i had. i actually just installed XP on there to update the BIOS too. I didnt have any floppies. then i just installed LMCE over it after it was updated. you could use Bart PE or Super WinPE to do it though.

i really dont know if the onboard sound works without any configuration. i never tried it, only the audigy card. i had no trouble with SATA but i have heard that mixing SATA with IDE could cause problems. I really havent added much to it either. so far just a ZCU000 for my Z-wave lights. i am trying to save some space for the PCI slots too. I am hoping reasonably soon PCI Express gets going and then i can get the new Hauppauge 1800 card for MythTV.
Title: Re: Will this system work with LMCE?
Post by: cckrobinson on August 13, 2007, 11:17:11 pm
At a minimum, I'd spend $15 more and get an X2 4200.  You can never have enough CPU especially if you ever plan to add an HD card to your system. 
Title: Re: Will this system work with LMCE?
Post by: Kybber on August 13, 2007, 11:53:34 pm
You may also want to look into getting a Brisbane CPU instead of a Windsor.
The 4000 Brisbane is only $9 more than the one you've selected. There are
also some newer Windsors that are lower power, usually indicated in the
processor name, such as here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103068).

Less power => less heat => less noise, which is a Very Good Thing(tm) in
a HTPC setup :)