Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Dev

CPU Advice

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jeff at cloud9

Jan 18, 2003, 6:23 PM

Post #1 of 5 (1224 views)
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CPU Advice

After weeks of browsing the mailing list and the mythtv website I
finally decided to put together a system and check it out. I just
ordered a Shuttle SS50 barebones kit primarily due to the small
footprint and 1394 connections. My main concern at this point is heat
as the case is quite cramped.

From what I have read, the Northwood core is the way to go for less
heat. I would suspect that a Celeron emits less heat than a Pentium 4,
so that seems to make the most sense as far as heat goes.
Performance-wise, I know the Pentium 4 would be the better choice.

I plan on using the live TV features of myth, and want the best quality
video/audio possible. I also want to use mplayer to watch videos I
already have, and use my firewire burner to make VCDs. Will a 2GHz
Celeron handle this really well? How important is the amount of L2
cache for myth (128 KB vs 512 KB)? Am I being overly paranoid about
heat with the SS50?

Much thanks in advance!

Jeff

petecool at vl

Jan 18, 2003, 6:38 PM

Post #2 of 5 (1224 views)
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Re: CPU Advice [In reply to]

The 2Ghz Celeron is much slower than the 2Ghz P4 (the P4 architecture need
LOADS of memory accesses to do its job well, the 4 times small cache does
have an effect - a big one) The results are consistent from hardware review
website to another: the P4 Celeron is slow, much slower than the Northwood.

The heat difference (if there is any) is NOT worth the performance loss.

Don't worry, the SS50 can handle that heat very well, it can take a 2.8 Ghz
P4 without problems, so a "measly" 2 Ghz is well below that.

Pete

ecc at cmu

Jan 18, 2003, 9:09 PM

Post #3 of 5 (1158 views)
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Re: CPU Advice [In reply to]

On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 08:23:48PM -0500, Jeff McDonald wrote:

> I just ordered a Shuttle SS50 barebones kit primarily due to the
> small footprint and 1394 connections. My main concern at this point
> is heat as the case is quite cramped.

I am using an SS50 with a 2.4GHz P4. Performance is excellent, but
it's hot enough to keep the fan on all the time (or maybe I don't have
the temperature-sensing fan stuff set up correctly). In any case,
I find it too noisy to put in an otherwise quiet room.

The SS51 looks attractive because it uses a heat pump, but note that
it trades a PCI slot for an AGP slot. In my setup, that would be a
negative (no second tuner or wireless Ethernet NIC).

--
Eric C. Cooper e c c @ c m u . e d u

joe at joestump

Jan 19, 2003, 9:51 AM

Post #4 of 5 (1191 views)
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Re: CPU Advice [In reply to]

A simple offlist question: What wireless nic are you using?

Thanks!

--Joe

On Saturday, January 18, 2003, at 11:09 PM, Eric C. Cooper wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 08:23:48PM -0500, Jeff McDonald wrote:
>
>> I just ordered a Shuttle SS50 barebones kit primarily due to the
>> small footprint and 1394 connections. My main concern at this point
>> is heat as the case is quite cramped.
>
> I am using an SS50 with a 2.4GHz P4. Performance is excellent, but
> it's hot enough to keep the fan on all the time (or maybe I don't have
> the temperature-sensing fan stuff set up correctly). In any case,
> I find it too noisy to put in an otherwise quiet room.
>
> The SS51 looks attractive because it uses a heat pump, but note that
> it trades a PCI slot for an AGP slot. In my setup, that would be a
> negative (no second tuner or wireless Ethernet NIC).
>
> --
> Eric C. Cooper e c c @ c m u . e d u
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev [at] snowman
> http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>
>
>
--
Joe Stump - joe [at] joestump
http://www.jerum.com
"Software never has bugs. It just develops random features."

ecc at cmu

Jan 19, 2003, 12:12 PM

Post #5 of 5 (1201 views)
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Re: CPU Advice [In reply to]

On Sun, Jan 19, 2003 at 11:51:33AM -0500, Joseph Stump wrote:
> A simple offlist question: What wireless nic are you using?

Since the question went to the whole list, I'll answer here, too. :-)

I have an ActionTec PCI 750 in one of the PCI slots, which provides 2
PC Card slots via a 3.25" front bay. I've had no problems with either
Orinoco or Linksys 802.11b PCMCIA cards.

--
Eric C. Cooper e c c @ c m u . e d u

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