Arch as an HTPC: what minimums do I need computer-power-wise?

sajro · 2008-05-27 17:56:37

Hey fellow Archers,

I'm thinking of taking a box I got for free and turning it into an HTPC for my movies, music, and TV (along with possibly a free-to-air broadcast catcher). I do, however, think it may be a bit underpowered.

It's a Gateway FLEXATXSTC BRO 300SE. I think it has an ~800MHZ PIII and it currently has 128MB of PC100 SDRAM. I think I'll need to upgrade this to around 512MB, correct? I'll also need a way to plug the video into a standard VGA port on a TV (you know, white, red, yellow plug-ins) and a cable adapter card, along with a free-to-air adapter, both of which play nice with Linux and with helpful software to go with them. Possibly using a USB IR dongle (or a gutted IR receiver from an old computer) with a universal remote control? Is that possible to program it to control video/audio (likely MythTV)? I'd appreciate any recommendation/links on the subjects of this paragraph.

As for the UI, I'm thinking Openbox with (maybe) idesk. Probably MythTV for the set-up; if not, probably mpd for music and mplayer for video. Any thoughts here?

Thanks in advance!
sajro

Last edited by sajro (2008-05-27 19:45:59)

fukawi2 · 2008-05-27 23:44:34

Depends what kind of quality you want to record at... High-def stereo recording will need a lot more processing power and disk i/o + space than recording a low-quality stream.

I remember looking in to it at one stage, and I found a good website that gave approximate requirements for each recording quality options. I can't find it right now (at work) but a Google or the MythTV website should find it for you...

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-27 17:56:37

Arch as an HTPC: what minimums do I need computer-power-wise?

#2 2008-05-27 23:44:34

Re: Arch as an HTPC: what minimums do I need computer-power-wise?

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