Minimum requirements - encoding only

[Berg]

Hello,

I have a quick question.

I have read through the system minimum requirements on the Web site,but was wondering ...

If I am using an older machine only to run SageTV, record, using a PVR 250 tuner/encoder, BUT NOT DECODE/VIEW recorded files, can I use a processor below the minimum requirements ?

Is anyone running systems below the PIII 733 minimum ?

I was kind of thinking that the PIII 733 was really required to view decode live TV/recorded files.

I have a couple of older PII 400/500 machines that could be used as SageTV servers, cheaply and providing redundancy.

Any thoughts ?

[Narflex]

If you're only using it as a server, then the minimum processor requirements are essentially anything that'll run Windows, DirectX8 and the latest version of Java. (it does need at least 128MB RAM).

For example, Win2K only needs a 133MHz pentium. For Java, it's a 166MHz pentium processor. DirectX8 should work on any install of Win98SE or higher. And the Hauppauge driver should work fine with any install of DirectX8 or higher.

So I'd be willing to say you could get a SageTV Server running on a Pentium 166 using Win2K, and probably experience minimal (if any) performance issues.

[jimbobuk]

surely network card usage will be significant.. i've been debating over an EPIA M 933mhz based system and as i've posted and asked I was concerned about using it as a server.. namely as the toms hardware review claimed that network usage with onboard controller and seperate card (not an option as the one PCI riser would house the PVR card) was around 50% CPU usage.. i guess it could be particularly bad.. but even so at that clock speed, bad FPU or not its got to be night and day between it and a 200mhz machine...

Maybe it isn't great drivers for the network hardware... great that Sage could function on a low spec machine.. I'll be trying a 450mhz PIII this weekend to test networking and see if my card is uber hot in a seperate machine in full usage...

[Berg]

Thanks Jeffrey and jimbobuk

Let us know how you make out with a PIII 450.

I have a PIII 400 with 256 of RAM that I would consider using as a PVR server. Schedule, record and server only. The viewing would happen on another machine. (If you have seen my other thread, you will see where I'm going.)

Imagine once you guys have a Web interface to take care of scheduling, that would be the cat's meow. (A little joke for Jeff ;-)

I'll have to look up the Tom's Hardware review. Was it on Sage or on the PVR 250/350 board, or on both ?

Thanks again.

[Narflex]

I'm not sure what this high CPU usage during network usage you're referring to is. I've never heard of that before. Can you point me to where you found that?

[tachi]

I'm pretty sure he's referring to the "Compact All-Rounders: VIA's Eden Mini ITX Format Boards " article. More specifically this page:
CPU Load: Network Data Transfer (http://www17.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030326/mini_itx-10.html)