[vdr] Re: Allwell Set-Top-Box ordering

["Andreas Mixich" <sp.amix@gmx.net>]

Steffen Koch wrote in a Mail about "[vdr] Re: Allwell Set-Top-Box
ordering":

> The problem with the allwell products is, that they have only 2 pci
> slots which are horizontally aligned. not to good for the rev1.3 card
> because of the heat...
> If this wasn't the case I would buy one instantly.


IMO the Allwell do not make good for a complete VDR replacement. They
should be used as network-clients, not as DVB-servers.

The small room in the case has even more disadvanteges, that for me are
important:

Only one external 5 1/4" drive. But I want a DVD-ROM and a CDRW. Makes two.
Only one HDD. I want at least two 80GB HDDs or even larger. Only this way I
get a nice library of media, as long I do not install a seperate
file-server, but why should I do this at home ?!

The CPU of the Allwell boxes might be okay for everyday's use, but a
system, thats main purpose is to deal with media streams I want to have as
much power as possible so I can encode MPEG4 and others as fast as
possible. Means P4 to me ;-)

So, one VDR box as a central server, conected over 100MBit to the clients
in the rest of your appartment. For the server there is a very nice case,
but it not really leaves option for a display and is rather expensive. It
also requires uATX mobos, thus having only 3xPCI.

It is an alu-case from Coolermaster: ATX-600 or so.


Good bye,
-- 
Andreas 
<sp.amix@gmx.net>