So I'm going to be upgrading my PC and have previously just used XP etc. I've used Red Hat at work a little so not completely unfamiliar and daunted with the command line. From the reading I've done so far, looks like mythbuntu, ubuntu or LinuxMCE are at the top of my list.

Here's the hardware that I've bought put not put together yet:
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 BE
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 800MHz 240-pin DDR2 Memory
Hard drive - I'll be recycling one of the drives already in the pc at the moment
I also have a 1.2TB Netgear NAS that I'll want the HTPC to be able to connect to


Will I have any hardware support problems with any of the distros? Or should it be a nice easy install for me?

PS... I was surprised not to see a HowTo sticky on installing the various distros. Guess that's because there's so many out there on other websites?

I wouldn't have chosen the mobo that you did (it's got some serious negative reviews on the newegg web site). You also didn't mention what video card you will be using. Any of the Nvidia based ones (from 5200's to 8600's) will work good for HD video. All of the hardware acceleration, and extra goodies needed for Windows video and game use are not used in Linux, so those features are not important for a Linux only PC (but you do want one that will do 1920 x 1080 resolution at 24-bit color depth, and has DVI/HDMI capability).

You also didn't mention a DVD drive (read & write) - you will need one. You also may or may not need a sound card, depending on what the capabilities of the mobo is.

You shouldn't, in general, have any problems with any of the distros. The ones you listed are just fine. I prefer any of the Ubuntu versions (Debian based), but I'm biased.

The reason there is no "sticky" on installation is that it is well covered via a link on each distro's download page (and the installation is easier, and faster, than Windows XP). The Red Hat version turned me off years ago, due to it's confusing and unnecessarily complex installation procedure. Installing Ubuntu is "like falling off a log" - download the "Live" version of the OS, burn it to a CD-R, boot from the CD, and follow the on-screen instructions. The "Live" CD lets you try the system right from the CD, without actually installing it.

"Integrated ATI Radeon HD3200-based graphics (DX10)"

I would guess that's the video card he's going to use as it's integrated on the motherboard.
Unfortunately, Linux is still not given the same weight as windows when it comes to driver availability. Until we see simultaneous Linux and windows driver releases for new hardware, it's much safer to get older hardware that is known to work and leave the new stuff until drivers are known to exist for it or the unheralded manage to do the work the manufacturers should be doing.

Generally, when it comes to graphics, the order for driver support from the manufacturers is (from what I've read) Intel, nVidia then AMD. Intel has been good in releasing it's open source drivers, nvidia seem to maintain a decent binary and AMD have, until recently, not done much at all. It is getting better with AMD, I think they've realized that they might need to tap into the Linux market to try and scrape back some of the outlay they made on ATI.

From my limited searching, Phoronix seems to be a good place to get Linux hardware news and reviews:-
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=home

Thanks for the replies guys!

Yes, amdavies is right to say that I was going to use the onboard video of the mobo. From all the reviews I read (admittedly using Windows) gave it great reviews and to be quite honest, using Linux was an after-thought!

I was hoping to use the HDMI video for the time being to pipe video and audio to my Mitsu 46" LCD HDTV (1920x1080) and SPDIF to my Emotiva LMC1 Pre/Pro then at a later date when the new Emotiva UMC1 with full HDMI support comes out, go from HTPC to Emotiva then to TV all using HDMI. From the comments of you two, I guess that I may struggle to do that because of the driver support.

I guess I may have to stick with windows for a bit longer after all! :-(

The ATI driver download page (http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html) lists the Radeon HD 3xxx Series as being supported.

I would ditto what CT said about distros in relation to hardware although all of the distros you mentioned are basically ubuntu/debian of the choices you listed and if a dedicated HTPC is what you are after I would recommend mythbuntu, I personally think it would be easier to install gnome (ubuntu) or kde (kubuntu) on mythbuntu than installing a Myth setup on either.

LinuxMCE
In a year might be my choice

It is a matter of personal preference and need. I use mythbuntu for my Myth backend and am planning on using it for a dedicated frontend (replace my youngest daughter's TV/DVD) this is because the ease of setup and the it just works factor outweigh my comfort/experience/likes.

For my main Desktop (work and home) I use Sabayon which works well as a Myth frontend, but I would not recommend setting it up to someone unfamiliar with Gentoo/Sabayon and I have not attempted a backend (see ease of setup above).

My first Mythbox was Mythdora which works and if you are comfortable with Redhat you may want to look into it, from my experience at work (we have one Redhat server and one Centos(free Redhat) server both were "required" by the application vendor), My personal opinion is that if Redhat was the only nix flavor I'd run Windows.

As a backend or server in general I would prefer FreeBSD, but I don't have the time to get it working for Myth, but I am sure like all our servers once running it would be rock solid. Hardware support and Linux application support is only about 80-90%, Ironically the Mac forum may be better suited for this wish (if apple did not make it harder for someone who knows what they are doing to do something) .

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that the HD processing part of the ATI chips (UVD) is not fully supported under Linux.
Most MythTV integrated systems that I see are running nvidia 6100/6150 chipsets.

It might be worth buying a small hard drive and installing your favourite flavour of Linux on there to check your system. If you keep it to a separate drive, then there's less chance of corruption. Some new BIOS allow you to pick a physical hard drive to boot from as an option upon startup, rather than having to hope the OS boot menu works.

I'm sure that Linux will get around to supporting the 780G, what it really needs to push it along is for a big company to bring out MythTV based products. Could you imagine the support that would arise if, say, Sony pushed MythTV as their back-end of choice for the PS3 ?