Looking for upgrades to my Shuttle

[Franc]

Hi,

I'm using a Shuttle SN41G2V2 as my Sage Server.
It's got 512MB of which 128MB is used by the internal video card.
It has 2 VGA out and a TV out and the TV out is what I have my TV connected to.
Some 120GB Hard drive (don't know brand or type).
Just got a Hauppauge 500MCE which I'm loving very much with its 2 tuners

I'm looking for more and more silent storage. The current HD makes a lot of noise spinning and slowing down. And of course 120GB isn't a whole lot when you got Sage filling it up with MPEGs
Don't want to spend an arm an a leg, but I figure I could do with 300GB and a quiet HD. The Shuttle has IDE ATA 133
I'm not sure if it actually runs at 133 because of the DVD burner that's also connected to it.
What would be a nice HD to use?

I also have a feeling I could have better TV image with a good AGP card. The slot supports 8x/4x 1.5V.
Any suggestions here?

Thanks,

Franc.

[dagar]

What version PSU do you have? Check to see that you have the latest available from Shuttle. I did an upgrade to an SN41g2v1 and was a great help; a bit quieter, much much cooler. Worth the 70 bucks or so; got it from ewiz.com

What is the best available input for your TV? If SVideo I'd say just upgrade to either a passive 6200 or 5200 that has the correct output(s). That'll free up system ram and also improve your PQ and performance a tad (YMMV).

To avoid pagefile trash XP typically likes to have >=768mb of DRAM so doing the GPU upgrade would help.

I would NOT stuff another HDD in that tiny oven! Go external or replace what you have.