Should Move SageTv to new GA-MA78GM-S2H or not.

[davefred99]

I need to retire my old P3 Desktop PC that I use for everyday stuff like emails and internet + business stuff like Office & Quicken mostly. I do use it for some lite HPTC stuff too like ripping DVD's and playing music with iTunes for windows.

Here is my delema, I have had SageTv running on an AMD XP-m(@2.2ghz) Abit NF7-s Mobo for about 2 yrs now and it workes just fine mostly because I also have an HD-100 extender for my main theater viewing plus a spare Haupage MVP for my office TV. The only issue is occaisionaly I want to watch HD stuff via the MVP and my current server has trouble transcoding at good rates for HD. Eventualy I will get another HD-100 but not now.

My choices are to Upgrade my old P3 desktop with the new GA-MA78GM-S2H & 4850e cpu and also use it as a client for better HD performance and move my MVP to my bedroom STD tv which also has a DTV dvr anyways but I could then watch DVD's off the server too.
OR
Choice two would be update the old pc as above but instead move SageTv to the newest setup and then use the old SageTV server setup as my basic desktop pc. Either way I would be upgrading the Desktop performance. I am just not sure what would be the mos prudent path to take.

Any suggestions would be much apreciated.
Dave

[mayamaniac]

Choice 1 is better. Choice 2 might not work because I'm not sure if your AMD machine is fast enough to playback HD smoothly. You can test it out and see how it performs. But when budget allows, get the HD extender.

[davefred99]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Choice 1 is better. Choice 2 might not work because I'm not sure if your AMD machine is fast enough to playback HD smoothly. You can test it out and see how it performs. But when budget allows, get the HD extender.

Prior to getting the HD-100 extender I used this machine to playback HD and it played back mostly ok. I did get an occasional hiccup but not severe. However extended HD playback does cause the system to get pretty warm mostly because the GS-7600 video card is a silent one and has no fans. Also a contributing factor is that I have my cpu clocked to 2.2ghz . I am considering turning it down a notch or 2. I might even try setting the cpu voltage a little lower since it is an XP-m 2400 cpu and was originally made to run on lower voltages than say a true 3200 chip as I have it setup now. The Sage server has for the most part been trouble free used as a server only. I do have to occasionally reboot it mostly to get updates and to do routine maintainance though.