Need Suggestions For New Client Build

[nwboater]

I'm considering building a new Client. All media is served from our WHS machine that also has the HD PVR on it. When we start doing Comskip it will be done on the Server The PC is only used for HTPC duties. Audio will go to an onboard soundcard, thus HDMI is not needed for audio. It will have a DVD burner and a Blue Ray drive.

I'll probably use our 8400GS video card from our existing XP Client. It is now doing a pretty good job: The card, that is. I probably will use an Antec 300 case like we used for the server. It's cheap, has good cooling and lots of room. Low power is not a real concern. Excellent video quality is.

The area that I'm fuzziest on is the CPU power required. In this application is there anything that a quad core would do for us that a dual core wouldn't? I'm leaning towards AMD cause of price and it worked well for us in our server build. I want to be somewhat future proof but also want to keep costs as low as possible.

Also does 4 GB of Ram do much over 2? It seems a 500 GB HD should be quite sufficient.

Any suggestion for CPU and MOBO (MicroATX) would sure be appreciated as well as any other ideas.

Thanks very much.

Rod

[Spectrum]

If you are only going to be using this as a Sage client give an HD300 serious consideration; there are a lot of benefits. If you want it to double duty for other things as well then by all means setup a PC client. As far as CPU requirements, any modern dualcore or higher will work fine for Sage and HD playback. Going with 4 or 6 cores you could always set up SJQ and let the client in on comskipping duty The i3's and i5's give a lot of bang but I think they are still a little pricey? Memory wise, Sage and associated things will probably be fine with 2GB of RAM but you may want more depending on what else the client would be doing.

[wado1971]

My main client is an Atom 330 CPU and works fine for all SageTV tasks (when coupled with the right video card). I wouldn't suggest the Atoms unless your goal is a small form factor but that should give you an idea on how much CPU you really need for SageTV - very little.
In my opinion, a dedicated client build shouldn't cost more that ~$250.

Why the 500GB drive in the client - put that in the server and get a cheap 40-80GB drive for the client. What else are you planning to put on the client?

2GB RAM should be a minimum.

I would suggest windows 7 - codecs are easier to configure.

[nwboater]

Spectrum & Wado1971,

Thanks very much for the responses. I have an extra HD200 but want to use a PC for the better HD audio it will allow. And this Client will only be for HTPC duties.

Interesting thought on sharing Comskip duties with the Client. I didn't realize that could be split between Server and Client. The server is on 24/7 whereas the Client is only on when we are using it for media. With a quad core would you run Comskip on the Client while passing HD through?

So if it's not used for anything but Client duties sounds like 2 GB is adequate. If I share Comskip duties should I go to 4 GB?

Don't know why I came up with 500GB for the hard drive, except that they are so cheap now. Glad to hear that 80 would be adequate.

I'll definitely put Win 7 on it. I have just ordered Win 7 for the old XP Client, but if I build the new one it will go there.

Also glad to hear that a Client could be built for around $250. I'm surprised it can be done that cheaply!

Thanks for your suggestions.

Rod

[nwboater]

So How's this for a plan? IF quad core really helps for Comskip, I could take our old AMD Athlon II X2 240 out of the server and put it in the new client. Then get a new quad core for the server. Do all Comskip in the server, ie, no sharing of duties with the Client. Make any sense?

Thanks,
Rod

[Spectrum]

Quad helps for comskip in the sense that you can run comskip on more things at once without bogging the system down. Comskip is not multithreaded so if you are only running 1 instance at a time and have no need to run more than quad really won't help. If you can upgrade the server and use it's CPU for the client, that sounds like the way to go.

[nwboater]

I thought putting the quad in the server would be a good idea but then I got to looking at power consumption. The dual core that's there now is 65 watts and the new Athlon II 630 or 635 I'll be getting is 95 watts. Since the server is on 24/7 I'm hesitant to increase power that much. I know that idle draw is much less, but I would think that the differences in the two would be somewhat proportionate.

Since the Client will only be on for a few hours a day and I hope that I will be able to share Comskip duties on the Client I'm going to put the quad in the Client. They have come down so much in price that it's worth a try. Hopefully with this kind of power we'll be able to watch something in HD and do some Comskip at the same time with no loss of picture quality.

Also our server has been running so great I hate to even open it up!

Make sense?

Thanks,
Rod