Rebuild my HTPC or start fresh?

[coppit]

Hi all,

I'm moving my older SD setup to OTA HD. I'll be displaying on a 720p projector. I plan on storing recordings locally, possibly converting and archiving recordings on another computer on my GB ethernet network. Here's my current setup:

• AMD Athlon XP 2000+
• Asus A7N8X (nforce2 with on-board S/PDIF)
• 1GB DDR memory
• ATI Radeon 9000
• VBox USB ATSC capture box
• 150GB and 250GB drives
• USB-UIRT
• ATech Fabrication "heatsink" case
  

It's clear that I need to upgrade my video card, and possibly my CPU too. I'm worried about upgrading the video card to something like a GeForce 7300 GT that has 8x AGP when my motherboard only supports 4x. Will I have to upgrade my motherboard, then my memory?

At some point I have to wonder if I should ditch the old system and get a new one. What do you all think? I bought the VBox USB thinking I might get a Mac Mini and external hard drive when Apple upgrades the Minis to Core 2 Duo. I'd install Windows on it using Boot Camp and use my USB-UIRT until they add drivers for the on-board IR. Given reports on the forums that a Mini can handle HD, $700-$800 (depending on the Core 2 Duo) is pretty compelling.

I also was looking hard at a Shuttle x200. It uses the same onboard graphics as the Mini, so should be able to handle HD as well. The x200 can be had now for around $1200, although I'm not sure what you get over a Mini besides a card reader.

Of course, I could also start all over, keeping my case and gutting it.

[blade]

I'm in a similar situation. I'm using a XP-2400M on an Nforce2 board with a Nvidia 6200. CPU usage with HD content is only 24-60% depending on the type of content so your cpu would probably be ok with a good graphics card.

Are you certain your board isn't capable of 8x? I thought it was. Either way it shouldn't matter.

Instead of upgrading I'm waiting on the new HD extender. It's supposed to be released in Q2 and last I saw it was going to be around $180. If it were me and I could wait I'd turn the existing hardware into a dedicated server and pick up a HD extender when it's available.

[naln]

depends on what you want do with it- if you plan to hook up a couple of clients, placeshifter, MVPs etc- you should probably upgrade to a better processor....and the whole nine yards....

If you only want to have a small server with a client, you should be fine as long as you get some kind of SATA HDs for I/O speeds. HD on IDE will not be troublefree in my experience-

I run a XP2100+ with 512 MB 266MHz Ram, PCI SATA Raid, PVR 250, PVR150, Aver Media M180 OTA HD without too many problems (1 client only- no MVPs or place shifter). HD watching on the client system is decent- dont have a good enough graphics card on the main server due to power supply issues....but something like a 6600 Gt should do fine.

Another possible route is using SigmaDesigns Xcard- not sure of the resolution outputs supported- but you should check that up....but given the compatibility issues I have had to face with Xcard and mobo/PCI-IRQ config and conflicts- I would recommend the graphics card route.

Hope this helps.

[blade]

Originally Posted by naln

If you only want to have a small server with a client, you should be fine as long as you get some kind of SATA HDs for I/O speeds. HD on IDE will not be troublefree in my experience

My experience has been much different. I have two ata 100 drives that I use for recording directories and have no problems capturing 2 HD shows, 2 SD shows, streaming to 2 clients, and processing all 4 shows as they record. I do that several times a week without a hitch.

A 15Mbps HD stream is only around 1.875MB/sec. I don't see how throughput should be an issue.

[naln]

I tried the HD on the setup I described earlier- minus the SATA...had stuttering and A/V problems- specially with multiple recordings at the same time.
Moved to a SATA- raid setup and things were normal....but I guess its best to make the move only when required.

[coppit]

I just tried putting in a SATA drive and my GeForce 6800GT from my gaming rig and still had problems. I guess my issue must lie elsewhere.

[coppit]

I found a pretty decent solution... I set my machine to overlay, and now just use it as a client. I use my big gaming rig (named "Juggernaut" ) as a SageTV server. My old SD SageTV Server makes a pretty good HD SageTV client, provided I use overlay instead of VMR9.

Before I was worried about spreading out my system and the instability that might cause, but things seem to be working pretty well.