Need Opinion on HD Hardware Upgrade

[Radar]

I'm having trouble deciding what to do, and was hoping for some help. I've been running SageTV for several years now on an AMD 1ghz with 512mb ram, Hauppauge 150 and 250. Now I'm looking at moving up to HD as I got this nice 50" 1080p TV.

My options are:

1. Upgrade that machine with a faster CPU (might need a new mobo), more RAM, and a Hauppauge 1600
2. Combine my Sage server into my desktop, connect to the TV with an HD extender, and drop the PC sitting under the TV. The current specs of my desktop are AMD 3000+ 1.8ghz, 1gb ram, and ATI x800 video. I'd likely upgrade the CPU and ram.

If I combine them into one, I also want to use the machine for gaming, so I'm not sure if that's a good idea from a stability and power point of view.

Any thoughts on which route I should go?

[kevine]

Leave your server as is except get a HDHomeRun instead of a 1600. Wait for the HD extender to come out for your HD experience.

It looks like you have the SD covered with your existing cards. HDHR will give you 2 HD recording tuners capable as opposed to 1 for the 1600. Yes, it is twice the money but you were going to upgrade your server anyway... I have both and have nothing but problems using QAM and the 1600. Others have had success. However, I do not know of a HDHR user that was not eventually happy with the purchase. Good support too. If I could go back I would have bought 2 HDHRs.

Many people have problems getting clients and/or servers to get stutter free playback in HD. The new extender is supposed to solve all of that. Unknown cost but is worth waiting. You'll probably save your self a lot of time and probably some money.

What I would do is wait for all and watch SD for another month.

[Radar]

Thinking more the HD extender likely won't be feasible for me at the moment as the TV is in a different from from my desktop, and my wireless network can barely handle streaming SD let alone HD to an extender.

The HDHR does sound better, so I'll add that to the list, especially since the sale at CompUSA on the 1600 ended yesterday.

So, looks like keep having 2 seperate machines. I have a feeling that the 1ghz cpu and 512gb ram won't cut it for HD, so I might have to bump up those and hope the 300w power supply can handle them. Thanks for the feedback!