Final decision on Hardware...Finally!!!

[comptechltd]

Well I took the plunge and hope to soon be another satisfied Sage TV user. After grueling for some time and asking numerous stupid questions in this forum I finally purchased the components for my PVR system. This will be a dedicated system and not used for anything else.

*PVR-350 -really debated over the 250 or the 350 but decided the 350 may offer more verstility.

*Intel Celeron 1.7 Ghz (478) - Thought about the P4 but thought this would provide adequate results and run cooler.

*Micro-ATX motherboard (Microstar MS-6534 )

*Micro-ATX case (AST Surplus) - Seemed to offer more versatility than mini-itx

*GForce FX5200 With 128Mb RAM

*Pioneer DVD-115

*I already have 512 MB PC133 RAM and a 20 GB Hard Drive. I'll upgrade the drive later to a bigger one.

All for about $350

Any body care to comment on what kind of performance I should expect or anything else I should get??


Thanks,

Steve

[Narflex]

You should be rocking quite well with that setup.

[fidget]

Don't forget to reformet the hard drive to use 64K blocks.

[comptechltd]

I am not familiar with that...I had planned on using WinXP Pro and NTFS. What else should I do?


Steve

[fidget]

I have an OEM version of XP, so have a CD called "OEM Preinstallation Kit" that basically boots to a DOS prompt. From there, I can do a "FORMAT *: /FS:NTFS /A:64K". If you have an XP machine, you can connect the hard drive as a slave (or put it on the secondary IDE controller) and format it there.

Using 64K blocks is suppose to eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) fragmentation problems with the hard disk.
- Jonathan

[comptechltd]

Using 64K blocks is suppose to eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) fragmentation problems with the hard disk.

Hmmmm.....Thanks Fidget, I was not aware of that. I'll do it when I put it all together.

Steve

[justme]

Please tell use how it all works out. You know sound, heat, etc.

I'm slowly trying to gather all the parts for my box. I plan on almost identical specs to yours. Except a G400 dualhead videocard and a PVR250. Like you I have the memory. As for the hard drive, I plan to take one of the 2 80GB drives out of my main box and put it in the HTPC. I'll put a new 250GB or 120GB HD in my main box to cover the loss of the 80GB.

Best of luck. I'm sure you'll love it.