PC Specs for HD SageTVClient

[polen]

I put these spec together last night from http://www.zipzoomfly.com, does this look like a SageTVClient that could watch HDTV at 1080i? For $375 it looks tempting. I wonder if it would work with only 256K and maybe just a single module and also do away with the DVD drive and use a spare CDRom to install Windows or even Linux after installation remove the CDRom.

I would be nice if we could put together a HD SageTVClient for under $300.

-Polen

Title: HTPC
Date: 05/28/06

Asus PUNDIT-AE3 Athlon 64 Barebone System Retail ***Free Shipping*** 1 $114.99
Liteon SHD-16P1S 16X IDE DVD-ROM Drive (Black) ***Free Shipping*** 1 $25.95
Gigabyte GV-N62128DS Geforce 6200 AGP 8X 128MB DDR Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI Retail ***Free Shipping*** 1 $57.99
Western Digital Caviar WD400BB 40GB ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive ***Free Shipping*** 1 $46.00
Kingston KVR333X64C25K2/512 512MB Kit DDR333 PC2700 Memory Retail ***Free Shipping*** 1 $51.00
AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8GHz Socket 754 64-Bit Processor Retail ***Free Shipping*** 1 $77.50

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Subtotal $373.43

[polen]

I just had a good idea. We could remove the DVD and hard drive and bootp the the client from the server. This would bring the cost down to around $300.

[stanger89]

You're going to want a better video card (Geforce 6600GT or better).

And you might want to investigate what's involved in setting up bootp, last I looked it's not cheap.

[polen]

My server is Windows Server 2003, so I'll see what is has. I remember seeing some bootp options under the DHCP service, which I running now. I'll have to install the TFTP servcies too.

I would also probably want to use a slim linux with the linux SageTVClient so that booting over the network wouldn't take an hour. I'll have to look in the SageTV linux forum to see what people are doing for their linux installs.

True bootp would take a steep learning curve and configuration, but if it can be done, it would be a nice quiet client.

-Polen