Rebuilding my Media Center - Looking for Hardware Recommendations

[mightyt]

OK … So, I have waited long enough (since March) with my DOA media center hardware.
I'm having major Sage withdrawals … Especially with a new release available …

Since my box quit, I ...

• Bought a new 50" Panasonic Flat Panel
• Upgraded my Time Warner cable box to HD
• Ordered today - A new "Abit IP35 Pro Motyherboard"
• Also ordered today - "OCZ Reaper HPC edition, DDR2 PC2-6400 800Mhz, 4Gig Dual Channel RAM Kit (2x2Gig) Part #: OCZ2RPR800C44GK"
• Am about to pull the trigger on a "2.4Ghz Core 2 Quad w/G0 Stepping SLACR CPU Part #: BX80562Q6600"

What I plan to put in the box is;

• (1) Existing Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE Dual Tuner
• (2) Existing Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 Tuners
• (1) Existing Sony Blu-Ray DVD Drive
• (2) Existing 1 TB Segate SATA HD’s
• Add a PCI-e Video Card (my old mobo was AGP, but I have a PCI-e card somewhere that will work well enough.)
• Add a new HD Tuner
• Add a cool / quiet Power Supply

I am looking for recommendations on the “HD Tuner” (I know there has already been a lot said on this subject, but am on vacation and looking for the quick hookup while I try and pull this all together before returning to work) ,

More importantly, I am interested in thoughts on “COOL / QUIET” Power Supplies. My last experience with the Antec Phantom was not too great. It lasted under 2 years and zapped my ASUS mother board. It was only 350 watts, but was the only fanless PSU available really being talked up at the time. I see now they are making 500 watt fanless PSU's well with quiet fans that kick in only when needed?? Guess I wasn't the only one with a problem. So, any recommendations here? Looking for very low dBA and as cool as possible ...

Thanks for any help in advance.

[gplasky]

For the tuner I have the HD Homerun. Works very well and sits anywhere on the network.


Gerry

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by gplasky

For the tuner I have the HD Homerun. Works very well and sits anywhere on the network.


Gerry

I'll 2nd this, easy setup, works well. Much easier setup for getting CleanQAM than my m780's turning out to be...

[davephan]

Mightyt,

I had the a same problem, my old Athlon XP 2800+ SageTV computer system board died. I had to revert to my older and slower Althlon XP 1800+ computer, which was too weak to playback AVI files severe without stuttering. I put up with that old system for a few months before building up the fast dual-core SageTV computer.

The Abit IP-35 Pro is an excellent system board! I searched different forums for months before purchasing it. The IP-35 Pro had the fewest number of reported problems. The IP-35 Pro is kind of expensive compared to many system boards, but it is a very nice feature packed system board. I got an E6850 3.0 gig dual-core with the 1066 fsb, instead of a quad-core Q6600 G0. I got 2 - 1 gig Crucial Ballistix 1066 meg memory in case I decide to overclock the computer later. I've heard of many reports from people trying to use 4 gigs memory only actually get about 3.2 memory recognized by the computer. If that happens to you, try modifying the "boot.ini" file by adding a /PAE switch. My system typically consumes about 1 gig memory when running video transcoding. You might not ever need the extra 2 gigs RAM.

Here's a link about the boot.ini /PAE switch:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...AE/PAEmem.mspx

I thought about upgrading to Seagate 1 TB hard drives, but I heard several reports about the Seagate 1 TB hard drive going bad either immediately, or within a few weeks. Maybe you will have better luck. You can run them with RAID with the IP-35 Pro, but it is pretty inefficient to run only two drives with RAID. You waste less disk if you can run 3 or more drives with RAID 5. I am living on borrowed time without running RAID for my video files.

The HDHomerun might be a good choice for you. I don't own one yet, but plan to buy one within several months.


Dave

[mightyt]

Thanks everyone ... I will for sure look in to the HD Homerun!

Dave ... Thanks for the feedback on the Abit motherboard. I heard good things about it also. Especially the overclocking, and I got it for a good deal, $163 at Mwave.com. I'm going with the Quad Core because with my new 50” flat panel (old TV was 26” analog) I will likely do more than I have in the past with my media center … Web, Email, Streaming video, maybe Video Conf. too. Not to mention all the tuners recording. I'm also not sure of the impact of HD recording and playback since this will be my first HD go around. Plus, since I only do this hardware rebuild every several years (unless I have to ) I am trying to squeeze a little more time out of it.

I appreciate the tip on the memory; I will for sure look in to it. I heard about the memory limit before on XP, but thought that was increased with Vista. I am still deciding on whether to stick with XP or go to Vista. I am used to XP, but struggle with another few years of it or doing the OS thing all over again in a year. And I have been running Vista on my other PC’s for the last year. Anyway, I couldn't pass up the 4gb OCZ RAM deal at Newegg for $96! I hear you can overclock these as well.

Oh ... stupid me ... I guess I was wishing my 750gb Segate’s were 1 TB! Don't know why I said that!! Maybe they will last longer than the 1 TB's you mentioned. Actually, I have some in my NAS and they have been fine for a year now. I will also be converting to Wireless-N from G. Depending on how that goes, will determine on whether I try and have Sage record and playback from there too.

I forgot how much there is to consider when rebuilding ... and that doesn’t even include all the Sage customizations I like to add ...

So, I haven't heard from anyone on the PSU ... No Cool and Quiet recommendations for this rig??

[mightyt]

UPDATE ... I decided to go with the Thermaltake ToughPower Cable Management 750w PSU. Fry's has a $50 rebate bringing the cost down to $129.99.

Looks like it will have enough power for all my needs and it has a 14cm fan running virtually silent, 16dBA @ 1300 RPM. Modular cables will help by not having to take up space with cables I don't need and blocking air flow.

It supports SLI and CrossFire ... and MTBF > 120,000 hrs. Most others are rated at 100,000. It also has a 3 year warranty.

Guess we'll see how it goes when all the rest of my parts come in ...

So, is time slowing down or am I getting impatient ... Anybody see UPS and FedEx around??

I'm ready for some ...

Wow! Big Surprise ... Got to Fry's today and was told there was a special and my PSU was on sale for $149.99 plus a $50 rebate. Great Deal for sure ...