Suggestions Please

[ck346]

I have played around with the mix of different options, DVD recorders, Tivo, Cable DVR's, VMC, WMC, BTV, Myth, and Sage. I like Sage the best.

I have a couple questions as I am trying to decide on my installation.

I am planning on using a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE for 2 analog feeds
plus a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 or 1600 for OTA digital and a 3rd analog feed.

I want to use the Sage HD extender as soon as its back in stock.




Option 1 (My favorite but not sure if it would be strong enough)

Windows Home Server
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
Intel E2160 1.8GHZ Dual core
Integrated video
2 GB Ram
Multiple Hard Drives


Option 2 (will use but prefer not to as I game on this machine)

Windows Vista
Gigabyte 955P-DS3
E6400
7900GS (soon to be 9600GT)
2 GB Ram

Option 3 ( Probably ok for SD but I am guessing to weak for HD)
( This is backup, Test machine, Linux and the sort)

Windows XP or Vista
Abit IS7-V
P4 2.4 GHZ 400FSB
7600GT or some other AGP card I have laying around
2 GB Ram








I have about 2 TB of Movies ripped via TS which Sage seems to play very well. Does the Sage HD Extender play these back ok?

Also I have read some people say using a Harddrive per tuner helps, any suggestions on that?

I have been reading threads for a while here, but my first post.

Thanks for any help
Craig

[inlvnv]

Originally Posted by ck346

Option 1 (My favorite but not sure if it would be strong enough)

Windows Home Server
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
Intel E2160 1.8GHZ Dual core
Integrated video
2 GB Ram
Multiple Hard Drives

I have WHS setup. One thing I see you should consider is getting a motherboard that has win2003 drivers/compatible, as WHS is based on that OS. Also, should get a case that has enough drivebays for future expansion.

Ripped DVDs play fine through HD-100. Waiting for it to be back in stock is the hardest part.

[ck346]

Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L board luckly has 2003 Server drivers. I have been running 2003 server for a little while then up or down graded, however you look at it to Windows Home Server. I have been thinking about it a little more and noticed the Q6600 price will be dropping in another month or so, so if the E2160 doesn't cut it I could upgrade to that.

I am hoping to be able to record 3 SD and 1 OTA shows at 1 time while in long term being able to us 2 HD streamers to watch different shows at once. I am going to start simple though with 1 HD streamer I beleive.

It would be nice with the WHS not to have to tie up another computer or use the elec power.

[paulbeers]

If all this machine is doing is acting as a Sage Server serving up to an HD Extender, you might be able to get away with even the P4 2.4Ghz since all your server will do is handle I/O with very little processor intensive tasks (All it really will do is record the HD and SD streams to the hard drive and then pass them to the HD Extender). This really doesn't take a lot of horsepower. Most of us have built our servers back when the only option were the MediaMVP's, and any HD content you played on this, had to be transcoded on the fly which took some serious horsepower.

[inlvnv]

Originally Posted by ck346

Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L board luckly has 2003 Server drivers. I have been running 2003 server for a little while then up or down graded, however you look at it to Windows Home Server. I have been thinking about it a little more and noticed the Q6600 price will be dropping in another month or so, so if the E2160 doesn't cut it I could upgrade to that.

I am hoping to be able to record 3 SD and 1 OTA shows at 1 time while in long term being able to us 2 HD streamers to watch different shows at once. I am going to start simple though with 1 HD streamer I beleive.

It would be nice with the WHS not to have to tie up another computer or use the elec power.

Gigabyte site listed that mb has having vista/xp drivers only, so that was a suggestion. Otherwise, I'm guessing the specs you listed in your WHS setup(option 1) should be fine to start out. Certainly, faster CPU will be better.

Just to see what mine was capable of, I just tried recording an HD and SD programs and watching an HD and SD recorded programs at the same time. These were coming off of my non-pooled recording drive that is connected to a USB port. Smooth playback on my wireless laptop. I have 802.11n setup. I have an AMD 3800+ cpu in my WHS, which is 2.0 ghz cpu, and it is not overworking at all when recording and playing back these HD and SD programs. At the same time I was also streaming 2 movies (on the right of screen shot) and another to an iMac and HD-100 extender from my WHS pooled drives. I included a screen shot of my WHS task manager showing CPU usage. My specs are in my signature.

[ck346]

Looks very good. Now trying to find the HD extender in stock.

When I bought the gigabyte motherboard I was concerned also because it said XP/Vista but in the downloads section of the site they have 2003 server drivers for this board luckily.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.


Craig