New Build - Looking for Ideas/Help

[peternm22]

It's been a few years since I built a new PC (current system is an Athlon64 3000+), so any help or insight would be appreciated.

This is going to be a multi use system like my current machine is: SageTV Server and general use (surfing, videos, light gaming). I'll be using comskip and would like to transcode videos as well. Power efficient, quiet (near silent if possible) and expandability are what I'm after. Spec list:

Case: Antec Fusion Max
-Lots of internal drive bays for future expandability since I will be storing video on the system, enough space to hold large CPU coolers. Room to put a full ATX motherboard in down the line if I want to upgrade.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
-Good on board graphics, eSata, HDMI, GBLan... everything I need.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 905E
-Low TDP for a quad core (65w)

CPU Coolor: Scythe Mugen 2
-Suppose to be very quiet. Very large, not sure it something this big would be needed for a 65w CPU.

OS Drive: Intel X25-M 80GB
-Fast, fast, fast. Looking forward to this from what I've read.

Storage Drive: Western Digital WD15EARS
-According to Silent PC Review is suppose be one of the quietest 3.5" drives.
-I've been using 2x250GB drives for a few years, so the 1.5TB should be enough space to get started with.

PSU: Seasonic X650
-Super cool, quiet, and crazy efficient. May be overkill, but if I start adding more hard drives in the future or a better graphics card it could come in handy. Fan doesn't spin at all under low loads.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
-I've read a few posts on the forums and seems like 64bit would be the way to go for a new machine. Any reason to go for 32bit? I'll probably be getting an OEM disk, so I won't have the option of switching (like I would if I got the retail package)

TV Tuner: Hauppauge 2250
Will be using this in addition to a R5000 that I already own.

Any recommendations or suggestions for the above build? I'm open to suggestions or alternatives to pretty much anything on the list, it's not written in stone yet

Thanks!

-Peter

[davephan]

I'd recommend building the new system as a headless server instead of using it as a SageTV/gaming computer, and use HD-200 extenders. A dual core is a minimum, but a quad core is much better. If you're going to be doing Comskip processing and video compression, go for the quad core.

When you change your computer from a multi-use computer to a dedicated SageTV computer, the reliability increases. I started out with a single core multi-use SageTV computer, the move to a headless SageTV was a big improvement. I also offloaded the Comskip / SJQ client task to another quad-core 3.06 gig i-7 computer, which improved the SageTV's performance quite a bit.

The system board you mentioned doesn't have many PCI-e slots, if you want to had more PCI-e cards in the future.

Are you protecting your OS/programs drive and video drives from failure? I image my OS/programs drive, so I can recover it easily and the video drives are setup in RAID 1 pairs. I would have lost video files when a hard drive failed after a week of operation. Fortunately it was in a RAID 1 pair, and the data was not lost. Some system boards include RAID, but those system boards are more expensive. You could also use file copying to protect the video files.

Dave

[peternm22]

Thanks for the reply.

I'd recommend building the new system as a headless server instead of using it as a SageTV/gaming computer, and use HD-200 extenders.

There are a few reasons why I'm not going the headless route. I seriously considered it, but it's not for me at this time. My current computer is a multi use Sage server and regular PC (I use the HD100 as my primary client, but also placeshifter and an occasionally used network client), and it has worked well for me for quite some time. Also, the cost of getting 2 new PC's (a Sage server, and regular PC) doesn't really appeal to me. Also, the space considerations for an addition PC running (and addition power needs). The way I look at it, is I can always add another computer down the road if the current plan doesn't workout. This way I'm not spending as much money up front.

The system board you mentioned doesn't have many PCI-e slots, if you want to had more PCI-e cards in the future.

I thought of this as well. My current system is a full ATX board with 5 PCI slots, and I've only ever used 2 of them (2 PVR-250's). So I figured I didn't need to splurge on something more this time around.

Are you protecting your OS/programs drive and video drives from failure? I image my OS/programs drive, so I can recover it easily and the video drives are setup in RAID 1 pairs. I would have lost video files when a hard drive failed after a week of operation. Fortunately it was in a RAID 1 pair, and the data was not lost. Some system boards include RAID, but those system boards are more expensive. You could also use file copying to protect the video files.

Your posts in the past about system imaging actually inspired me to set it up. I use Macrium Reflect (the pro version), and backup to an external USB drive everyday (full system image on Monday, incremental images Tues-Sun). Raid is probably a bit more than I'm interested in getting into at this point.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[davephan]

It's good to see that you are using imaging. I have recovered by SageTV computer several times with images.

If you don't use RAID to backup video files, maybe you could use SyncToy, which is a free directory synchronizing program to backup at least some of your video files, such as DVD rips, or more important video files.

Dave

[SWKerr]

I have two of these at this point and they are very quiet and only $40. Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W. Unless you plan on adding a serious video card for gaming it is all the power you need.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371033

I have used Win7-64 on Client PCs since the beta and it works great. (I do not use the Microsoft codecs) I just recently started using it for the server. The problem with Win7-64 is support for old hardware and software. I had some difficulty with my USB2Serial drivers for DirecTV channel changing. I also had to upgrade my TME software for BluRay playback. I would make sure the tuners you expect to use support Win7-64. Not sure about the R5000.

Win7-64 should be more secure and stable in theory. (Overall any one program may have problems but they will not typically crash the whole system.) probably better if you intend to use this as a Desktop PC and HTPC server.