Trying to decide which HW to get

[m1abrams]

I know you guys see these alot, if this is not cool sorry and please delete me.

I am trying to decide which way to go with hardware. I have built two systems at newegg. One based on A64 socket 939, and one based on Athlon XP mobile 2500+

A64
Athlon XP mobile

Note that for the A64 I paired it with a Geforce 6600GT, and the mobile a Geforce 5200

The mobile based saves me about $330 and would probably be a quieter machine.

This machine will be a Sage TV box with both client and server, and will have a PVR 250 MCE and a PVR 500MCE in it. Will be connected to a SDTV, however I have plans to buy an HDTV but not for atleast 1 year or more.
Will not be playing games on it.

I want the best video quality (on SDTV) and stable system I can get. The machine will be used for TV and Movies (ripped and from DVD). I also will be using Comskip too.

[kny3twalker]

I would really consider the faster system unless you are willing to upgrade again when you get the HDTV
of course though computers and video cards will be cheaper for the same thing and much faster for the same price

and get your HDTV now before BF flagging comes in

[Ghost]

What is BF flagging?

[Grasshopper]

The specs of your cheaper machine are ample for Sage outputting overlay to an SDTV. You might want a more powerful video card if you want to do VMR9, perhaps with HDMI or DVI output capability for future HDTV use. Microsoft recommends a minimum 2.4ghz cpu for Windows Media Center doing HDTV, so you should be fine there.

Note that both of your links go to the same wishlist, so I wasn't able to check out your specs on the more expensive machine.

Also note that you don't have to run Sage Client if you're just displaying locally, just Sage. Unless you're also serving a Media MVP.