Help decide between 2 systems

[Lonc_25]

I have 2 extra pcs, I would like to build on into a "media server" that will reside in my theater room. I do have a HD Ready projection TV down there. But mainly, this pc will server media to another SD TV in the house via MVP. (i think...)

The first one is a Dell Dimension 2350, Celeron 2.2Ghz w/ 768mb. This pc does not have an AGP slot, so I will have to choose the best pci video card available. (might be fine for now, but "maybe" in the future would play around with the HD stuff)

The second pc is a Dell Dimension 4100, PIII 733Mhz w/ 512mb. Less power, but this one does have an agp slot.

Which way would you guys recomend I go, I plan to use the PVR-150 in either. Which video card would you choose with either system.

Thanks again.

[GbrNole]

if you want a true media server then personally i'd stuff it with memory, hard drives, a min 100 net card (preferably 1,000) a couple of pvr250's and keep it in some remote and desolate place hooked up only to a regular monitor, keyboard and mouse

this is my next step to move the 3 hard drives i have inside my htpc to a remote pc so that i can use programs like MMJB to rip & tag music and dvdshrink & autogk to rip and compress my dvd's without having to interface with my tv.

a later additon will be to add a sage server which will hold my capture cards and recordings so that my living room pc will be a true client and the only hard drive content will be the operating system, drivers, codecs and sage client. i'd love to be able to do a lean install and run from a rocket drive.

[Lonc_25]

I have 2 200 gig drives coming and both the pcs have 100mb nics (the 2350 might have 1000)

I guess I need to know is it better to have a 2.2Ghz machine without AGP or PIII 730Mhz with AGP, if it is only going to be a media server. I would like to convert my DVDs to MPEGs on this machine too.

Which video cards would you choose for each box, PCI and AGP?

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Lonc_25

Which video cards would you choose for each box, PCI and AGP?

While PCI is fairly dead, there are a few halfway decent cards out there. You want something that handles DX9 so here is one choice that is inexpensive but is not passive... If you are making a server style, then you may not have to worry about it being passive.

You can also check Ebay as they have these 5200's floating around as well... The key is that these are not really cut out for gaming... In your case, that may be OK...

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...45-055R&depa=0

On the other hand, AGP has better bandwidth control than sharing that of the PCI bus. With the PVRs in there, you want to eliminate anthing on the bus that may potentially interfere.

While it is quite new on the market, XGI has come out with there new V3xt that seems PERFECT for the HTPC venue.

http://www.xgitech.com/products/products_2.asp?P=8

There is nobody in the US that has these as of yet (Chaintech only has the 'older' V3...), so it may be a little bit. I may have an 'in' to aquire these from a Taiwanese distributor/manufacturer depending on the shipping situation. I will be reviewing one direct (courtesy of...) from XGI in the near future as soon as it gets here.

-Jason

[GbrNole]

actually if you venture over to http://www.volarigamers.com there is a poster over there "ryynnoo" who can import all lian guan xgi cards v3xt, v5 and v8 and include the component tv cable pack with the cards.

his shipping is a bit high ~$18 but the cards are priced normally at $45, $60 and $80 or thereabouts.

i had to do some detective work to ensure that the component cables would/will be included because previously only an s-vid cable was included.

[GbrNole]

also if you use the pci based pc you always could just throw a pvr350 or an xcard in there?

[waynedunham]

Lonc 25,

I'm running SageTv on a PIII 933. Here's the specs on this old machine retired as my main machine about a year ago.

Asus CUSL2 Mobo
PIII 933 running at 133mhz
512mb 133mhz ram (max for the mobo)
30gb drive for OS/applications
160gb drive for Sage Recordings
Asus V7700 GeForce2 AGO video card w/64m ram
SB Live! OEM card
USB2/Firewire card
10/100 Network card
PVR-250 (older model)

I had been running a PIII 733 in it with no real troubles, but got a great deal on a PII 933 so I threw that into the machine.

This machine is strictly for Sage and it's still running Win98SE .
With the old video card with limited ram, and my machines limited ram, viewing recordings (default quality is custom, around 2gb/hr) on this machine are fairly good with occasional stutter of a split second. The results are identical to when I was running the PIII 733 so the bottleneck is either the video card, onboard ram, or both. (most likely the ancient video card)
Hence the solution below....

I have a Hauppauge Media MVP, and in case you didn't know the network software for it won't install under Win98 so I had to install that on my new PC and Map my Video drive on the Sage machine as a network drive onto the new machine.
I can view the recordings in the living room just fine over the MVP, I just lose all of the Sage stuff like descriptions, the Sage interface, etc.
I play on fixing that though. I've got the parts to build a new machine that I will install WinXP on so that I can install the Sage MVP software and then my machine in the living room will be in essence a Sage machine.

I hope this is of some use in making your decision. If you don't plan on viewing the recordings on the machine itself then either will probably work fine for serving them over a wired network. I'd guess you'd need a pretty decent PCI video card if you plan on viewing them on the machine with no AGP.

[Lonc_25]

Thanks a lot for the quick posts... so on the PCI machine, you guys would suggest a 5200 or maybe a 5500 in I can find one.

I have been doing some more reading... how is the 5700 LE for the AGP machine?

I will be watching some recordings off this pc, so lwt me know which way to go?

[Jason]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

actually if you venture over to http://www.volarigamers.com there is a poster over there "ryynnoo" who can import all lian guan xgi cards v3xt, v5 and v8 and include the component tv cable pack with the cards.

Nope... His cards (I checked...) while 128meg are only based on the V3 chipset.... not the V3xt. I have been in contact with him recently and almost decided to buy. He is selling both the V3 and the V8 on ebay. His version is the V3T128.

http://stores.ebay.com/Rhino-gputer_...enameZl2QQtZkm


In regards to buying the 5200, Here is the BEST deal around right now...

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...0161821#rebate

It is $29.99 after rebate!

-Jason

[GbrNole]

good follow up jason. the v8 really is pretty reasonably priced though and it's performance is right up there with a regular 5700 and 9600.

the card that i'm quite fond of right now for under $100 is the gecube 9550 extreme. it can be clocked to 9600 pro speeds without breaking a sweat but most of all it features the oversize cooler typically found on the 9800 and so runs more quietly also it accepts the ati adapter or even use the recently discovered ati driver hack.

ps. jason i'm just guessing you are of ruel net fame considering your sig pic? if so that's a great site and helped me a lot when i forst started studying htpc.

[Lonc_25]

I really appreciate the input, but which pc would you guys choose for this application... the higher powered one with only PCI slots, or the lower powered pc with AGP?

[korben_dallas]

What kind and how much TV/Movie watching will you be doing on the PC? Will it be hooked up to just a monitor or a TV? What resolution will it be running?

I think the PIII is just going to be too underpowered to do server encoding, especially if you are planning on having multiple encoders. It would probably make an ok Sage client. The Celeron is much faster and will be great for a server. And a good PCI video card will do fine for 1024x768 output.

[Opus4]

Actually, as a server-only, an older/slower cpu works OK, since the encoding is done in hardware on the capture card. As long as the hard drive interface is fast enough, there isn't much problem. I would think you want the faster cpu where you will be doing software decoding for playback.

I used a p2-400 w/2 encoders for nearly a year w/o a problem. For playback, it used an Xcard. I used that machine to record 2 shows, play one locally, and stream one to my client w/no problems. Remember: it had a hardware decoder, so playback barely touched the cpu; similar to if I had used it as a server only.

- Andy

[Jason]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

ps. jason i'm just guessing you are of ruel net fame considering your sig pic? if so that's a great site and helped me a lot when i forst started studying htpc.

Nope... I cannot say that I am that guy! I, too, frequented his site... I just like the icon and with all the cat(s) avatars, I had to be a bit different... :-)


-Jason