Advice on Media Centre machine

Santa Claus

OK, so yesterday on my way to Argos to get a 19" LCD tv that was on the bargain alerts forum I happened to pop into Beyond 2000 on Chatham St and spotted this little beauty for only €79.99 so couldn't resist picking it up.

It's a socket 478 which is a bit of a pain to get the processor for (I'm thinking 2.8GHz at least) but I'm wondering what else I'll need to get for the system.
I have a 160 gig HD but will that be enough for storing recordings of TV programmes...Is there an average size for a 1hour programme ?

I only have about 20gigs of music so figure that between XP and other programmes I'll have a good 100Gigs free for recording programmes.

Also on the subject of recording TV, what card would people recommend to use ?

deckie27

I suppose 512mb ram. 1024 is nicer but not necessary

I think media center takes about 1.5 gig an hour of TV

TV card.
hauppauge -- WinTV-PVR-150
Get a microsoft remote also. Its a must with media center

Santa Claus

deckie27 wrote:

I suppose 512mb ram. 1024 is nicer but not necessary

I was planning on getting 2GB...Is that overkill ?

deckie27 wrote:

I think media center takes about 1.5 gig an hour of TV

That's excellent....I can record a good 20-30 hours before I need to start archiving off to DVD then !

deckie27 wrote:

hauppauge -- WinTV-PVR-150

Excellent...Will that work with recording off NTL Digital ??

deckie27 wrote:

Get a microsoft remote also. Its a must with media center

I got a MS remote keyboard with MCE remote from a mate so looking forward to using that !

Tom Dunne

Santa Claus wrote:

I have a 160 gig HD but will that be enough for storing recordings of TV programmes...Is there an average size for a 1hour programme ?

I have a 160Gig HD also and I have oceans of space left. As deckie27 said, you are talking around 1-1.5gig per hour, depending on quality. I use GB-PVR and have it convert any recordings to DivX afterwards to save space.

Santa Claus wrote:

Also on the subject of recording TV, what card would people recommend to use ?

I went arse-about-face and got a Hauppauge USB PVR2, but it does the job. The hard-drive is also external (as is the sound-card ), but it really isn't a problem. As for recording off NTL, you have to match the outputs of the NTL box to the inputs of the TV card, so lookup the specs of both.

I would disagree that the MCE remote is required. I have a wireless Microsoft Keyboard and mouse and they do the job (then again, I don't use MCE).

Just to put it into perspective - I was running GB-PVR on a 1.4Ghz Celeron with 256Mb of ram and never really had a problem. Granted, it was a tad slow, but it recorded and played back without a problem.

deckie27

tom dunne wrote:

I would disagree that the MCE remote is required. I have a wireless Microsoft Keyboard and mouse and they do the job (then again, I don't use MCE).

Sorry Tom your correct
The remote Microsoft remote will only work with Xp Media center.
If you can get your hands on Media center its the way to go.
It basically turns ur pc into proper media device 95% of the time there is no need for a keyboard or mouse

Tazz T

That seems very cheap.

What's the main difference between that and this
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=314154

I note it's only a 220w psu and supports overclocking!?!?. I wonder what would happen if a All-In-Wonder 9800 pro was stuck in this???

8T8

The one on Komplett is for S754 CPU's like AMD Semprons the one linked to in the first post is for S478 Pentium 4 CPU's.

The one on Komplett also supports PCI-e allowing use of current graphics cards. The AGP reference is incorrect possibly referring to the fact that it comes with on-board graphics.

A 9800 Pro will not work in the Komplett one above because it is AGP though I do not recall the AIW tuner being MCE compliant so you would need to use an alternative media centre software anyway.

SouperComputer

Dear Santa,

Well, this is very exciting, does this mean everyone will be getting a HTPC for christmas?

Anyway, RAM wise if you plan running MCE, 1GB is sufficient. 512is a little tight at times, 768 is the sweet spot. 2GB will go to waste.

The MS remote as others have said, is not essential but it is a great remote in its own right. I think I have drivers that work with XP here. IF you are deciding to use MCE on the computer, I would say get the remote to complete the package.

160GB will be fine, it depends on how many shows you end up recording per week and how long you want them to stay on there for. You can always replace it with a bigger drive later.

Capture card wise, go nuts, get the PVR 500, its Dual tuner on a single PCI card. NTL wise, if you are usuing digital, you will need what is called and IR blaster which will change the channels on the box.

I note it's only a 220w psu and supports overclocking!?!?. I wonder what would happen if a All-In-Wonder 9800 pro was stuck in this???

Not all watts are created equal. What is quoted as 400W (Im looking at you Q-Tec and thermaltake) is often really 320W or even less under peak load in the real world.

To be honest, those shuttle-type units would not be my first choice as a HTPC. They are too confined and as a result they can be loud (especially the PSU' with tiny Fans). Now if you get one for a price like Santa, then great, but you would be better off spending a bit more and maybe getting a new HTPC case, good PSU and maybe a Motherboard, Chip and RAM from adverts.

8T8 wrote:

The AGP reference is incorrect possibly referring to the fact that it comes with on-board graphics.

I think what they mean is that the onboard graphics chip is mounted on the AGP bus. Confusing for someone non-techie though.