2006-11-09, 12:06 AM
Alright guys and gals, sorry to bother you with this, but I'm looking to upgrade my GBPVR run HTPC, and I'm trying to figure out the best bang for my buck.
Current specs:
AMD Athlon 1.2mhz (not sure if it's 200 or 266 FSB)
512MB PC2100 memory
ATI9600Pro Video w/256 memory
Diamond Xtreme DDL Sound card
Single IDE Hard Drive 7200rpm 300GB - split into 2 partitions. 40Gig for OS and installed software, the rest for the DVR.
Hauppauge PVR150
The issues:
1. Watching LiveTV is painful. Takes 5 seconds or more for the channel to come up, by then the OSD is gone. If I do something to bring the OSD back up, the system chugs a bit. It's tolerable, but an annoyance enough that we avoid watching live TV on the DVR.
2. If I turn on the DDL feature of the sound card, it chews up an additional 10-15% CPU, which can cause issues when playback/liveTV is already using 80-90% CPU.
4. Likewise, I'm hesitant to watch a pre-recorded show while something else is recording. Recording doesn't take much CPU, but the system seems taxed enough just on playback.
5. GBPVR takes a long time to load. Obviously, only an issue when its not currently running.
6. We like to play some console emulator games - some of them are unplayable or choppy
So I'm looking at an upgrade - but the wife is already ticked anough at all the time and money I've spent on this thing... hehe. So it has to be minimal, best bang for my buck.
I figure my choices are:
1) Upgrade CPU: The Motherboard can handle up to a 2600+ (266fsb). $72 on Pricewatch, yowch. I saw a 2100+ cpu on Craigslist for $35, I think I should jump on that if it's still available
2) Upgrade memory: Only 1 slot left on the MB. I think another 512 (1gig total) would be a huge boost. Around $45-50.
I want to do both, but at a cost of $122 that seems ridiculous for such an antiquated system. For not much more, I could upgrade one of my other 2 computers (My main PC or my wife's PC)... and then upgrade the DVR from that - which would most likely require a complete rebuild.
Anyone have input on this?
Current specs:
AMD Athlon 1.2mhz (not sure if it's 200 or 266 FSB)
512MB PC2100 memory
ATI9600Pro Video w/256 memory
Diamond Xtreme DDL Sound card
Single IDE Hard Drive 7200rpm 300GB - split into 2 partitions. 40Gig for OS and installed software, the rest for the DVR.
Hauppauge PVR150
The issues:
1. Watching LiveTV is painful. Takes 5 seconds or more for the channel to come up, by then the OSD is gone. If I do something to bring the OSD back up, the system chugs a bit. It's tolerable, but an annoyance enough that we avoid watching live TV on the DVR.
2. If I turn on the DDL feature of the sound card, it chews up an additional 10-15% CPU, which can cause issues when playback/liveTV is already using 80-90% CPU.
4. Likewise, I'm hesitant to watch a pre-recorded show while something else is recording. Recording doesn't take much CPU, but the system seems taxed enough just on playback.
5. GBPVR takes a long time to load. Obviously, only an issue when its not currently running.
6. We like to play some console emulator games - some of them are unplayable or choppy
So I'm looking at an upgrade - but the wife is already ticked anough at all the time and money I've spent on this thing... hehe. So it has to be minimal, best bang for my buck.
I figure my choices are:
1) Upgrade CPU: The Motherboard can handle up to a 2600+ (266fsb). $72 on Pricewatch, yowch. I saw a 2100+ cpu on Craigslist for $35, I think I should jump on that if it's still available
2) Upgrade memory: Only 1 slot left on the MB. I think another 512 (1gig total) would be a huge boost. Around $45-50.
I want to do both, but at a cost of $122 that seems ridiculous for such an antiquated system. For not much more, I could upgrade one of my other 2 computers (My main PC or my wife's PC)... and then upgrade the DVR from that - which would most likely require a complete rebuild.
Anyone have input on this?
Dedicated HTPC: MSI K7N420 Pro, AMD 2200+, 1.5GB RAM, PVR150, 550Pro, ATI 9800XT, 300GB Maxtor HD, Diamond XTreme DDL Sound, MVP over wireless bridge, GBPVR 1.2.13
