2006-06-26, 12:01 AM
(This post was last modified: 2006-06-26, 04:09 PM by antistrange.)
This will be my first post but I have been reading various boards about PVRs for a while. Now that I dont have a TV and my desktop blew up ive decided to finally build the PVR ive been thinking about (building a new desktop in august, damn intel and the march of technology).
I thought I would post my current parts list and what I have learned about some components to perhaps make a quick reference list of accepted, reliable, functional parts for a basic SDTV PVR.
First, go here http://www.htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showforum=20
A lot of the basic hardware questions seem to be answered there.
More relevant to GBPVR, here is the partial parts list I have come up with:
TV Tuner: Hauppage WinTV PVR150, (Same as 250 but audio and video are now on one chip, dont get the 350, the hardware decode is crap, the 150 is the workhorse of quality and support)
Me: Hauppage WinTV PVR 350 ($130) (learn from my mistake!) will trade to PVR150 ($90) soon
Video Card: DirectX9 capable, 128 bit memory interface or better, preferably fanless (its not a gaming box, you dont need an overclocked 7900GTX). From what I gather, in theory Nvidia cards (6 and 7) are the best bet due to full implementation of VM9 and PureVideo decoders (though PureVideo decoders will be mostly accelerated by any DX9 card). ATI owners and fans may take that hard and I know every system is different, but I said theory. I hear the new X1X ATI cards are just as capable even in theory, but I suspect a 6200 is cheaper than an X1X.
Me: Onboard Geforce 6150 ($0)
CPU: Since the PVR150 has hardware encode and the DX9 video card should accelerate the decode, the CPU doesnt need to be that powerful other than to load the GBPVR menus and such (anybody else tried a Sempron?)
Me: Athlon 64 3000+ Venice (939) ($89)
HDD: Any modern 7200 RPM drive with 8MB cache or larger should be fine. Get as large as you need and as many as you need (possibly RAID 5?).
Me: Western Digital 320GB FDB ($112), the new Fluid Bearing drives are said to be very quiet and have excellent performance
Motherboard: Something that will basically hold a graphics card, a PCI tv tuner and perhaps a PCI sound card should be fine. I prefer uATX because id like to put it in a particularly small case (havent chosen that yet either, but that is just personal preference). I hear that VIA EPIA boards (onboard CPU and MPEG2 decoder) are just on the edge of feasible and may be more trouble than theyre worth. A shame, the design is perfect for a PVR.
Me: MSI K8NGM2-FID ($82), Socket 939 (easy upgrade if necessary) Onboard Geforce 6150 (SD and HD PureVideo acceleration with ability to output to Svideo, composite, component and DVI) OnBoard HD Audio with ability to pass SPDIF
Read:[URL="http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1803985&enterthread=y[/URL]
RAM: High quality DDR/DDR2, as long as its a lifetime warranty and its not utter crap it should be stable enough. Get 1 GB, Windows XP likes 512MB on its own and RAM is cheap, suck it up.
Me: 2 x 512MB Corsair Value Select DDR400 ($82.5)
I think that covers it. Ill take recommendations on specific models. Also point out any general stupidity or nonsense. It seems to me that the computer above should be only a few hundred dollars ($455.5)
I thought I would post my current parts list and what I have learned about some components to perhaps make a quick reference list of accepted, reliable, functional parts for a basic SDTV PVR.
First, go here http://www.htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showforum=20
A lot of the basic hardware questions seem to be answered there.
More relevant to GBPVR, here is the partial parts list I have come up with:
TV Tuner: Hauppage WinTV PVR150, (Same as 250 but audio and video are now on one chip, dont get the 350, the hardware decode is crap, the 150 is the workhorse of quality and support)
Me: Hauppage WinTV PVR 350 ($130) (learn from my mistake!) will trade to PVR150 ($90) soon
Video Card: DirectX9 capable, 128 bit memory interface or better, preferably fanless (its not a gaming box, you dont need an overclocked 7900GTX). From what I gather, in theory Nvidia cards (6 and 7) are the best bet due to full implementation of VM9 and PureVideo decoders (though PureVideo decoders will be mostly accelerated by any DX9 card). ATI owners and fans may take that hard and I know every system is different, but I said theory. I hear the new X1X ATI cards are just as capable even in theory, but I suspect a 6200 is cheaper than an X1X.
Me: Onboard Geforce 6150 ($0)
CPU: Since the PVR150 has hardware encode and the DX9 video card should accelerate the decode, the CPU doesnt need to be that powerful other than to load the GBPVR menus and such (anybody else tried a Sempron?)
Me: Athlon 64 3000+ Venice (939) ($89)
HDD: Any modern 7200 RPM drive with 8MB cache or larger should be fine. Get as large as you need and as many as you need (possibly RAID 5?).
Me: Western Digital 320GB FDB ($112), the new Fluid Bearing drives are said to be very quiet and have excellent performance
Motherboard: Something that will basically hold a graphics card, a PCI tv tuner and perhaps a PCI sound card should be fine. I prefer uATX because id like to put it in a particularly small case (havent chosen that yet either, but that is just personal preference). I hear that VIA EPIA boards (onboard CPU and MPEG2 decoder) are just on the edge of feasible and may be more trouble than theyre worth. A shame, the design is perfect for a PVR.
Me: MSI K8NGM2-FID ($82), Socket 939 (easy upgrade if necessary) Onboard Geforce 6150 (SD and HD PureVideo acceleration with ability to output to Svideo, composite, component and DVI) OnBoard HD Audio with ability to pass SPDIF
Read:[URL="http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1803985&enterthread=y[/URL]
RAM: High quality DDR/DDR2, as long as its a lifetime warranty and its not utter crap it should be stable enough. Get 1 GB, Windows XP likes 512MB on its own and RAM is cheap, suck it up.
Me: 2 x 512MB Corsair Value Select DDR400 ($82.5)
I think that covers it. Ill take recommendations on specific models. Also point out any general stupidity or nonsense. It seems to me that the computer above should be only a few hundred dollars ($455.5)
The ships hung in the air in much the same way that bricks don't.
