Advice for an even cheaper guy

[Andrew u.k.]

I would like to build a PVR for under £150/$300. I have been looking at the Fujitsu E600 for the computer side of it, it has:

Intel P4 2800, 512Mb RAM, 40Gb HDD, CD/DVD Combo Drive, Includes Windows XP Pro.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Systems/A...ctId=30850

So that leaves me with £50 on a capture card. Preferably I would like a dual digital tuner. Can anyone recommend one?

I know the HDD is a little small but I have a spare that I can put in. With this set up is there anything else I would need, like video card or sound card?

Thanks,

Andrew

[observer_11]

I consider myself very thrifty when it comes to building systems as well.

IMHO I would not bother with the system you are looking at - I think you'll be disapppointed in the performance, expandability (e.g. no 2nd hard drive) and longetivity of the system. I also think the heat and noise of the older P4 northwood systems would not be a good choice for an HTPC.

I have built many systems using mostly 2nd hand parts from local classified ads (eg. kijiji). You tend to get WAY more for your money plus no taxes and shipping.

I did a quick check on eBay and some other online deal sites here in NA and I can definitely find newer dual core based systems with better specs (eg larger hard drive) for about the same price you are considering. However i don't know how better or worse prices are in your area.

[Andrew u.k.]

Thanks for the advice.
A little more research is needed. That's a good idea buying the parts second hand.

Could you recommend a motherboard and processor that would be quiet, cheap and available.

Andrew

[zaphod7501]

You need to define your needs very specifically.
Is this going to be your only PC ?
Is this going to be a background recorder with playback being done elsewhere or with a different device/PC ?
Are you going to be doing video editing/authoring with this machine ?

I have an AMD600 which performs admirably as a recorder with a Hauppauge PVR250.
I use a dual processor machine for editing/authoring.
I built a Sempron3000+ with multiple tuner cards, including a MyHD that interfaces with a projector.
All of them are either hand-me-downs or built mostly from accumulated parts.

[shrek]

Well the dual tuner Pinnacle card is only £17.99 from Play.com, saving you a few quid

As for the PC, I agree with Observer. You'd be better off buying a cheap system based around a socket AM2 Sempron, Pentium Dual Core or cheap Athlon X2 than the P4 IMO, if you can get the system for the budget you have allocated. However, if you're really stuck, the PC you have specced + £18.00 tuner = £32.00 spare, and you can just about get a 250GB HDD for that

[observer_11]

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about the specific model mobo. Pretty much any Intel Socket775 or AMD AM2 based mobo is fine - just look for the best deal you can find. If you buy a complete system make sure there are free PCI slots for your tuner card(s).

A big decision driver for hardware is if you want to be able to record/play HDTV. For regular standard TV any bargain basement ATI or nvidia PCIe video card will probably suffice . Onboard audio is fine but AVOID ONBOARD GRAPHICS.

My preference for HTPC hardware is toward 'more with less'. An example of that is one large hard drive instead of many smaller ones, one dual tuner instead of two separate tuner cards, etc. Basically less hardware means less power draw = less heat = less noise, and a smaller size HTPC case as well.

[Andrew u.k.]

Thanks again for the help.

The p.c. will just be for recording digital telly to a HDD, to store about 10 hours of t.v., play back DVDs and surf a little wireless Internet all on an old CRT wide screen T.V. Preferably I would like a twin tuner.

We don't watch a lot of T.V. and part of me thinks I shouldn't bother. But a friend of mine who works for Microsoft has just spent £1500 on a media center (he spends his time swearing at it). I said he should have a built one. So it's time to put my money where my mouth is.

Oh and my V.H.S is nearly broken, for some reason the picture goes up and down....

So the question is can I do it for £150.

I have a spare 80GB IDE drive and a DVD/CD recorder from an old P.C.

Henri says I can't do it for £200 help me prove him wrong.

Cheers
Andrew

[gEd]

I would say that £150 is not enough to build a quiet, neat pc for a sitting room with some degree of future upgradeability.

I would also say that £150 is too much just to prove a point!

The P4 is too hot/noisy. That Fuji pc only takes low profile cards and doesn't appear to have an agp/pci-e port. The onboard graphics may not be up to the task and if this is the case, you are stuck with it.

I'm sure you could put "something" together for that price (second hand) but you will need to shop around. Don't forget postage costs either, especially if you buy seperate components as that will eat into your budget.

happy hunting.

[merc82]

A couple of months back I would have agreed with observer_11's recommendation to avoid integrated graphics. The release of AMD's new 780g chipset seems to have changed all this. Reviews on the web state the on board graphics are capable of playing 1080p video with little load on a low end CPU.

I'm planning on getting myself a new motherboard with this chipset as soon as the CPU I want is available locally.

Andrew, the system you're looking at is so old that you will actually pay a premium for any additional hardware you'd buy for it compared to modern more capable equipment. I know because my system right now is P4 based. I recommend you price a video card or additional RAM and you'll see what I mean.

[gazoo]

Don't do it man!

Lol..

Seriously, HDTV will be challenging to say the least. Get something newer, AMD x2 processors are VERY cheap compared to Intel C2D. I'm not a big AMD fan, but for HTPC's it's cheap and it works.