Check system before purchasing

[Timadin]

This is my first HTPC and before I make any purchases I would like to run my hardware by some veterans to make sure everything is good. I've been lurking for a while so this is my attempt at an educated post

Case 69.99 nMedia HTPC5000B
Ram 44.99 G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
CPU 60.00 AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz
PS 85.99 Enermax ELT400AWT-ECO
MB 89.99 MSI 785GM-E65 AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX
HD 94.99 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM
Video Card ???
Total: 445.95

The two cards I am debating between are:
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Dual TV Tuner / Encoder 1229
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner 1213

The only differences besides price I can tell are one comes with a remote and one is listed as an encoder. I'm not exactly sure what that means. I'd like to make sure my on board video is good enough for bluray if so I will be adding a bluray drive. Judging other peoples builds I have seen this should have no problem with hulu, netflix, or anything else. I'd like to be able to record HD as well.

I have dish network as my provider if that matters.

So will this pc meet my needs?

[whurlston]

My onboard 3200 is sufficient for Blu-ray so the 4200 will work just fine. The 3200 isn't quite powerfull enough to run Vector Adaptive deinterlacing but Motion Adaptive works. The 4200 should be similar. There's no deinterlacing with 99% of Blu-rays so it would only affect broadcast HD content. You can always add a 4670 later if you want.

The rest of the specs look good.

The only difference on the tuners is the bundled remote. The actual card is the same for both.

[johnsonx42]

You'll want the Media Center version of the HVR-2250; first you'll need a remote, second it comes with the IR Blasters needed to control your Dish receiver(s). The board is otherwise the same - both have the MPEG-2 hardware encoder required by GB-PVR for analog recording.

The onboard video should do you just fine. edit: oh, I see it has the 128MB DDR3 sideport memory... even better!

The only other comment I'd have is that I'm a big believer in having my recordings on a separate drive from the Windows system. That way if/when you need to re-install or upgrade the OS, you can save a couple of files off the C: drive and then format without worrying about your recordings and other media.

As to the rest of it, looks good to me.

[soccerdad]

To record HD from dish,you will have to use a HD-PVR to capture the HD content. The HVR-2250 cards will not perform that function. They are more for Cable (QAM), cable analog, or OTA signals (ATSC). They will bring in SD through an S-vid input, but not HD.

[Timadin]

Thank you everyone for the replies/advice.

I'll make sure to order the video card with the remote bundle. I'd really like to future proof my machine by ordering the HD-PVR, but its not in the budget right now. Maybe the wife will let me get it for Christmas if i'm good .

As for the second hard drive, that is an excellent point. I'll see if I have one laying around somewhere.
Edit: any thoughts on a thumb drive or flash memory card for a windows drive?

I can't wait to get started on this!

[Snooze]

Your all set audio wise too. Thats good... I wouldn't want anything less than 5.1, this has 7.1 with optical out for pass through to a good receiver as well as HDMI. Is that Caviar Black the Quiet/Cool one... I dont remember. Might be something to watch for. If your drives are running cool, fan speed is low, thus a quiet HTPC.

[johnsonx42]

Is that Caviar Black the Quiet/Cool one... I dont remember. Might be something to watch for. If your drives are running cool, fan speed is low, thus a quiet HTPC.

Good point; the Black is the high-performance flavor. Green and AV are the cool/quiet models.