Where do you buy your gear? and Questions

[Tenspeed]

Hi All, getting ready to build my first PVR using gbpvr software. I would like to know where this group buys it's PC's and cards. My set will have the following.

1 - PC at least 2 GHz with 1 gig ram, running Win2k professional. 1 - 40 gig HDD for OS & 1 - 120 gig HDD for recordings. What is a good supplier of this type of PC

2 - PVR150 watching TV of recording in 2 seperate rooms
2 - MediaPVR for watching TV or recording

Should I purchase a better Video card that comes in most PC's
Should I use a pre-built PC? I've built a few PC's but it's just easier to buy one and put the cards in.

My goals are to be able to record or watch TV in seperate rooms.


Thanks for everyone help and your experience.
Tenspeed

[Tenspeed]

anybody

[Zod]

I'm a total newbie to the PVR stuff, but I've been building my own systems for 7 years or so. I buy most of my parts from the cheapest places I can get them...large parts like the system case probably from a local distributor or wholesaler (I liked http://www.spartantech.com/ when I lived in Illinois, since I was about 15 minutes from them, and Fry's in California isn't horrible, but it's not great either), and smaller parts from wherever I can get them cheap (Newegg.com is the de-facto online distributor, but still shop around for low prices). Getting your parts locally (instead of online) is a great plus, if it's not too expensive--that way you can return or exchange them quickly and with minimal hassle, if they don't work out-of-the-box (and chances are you'll make at least one mistake about the compatibility of a part on your first attempt at making a system).

As for which parts to buy, the one thing I've learned in my 7+ years of system building is to buy quality parts and design for reliability and stability over performance. That is, unless you want to spend countless hours troubleshooting a system where anything could break at any time, and quite possibly lose or corrupt your data with it. For a PVR, obviously reliability isn't as important.

First, I'd go out and find a very reliable, well made motherboard from a major manufacturer, not some no-name clone company that hasn't been around very long. Read reviews and make sure they are from reputable sources known for good testing methodology (Tom's Hardware and HardOCP come to mind), and as non-biased as possible. Then do a search for people who have had trouble with the motherboard...if lots of stuff comes up, that's a red flag. Once you've found a perfect fit (Abit's IC7-MAX3 was my choice mobo for my previous main system, built a year or two ago), get it from wherever you can. Chances are, you'll have to get it online...most computer parts retailers only stock certain brands and models, and it's quite likely they won't have the one you want. Buy quality RAM (I recommend ECC RAM from Crucial, Corsair, or Mushkin, as long as your motherboard supports ECC, since it helps with both stability and reliability...though you don't really need it for a PVR-only machine), and quality, quiet hard drives (Seagate is my favorite brand). Consider running two disks in a RAID-1 mirror array, if you need to store important data reliably. You'll wish you had, the first time you lose important data due to a drive failure.

For all your other parts, follow the same routine. Read reviews and see what is popular among enthusiasts. I highly recommend spending the extra money on a good, well designed case, like a Lian-Li, unless you're going for a SFF system for your PVR. Also, keep a mental note of how loud all the moving components are. The first system I built, I was quite happy with the performance, but it sounded like a vacuum cleaner, it was so loud, it was unpleasant just to leave turned on. Now all my systems hardly even hum, because I buy quiet power supplies, Seagate hard drives, and silent, ball-bearing fans and heatsinks.

Hopefully this info helps ya, good luck.

PS - When you put it all together, make sure you're careful about static electricity, and read up about the proper way to put a heat sink on your installed CPU!