Video and Sound Card Newb ?

[rsingel]

I'm running GBPVR and an MVP through a pIII 667 mhz box with 256 mb of ram running winxp (this computer is only being used as a media server).

I currently have no sound card or video card.

I'm thinking that this eVGA 128-P1-N309-LX Geforce FX5200 128MB 64-bit DDR PCI card is my best bet. It's DirectX 9.0

This should make video playback smoother, right?

Other suggestions welcome.

Also, should I get a sound card? Will it make sound better through the MVP? If so, any thoughts on what I should look for in a card?

And finally, my box has a 200W power supply. Should I update it too and if so, how many watts do I need? Would a good quality 300W power supply be enough, given I might add a second 200 gig drive in the future?

Thanks in advance.

Ryan

[McBainUK]

I havnt got one, but dosnt the MVP decode the sound/video it self?

That g.card seems ok, assume you havnt got an AGP slot is its a PCI one?

pIII 667 mhz box with 256 mb of ram......this computer is only being used as a media server

I saw a WinXP laptop that had 256mb of ram - it took 20secs to open the start menu! As a server it must be a bit slow? RAM is pretty cheap and just doubling it to 512 would be a major improvement.

This should make video playback smoother, right?

Assume you're getting chopy playback? On PC or MVP?

For PSUs think about quality aswel as watts. This one quite good but do some reaserch and read reviews 1st.

ps welcome to GBPVR

edit: before buying anything remember to check it will work with what you got (just a helpful hint )

[ricklous]

I saw a WinXP laptop that had 256mb of ram - it took 20secs to open the start menu! As a server it must be a bit slow? RAM is pretty cheap and just doubling it to 512 would be a major improvement.

Ive a venerable old Dell 7500 laptop which i use for browsing the net and writing docs when in the living room. Its a Piii 500mHz with 128 ram..and the graphics have 4 meg! lol its never let me down and Im getting quite attached to the old dear in a uber-geek-gives-hardware-tacky-name way. After fine-tuning, shes not much slower than my fiances HP celeron 2.9 when using the menus/net stuff....Ive had GBPVR running on it this week for testing plugins and skin configs, and although theres a slight lag in response, i dont think i would notice it if id not had it running on better PCs. Havnt bothered trying to watch TV through it though. Think that would be too much for it...

Anyway, getting distracted. For your PSU, i would second McBains comment on quality, PSUs are like hifi speakers. A lower rated but more expensive PSU can easily far outperform a cheap but 'powerful' one.

as a guide, look at the spec im running off a 250w. Its handling three tuners and two 3.5 HDDs and a dvd burner fine.

Now ive said that i'll probably fire it up in the morning and find its melted overnight

[ddrawley]

I would recommend an Antec or Fortron Source brand of 350W or better.
These are both excellent quality brands.

I second the RAM. I recommend at least 512MB for XP. I run a PIII 850 laptop nicely with XP and 512.

I found my PIII 1.0GHz a bit sluggish to drive my MVP. A 2.0GHz will make for snappier menus.

I was not happy with the video quality of my 5200. I have seen several reports that the 6x00 series have cleaner TV out.