Builing a New HTPC (First Time Builder) (1 Viewer)

[hermy65]

Hello everyone, I plan on building my first htpc soon. Im interested in using the TV server setup so I can run 1 machine to do everything and have 2 clients. I need some help picking out a tuner card, a video card and maybe a hard drive.

Server Setup:

AMD x2 4200
1 gb DDR400
integrated video (do i need a dedicated video card for this) if so which one *PCIe
160GB - 500GB hard drive (dont know what size I would need) how much do i need
400 watt psu
dvd burner
tuner card??? (i would like dual tuners so i could record and watch different shows)

Client Setup:

amd athlon xp 1.4
1 gb ddr400
40 gb hd
video card??? (i have a tube tv with rca and s video inputs) what would be the best card *AGP
dvd burner


Any help would be appreciated. The sooner i figure out these parts the sooner i get to work on my machine.

Thanks

 

[level20peon]

Hello hermy65,

I will try to help with some of your concerns...

integrated video (do i need a dedicated video card for this) if so which one *PCIe

if you control the server via RemoteDesktop / UltraVNC or similar you won't need a video-card at all. Even if you want to control the TV-Server backend directly on this PC you don't need a fancy card, onboard will do the trick.

160GB - 500GB hard drive (dont know what size I would need) how much do i need

Depends on what you plan to store . If you are planning to store several movies, TV-series and recordings you will most definetely run out of space in less than a year. If you just plan to do your TV-recordings on this HDD it will fit your needs in my opinion.

tuner card??? (i would like dual tuners so i could record and watch different shows)

You can watch and record different shows on a single dvb-tuner if you are using the TV-server. The shows have to be on the same transponder-frequency however. You will need either more than one TV-card oder a dual-tuner card (I don't know if there is one supported by MediaPortal).


-level20peon

 

[sgtsloth]

integrated video (do i need a dedicated video card for this) if so which one *PCIe

Like level20peon said, your server shouldn't need a card since it's just serving content. If you want to hook it up to a TV, than you'll need a card with the appropriate outputs.

160GB - 500GB hard drive (dont know what size I would need) how much do i need

I have a 300gb hard drive and store lots of TV shows and music with no problem. If you want to rip all your DVDs, etc, then you will need more. But it really does depend on your needs. If you can afford 500gb, than go for it.

tuner card??? (i would like dual tuners so i could record and watch different shows)

I use Hauppauge's PVR-150 and it's great. Single tuner so you could either get two or get Hauppauge's dual tuner (PVR-500).

video card??? (i have a tube tv with rca and s video inputs) what would be the best card *AGP

Just make sure your card has an s-video out (lots do). You don't need anything too powerful - unless you want to run games - since it'll just add heat and noise.

Hope that helps!

 

[petzlux]

Setup depends on what you want to do !

I see that you have a very powerful CPU for the server and much slower CPU's for the clients. Now if you only want to record SDTV, then you dont need such a powerful CPU for the server. As all the server does is record the TS to Harddisk, it doesnt need to do any processsing of the videostream (except if you want to transcode recordings to more efficient formats, but thats optional).
The clients should also cope with SDTV.

Now if you want to watch and record HDTV, than, again, the Server CPU can be comparatively old/slow, as again all that is done is recording transmitting without touching the TS.
But the clients than need to be able to decode the HDTV, and there you will need something better than an ancient AMD Athlon XP.