Help with Hardware Specs - New system (1 Viewer)

[Becky]

Hello,

Would someone mind reviewing what I'm thinking of purchasing for my first PVR system? I found what I think is a good deal on Dell, and I'm curious if there are any red flags that others can see in what I've put together.

Thanks so much!

~Becky

Module: Description
XPS 8500: XPS 8500 Fast track config018
Operating System: Windows 8, 64-bit, English
Processors: 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (up to 3.90 GHz)
Memory: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz - 2 DIMMs
Keyboard: Dell KB213 Wired Multimedia Keyboard, US-English
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 1GB GDDR5 for Win 8
Wireless Driver: Dell SRV Software 1703
Hard Drive: 2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s
Chassis: XPS8500,BlackChassisw/19:1mediacardreader
Network Card: Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Optical Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW), write to CD/DVD
Sound: Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio 4
Hardware Support Services: 2 Year Enhanced Support
TOTAL: $857.98

I already have a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Dual High Definition Digital Television HDHR3-US.

 

[Owlsroost]

Looks fine to me, performance wise, but I'd check (if you can) how noisy it might be with a 7200 rpm drive and (probably) several fans - if it's going to be in same room as the TV etc.

Tony

 

[Becky]

Thanks for the input! I had planned to put it in the guest bedroom, that has visitors maybe 30-35 days per year. I think for the most part that it will be fine, but now I'm a little concerned. Are there ways to quiet it?

Thanks!

~Becky

 

[kiwijunglist]

Looks like overkill for PVR you only need to spend half that or less

To make existing system quieter the easiest methods involve making the fans quieter
- buy fan controller
- run fans of motherboard headers and use speed fan
- buy inline fan resister cables (about $2 for 5 on dx.com)
- replace with slower rpm quieter fans
- bios settings for controlling cpu fan
- using speedfan to slow down the cpu fan

There is no easy way to make a PSU quieter

For a PVR I would get a cheaper CPU and get a 128GB SSD + 3TB HD Green HDD

I'd recommend if you do buy the above system, you just grab the little resister cables from dx.com and you can chuck a couple onto the fans if you find it noisy. Don't bother putting a resister on the cpu fan, as that is always software controllable.

 

[Becky]

Thanks kiwijunglist!

Would you mind expanding on what you've said above? Do I need to try all of those fan quieting methods, combo's of those, or just one?

How much of a cheaper CPU? What GHz should I be looking for? I went with the highest I could afford, because I want it to last a long time. Is my logic faulty?

Thanks again for the input! I really appreciate all the help I can get!

~Becky

 

[kiwijunglist]

If I had $2000 I could buy a $2000 computer that would last 4 years, or I could buy a $1400 that would last 3 years then sell it for $400 and get another $1400 computer, giving me a total of 6 years. It's not always best to buy the most expensive you can afford.

I just put together a new HTPC
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/silverstone-grandia-gd07-ideal-large-htpc-case.113436/

I think an i3-2100 CPU would last 4-6 years in an HTPC. I don't know much about the AMD CPUs, but probably looking at an A6 or A8, whichever one is similar in price to the i3-2100.
Ram - 8gb is heaps, doesn't need to be expensive or fast ram.
HDD - I'd go for a small 128gb SSD and a larger 3TB media drive (3TB is the largest size you can buy, you can buy larger but you'd pay more than 5x the price per megabyte)
Video Card - Don't use the onboard video that comes with i3-2100 CPU, you need a seperate video card eg. ATI HD6450 ATI HD7750. I don't know the nvidia ones, but I'd assume that any current generation nvidia card would be fine for HTPC.
Remote control - You should buy MCE remote + receiver, or an MCE clone remote + receiver (around $20-40 on ebay)

I get the feeling you don't know a lot about computers which is unfortunately in that you can't just buy the parts seperately.

You just need to use one or more of those methods. I will change my answer to make it simpler and just say you should buy the 5x inline resisters for $2. then add them as needed 0,1,or 2 of them to every case fan.

 

[Owlsroost]

Becky,

Just to give you an idea about the performance you actually need for an average HTPC running MediaPortal, my HTPC is a 3-year old Dell Vostro 200 (slimline) with an Intel E4400 (2.2GHz dual-core) CPU, 4GB of RAM, nVidia GT430 video card and 2.5" 250GB drive + 3.5" 2TB 'green' drive. This will happily record 3 x HDTV channels while watching another channel or a recording, so you don't need mega CPU performance or very fast hard drives for an HTPC PVR.

Tony