Newbie, Need some recommendations please.... (1 Viewer)

[dhenry]

Hi, I'm new to this stuff and would kindly appreciate some help if anyone has the time. I'm attempting to build my first PVR and have many questions and hurdles to get past. I have a Dell Precision 650 Workstation with (2) 3.06 ghz processors, 1 gb of ram and will be replacing the hard drive. This thing will support SCSI with Raid, IDE and SATA drives. I'm familiar with SATA but not sure about SCSI or Raid. Would this be a good computer to use if I get a new hard drive and if so what type would be the best? I've read about some drives designed just for DVR/PVR use but without any experience, not sure what to buy. I'll probably need to add another gig of ram or do I need more than 2? I've got a Hauppauge 1600 capture card and the computer already has an Nvidia Quatro FX1000 with 128mb with dual DVI-I. I've already got it hooked up to my HD flatscreen via the DVI and it looks good. Am I on the right track here?

Thanks,
DH

 

[flintstone99]

AW: Newbie, Need some recommendations please....

Hi,

Without knowing more details I am still sure the processors should be fine for a stand alone solution. No real need for raid or SCSi, Sata should be also fine. Take a big one, as an hour of dvb-s recording (.TS) will cost 2GB! So if you want to record a lot and keep it, do not hesitate to go to 1-2 TB models. I use normal drives e.g. Samsung ecogreens with 5400rpm's, no special ones.
1GB of RAM should also work (search in the forum) but with the current prices I would go fo 2GB. That s what I use and it is fine, no necessity to go to 4GB.
What you should actually check inthe forum is the graphics card. No experience with your one, but 128MB is definitively very low. In my living room I am using a AMD 5450 card which is fine for HD TV and everything I use and gives me a good picture. No Blue Ray experience however....They are just at 40euro.

Regards
Flintstone

 

[dhenry]

Thanks for the quick reply Flintstone! Not sure what all details you need but what I want to do is record OTA in HD, and basic cable (my provider is Comcast) and to be able to pause live tv etc. My existing equipment is: Sharp Aquos LC-46D92U, PS3 (my blueray player), Pioneer DV-400V, and a Pioneer DVr-520H, all connected to a Denon Home Theatre kick but sound system. BTY, what will be the status of digital sound? Will I need a sound card to achieve that with the video?

 

[flintstone99]

AW: Newbie, Need some recommendations please....

Well.....
The details I had in mind was the processor type. Really old 3ghz CPUs could be critical, so what is it? Also consider power consumption and heat dissipation ==> heat means cooling means noise, so if the boy shall go to he living room.....I use an AMD Athlon X2 with 2x2.7GHz and that is more than sufficient for OTA in HD, but that is DVB-S2 in Europe with Astra, while it is Atsc for you?
Digital Audio has two major options to my understanding: via digital output of the sondcard or the motherboard integrated audio (spdif/ optical). Other option is via HDMI, that could indeed come from the graphics card. Here you have to check on the standard. Newest as I believe is HDMI 1.4.
Regards
Flintstone

 

[dhenry]

Re: AW: Newbie, Need some recommendations please....

Sorry to drag this out. I'm really new to this and I appreciate your patience. Here are what specs I could find on the processors:

Processor #1
Xeon 3.06GHz Hyper Threading, 533MHz FSB, 512KB L2 Cache, 1MB L3 Cache
Processor #2
Same as number 1.

Does that help?