Building a "media center" PC

[Samik R]

Hello,

I am planning to build a "media center" PC for home. Following are the tasks which I have planned to do till now:
1. TV tuner card for both recording and playing
2. Write DVD (I can outsource DVD writing to another PC though)
3. Play MP3/VCD/DVD/DivX/Xvid files

Hardware:
1. I have got the IOMagic DVD Writer (from Staples BF this year)
2. Planning to get "fx 5200 personal cinema" or "tv wonder pro remote" version (i.e. definitely w/ a remote).

Questions:
1. What kind of CPU-Mobo will be sufficient for this? I don't wanna deluge this w/ lot of unused power.
2. How much power should be sufficient?
3. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any comments.

 

[jer4202]

I would suggest any rand of mobo that you like, just make sure it
is DDR2 compatible and preferably dual core, if not dual core, then
atleast get a 939 socket type, or a high end Intel standard. DDR2 has
much more bandwidth than standard ddr which will help with large sums
of info like videos and such. I would recommend RAIDing your hard
drives to RAID0 for speed, this will drastically reduce your video
recordings and renderings.
As far as power goes, i think if you have 2 gigs of RAM and 2 hard
drives, you will need atleast 450. When you decide on the exact parts,
find a power estimator program on the internet, they are free and
web-based so nothing to install. hope this helps!
Merry Christmas and happy new years

 

[Justice]

Hello,

I am planning to build a "media center" PC for home. Following are the
tasks which I have planned to do till now:
1. TV tuner card for both recording and playing
2. Write DVD (I can outsource DVD writing to another PC though)
3. Play MP3/VCD/DVD/DivX/Xvid files

Hardware:
1. I have got the IOMagic DVD Writer (from Staples BF this year)
2. Planning to get "fx 5200 personal cinema" or "tv wonder pro remote"
version (i.e. definitely w/ a remote).

Questions:
1. What kind of CPU-Mobo will be sufficient for this? I don't wanna
deluge this w/ lot of unused power.
2. How much power should be sufficient?
3. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any comments.

Sound good, I would go with 2 TV cards(one view one record or other
multipul programing needs).
Your power Q is a hard on I would say for a windows set up go with dual
core w/ 2+ gigs of ram for quality. IMO go with linux, check out myth
tv, then I would recomend min a 1 gig+ procesor with 512min ram and I
will work wonders.

Have fun

 

[geoff]

Sound good, I would go with 2 TV cards(one view one record or other

multipul programing needs).

I guess I do not understand that part. If one has anything other than basic
cable, requiring a set top box then whatever channel the box is turned to is
what can be watched or recorded.

-g