Media server and DVR machine

mogli

Member
Dec 2, 2004
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LG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black IDE Model GSA-H22L - Retail

Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

areca ARC-1210 PCI-Express x 8 bus SATA II RAID Controller Card - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 2.0GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E4400 - Retail

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
x4

SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W Power Supply - Retail

GIGABYTE GV-N52128DS-RH GeForce FX 5200 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

- Is the power supply sufficient?
- I will only be using this as a Media server (pictures/music) and a DVR
- Is the RAID controller adequate?

Thank you.
 

montypythizzle

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2006
3,698
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An AGP card in a PCI-E board?!?!?

As much as I want to believe in Seasonic, I do not think a 330W is going to be that great.
Upgrade the PSU by getting a E4300, same cache slightly lower but not noticeable clockspeed.
Does that board have a 8X PCI-E slot?
Get a SATA burner they are comparably priced to the IDE drives.
Why no tuner with this DVR?
 

jtvang125

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2004
5,399
51
91
Why not atleast a 8500GT or 8600GT/GTS? They have full h.264 acceleration just incase you want to go hddvd or bluray on this media center in the future.
 

Quasmo

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2004
9,630
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That RAID controller is awesome. I've done alot of research on it and think that the Areca cards are the best, I use a 1220, it's lightning fast. Get a video card with HDMI or atleast HDCP over DVI. I'd suggest getting a HD Homerun for two of your tuners, and then 2 ATI analog tuners with the new theater chips.
 

montypythizzle

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2006
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Originally posted by: jtvang125
Why not atleast a 8500GT or 8600GT/GTS? They have full h.264 acceleration just incase you want to go hddvd or bluray on this media center in the future.

2X00 ATi cards are better at it.
 

jtvang125

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2004
5,399
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Originally posted by: montypythizzle
Originally posted by: jtvang125
Why not atleast a 8500GT or 8600GT/GTS? They have full h.264 acceleration just incase you want to go hddvd or bluray on this media center in the future.

2X00 ATi cards are better at it.

According to Anand's review the 2x00 is slightly better at 3-5% less cpu utilization. It does do a lot better in VC-1 though but is offset but the minor problem that Ati cards tend to lose the video signals to a tv through the dvi output.
 

Quasmo

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2004
9,630
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Originally posted by: jtvang125
Originally posted by: montypythizzle
Originally posted by: jtvang125
Why not atleast a 8500GT or 8600GT/GTS? They have full h.264 acceleration just incase you want to go hddvd or bluray on this media center in the future.

2X00 ATi cards are better at it.

According to Anand's review the 2x00 is slightly better at 3-5% less cpu utilization. It does do a lot better in VC-1 though but is offset but the minor problem that Ati cards tend to lose the video signals to a tv through the dvi output.

Bingo, I'm an ATI fan, but for a home theater I recommend nVidia, I ended up getting a DVI Detective (Fixes the ATI problem), so now I can use both.
 

erwos

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2005
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Originally posted by: montypythizzle
As much as I want to believe in Seasonic, I do not think a 330W is going to be that great.
As long as the PSU is high quality/efficiency, and the Seasonics supposedly are, he'll be completely fine. I'm running a system with a Q6600/4gb/8600GTS on a 400W PSU. Voltages and such are completely fine, and it can survive Supreme Commander stress-testing.

The OP only really needs MPEG-2 hardware acceleration if all he's doing is DVR stuff. It's overkill, but an 8400GS would probably suit him pretty well - unlike UVD, PV isn't clockspeed dependent, AFAIK. The drivers for the new ATI/AMD cards are half-baked for video playback, which is another problem unto itself.
 

dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
5,626
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Originally posted by: erwos
Originally posted by: montypythizzle
As much as I want to believe in Seasonic, I do not think a 330W is going to be that great.
As long as the PSU is high quality/efficiency, and the Seasonics supposedly are, he'll be completely fine. I'm running a system with a Q6600/4gb/8600GTS on a 400W PSU. Voltages and such are completely fine, and it can survive Supreme Commander stress-testing.

The OP only really needs MPEG-2 hardware acceleration if all he's doing is DVR stuff. It's overkill, but an 8400GS would probably suit him pretty well - unlike UVD, PV isn't clockspeed dependent, AFAIK. The drivers for the new ATI/AMD cards are half-baked for video playback, which is another problem unto itself.

I'm doing the following on Acer's stock 300W PSU:

Q6600
nVidia 8800GTS/320
4 x 500GB SATA HDD
4 x 1GB PC6400 memory
1 x DVDRW drive
Hauppauge PVR-500 dual tv tuner PCI card

His 300W PSU will be easily enough and will have plenty of headroom for growth later.