Hi i'm new to the whole build you own computer feild and i was wondering if you guys could help me,
My goal is to have a computer that can record two shows at once while watching one of the two recording shows, what would be the cheapest comfiguration i could have to get by?


Thanks for you help,
Jonathan

HighDef or StandardDef recording?

standard tv

I have a 1.8 ghz Pentium IBM tower that cost me $100 on ebay.
To it I added memory to get it up to 1gig, a Pvr 250 and 350 (ebay), 250 gig HD, and 5200 Nvidia card (TV out). Cost about $390, does excellent work as a production machine for the family's watching.

Hi,
I have a Dell Demension L400C 400mhz, 256ram 13 gig hd & pvr-350. Running R5C7 on it and I can watch a recording while recording a show to watch later. The 13gig gives about 4 hours of record time. "using 4.2 GB (3 hrs 28 mins) out of 7.5 GB (1.3 GB free)" My kids use it to watch some shows that come on after their bed time.

A neighbor was going to throw the computer in the trash because it wouldn't run any more (windows had more infections than the law allows)

If I were to add a second x50 card I would have what you are after for a total cost of the 350 and the second card. After three years I have yet to have a need for two tuners, but maybe that is just me.

My main "production" machine is a used, recycled 600mhz Dell GX1 with the only difference being drive size. "28 programs, using 38 GB (32 hrs 37 mins) out of 260 GB (167 GB free) + 8 videos".

I recently bought an old GateWay Essential 993C, $40, 997mhz with 128 meg, added extra 128meg & 40 gig drive and use that for experimenting with R5D1 and TrixBox1.2. I just ordered a150LP for it as it is a sff box. For a $1.29 I added a handle to it and carry it out for show and tell

Maybe that offers some ideas of what you can use start.

Mike

buy a sensible, but cheap motherboard, and the cheapest AMD processor you can buy. Use 512mb of memory, and spend the rest on tuner cards and disk space.

I have a cheap clone mb, and an athlon xp2000, The machine does not bfreak a sweat with 2 dvb-t usb tuners, and a BT878 for recording from a cable box.

Put the machine somewhere unobtrusive, and you will not have to spend money on attractive cases or quiet components, If you don't and you have a woman in your house she'll complain that it's ugly, or noisy or both! And the more attractive and quiet the kit is, the more expensive.

The Antec SLK1650B case on my KM box is actually very quiet and all of about $60US, a bit more if you have to mail order and have it shipped. Frankly, and to my annoyance, it's actually quieter than the workstation box where I spent more $$$ and went to a great deal more effort to try to build a very quiet machine.

Also since the shape, height and color kind of match my TV stand it's not even an eyesore.

Frankly there are a lot of factors, since you are shooting for SD TV with at least 2 tuners the PVR 500 would be a good tuner. Like a lot of ppl point out if you have access to old hardware that is very cost effective. Then choice can be as simple as tuner and TV card (if video out required). But with old hardware be prepared to do some homework or spend some money on upgrades. I have managed to install KM on every piece of hardware I have attempted on, but have run into integrated video issues and sound driver issue. If at all possible search the forum before purchasing.

If you are building from scratch I wouldn't cut too many corners unless your are good with Linux or have time to spend. Since you are doing SD TV maybe shoot for the KM Dragon specs with PVR-500 dual tuner card and cut back on the components that aren't as important to you (smaller HDD, less RAM, not as compact/silent case and PS).