Home Entertainment cum Security System PC

[Sevenor]

Hi everybody,

I hope you nice guys out there can give me some advice on the pc which I plan to put together, with the following purposes in mind:

(1) As my PC-based Digital Video Recorder
- to record TV programs when I'm out;
(2) As heart of my Internet-based CCTV Surveillance System


(A) I do not need tip-top graphics on my pc monitor as I do not play games (That's why I have chosen a low-end graphic card).

(B) Neither do I plan to watch TV (recorded or otherwise) on my PC. Instead, I plan stream it to my TV set in another part of my house via Hauppauge's MediaMVP (smw.internet.com/yours/reviews/mvp/).

(C) I do plan to overclock in the future.

The system I have in mind:
Motherboard: DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLI-D
Processor: AMD Athlon64 3000+
Memory: Corsair XMZ Xpert TwinXP102403200XL
Graphic Card: GeCube ATI Radeon X300/256MB
PSU: Enermax 480W Coolergiant
Hard Drives: Seagate 200GB Baracuda 7200 rpm/SATA NCQ
TV Tuner Card: Hauppauge WinTV PVR350

Any advice will be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Alex81388]

Oay, since you don't want a powerful VCARD, you don't need a board supporting SLI. By looking at this option, you can loose DFI as a MB manufacturer option.

Second, if you are going to be manipulating video (which you will with survelience and cable tv programs), you are going to want a more powerful CPU.

If you feel like an Athlon64, then probably look at the 3200+ in 939. The 1MB Cache will benefiet you greatly for what you want to do.

Finally, instead of one stick of a Gig of ram, get two 512's, and utilize socket 939's Dual Channel to get better performance from the system.

Good luck!

 

[HAVOC]

IMO

AMD isn't a good choice here for what you wanna do with this PC. You could probably build this system for less then $1000 USD. I would go with an Intel 3.2GHz 540 LGA775. Look for a MSI or ASUS MOBO - Grab a set of (2x512MB) DDR400, a Seagate 250GIG HDD, Pick up a high-end PVR card... There's a really nice case i saw the other day... let me see if i can find it...

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811126138

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Any Intel chip would beat an AMD chip when dealing with video for now i think....

 

[diabloII]

meh, amd costs a lot less and the difference isn't that great at all

 

[Alex81388]

I'm not going to argue CPU types here, but make sure to get Dual Channel Ram!

 

[Sevenor]

Thanks guys for all your inputs.

I think I'll go for the AMD (Socket 939) platform bcos
(a) I want to be able to run 64-bit applications in the future;
(b) I like its Cool N Quiet feature;
(c) I like the extra protection against virus that its No Execute feature affords.


I definitely want to overclock my pc in the future. I agree that since I don't game I may not need a SLI-ed mobo. Then how about the DFI UT nF4 Ultra-D mobo?

The reasons I like to stick to DFI mobos cos from what I gathered they are overclockers friendly (Correct?) plus I like how they glow under UV light.


Yes, I do plan to make use of the dual channel memory interface using one matched pair RAM of 256 or 512MB. But is my choice of RAM (the Corsair I listed) good for overclocking? I like the LED display of this memory but I'm prepared to let it go if it's not as good as those from say G Skill or OCZ RAMs that I read on the forum.

Can somebody recommend me some good low/mid-end graphics cards also.

Thanks so much!