Help Needed

[pacde]

I need helpfull advice from hardware guru's to build a system to be integrated into my home network for the following purposes:

1) Home security and monitoring: the system will monitor home camera's and alert me at work if anything strange happens etc. So it will be serving video over the web but it doesnt have to be perfect.

2) Home theatre: I want to be able to T/VIVO, surround sound, multimedia serving, access the different home entertainment components etc.

Quietness and coolness are factors. I live in a very warm condo and the machine will be running virtually all the time. Also it shouldnt distract from my home entertainment.

I prefer to run Linux, so the hardware has to have linux support which means probably not the most cutting edge, maybe stuff a year or two back in technology (my own rule of thumb). I need to be able to burn DVD's, CD's etc and access various tv programs from different machines on the network.

I live in Canada so some stuff isnt as readily available. For example newegg doesnt ship here (why? I dont understand that).

This is what Ive been thinking so far:
CPU: Intel P4 3.0 GHz
MOBO: Asus P4P800 SE i865 PE
RAM: 2* 512MB OCZ PC-3200
VC: Asus V9570TD GeForce FX5700 128 or 256 Mb
HD: 2* Maxtor 200GB with 8MB cache

Im a computer programmer but Im not a hardware guru. If you have anything to suggest or add, please give me any suggestions.

 

[waynejkruse10]

go with a amd athlon xp, 2800+ or higher, amd are much cheaper and i have always recomended AMD and so would heaps of people here on Tech forums, i use a Asus A7N8x-x with my AXP but heaps of people say Asus is crap but if your not overclocking, Asus should be fine, for Athlon xp, go for a Asus a7n8x, its fast and full featured. since your going to go with a last generation video card, go with the 9800xt but since you need VIVO, make sure you get that model. the HDD's since youre getting 2 of the same, use raid 0 , it increases hdd performance alot, you could get a wd 200gb hdd with 8mb cache SATA which will boost performance slightly.
hope ive helped
wayne

 

[killians45]

If money is no object and you want it to be more specialy designed you can always go way of PLC (programmable logic controller). All you need to do is know how to write a little code (its VERY similar to VB6) and know about virtual, real and derived points. With that knowledge you could almost start you own made to order security/alarm software and house hold detection setup and designs.

 

[pacde]

Thanks for the tips.

A couple of questions: I havent checked to see if the 9800xt is Linux supported, and if it is, Ill definitely look at that suggestion, but why do people think that Asus boards are crap? do you know what kind of problems people experience? Good tip on the RAID too.

About the PLC's, this is an interesting suggestion. I think you are suggesting putting the processing out with the cameras and then network the camera's? is that right? Ive actually worked with this a bit when I made a robot one time. I forget how it all worked, but basically we ran a small robot over wireless with a laptop. This is definitely something I should consider. I guess I would still need a server though.