SageTV vs Media Center

[Digger]

By the time I buy an operating system, hard drive, larger power supply etc etc wouldnt it be cheaper to just start from scratch?

 

[Mike]

Well I will be honest and note that when I was goign to upgrade mine with those parts I realized I had some other spares and just built a new one.

 

[Digger]

I was thinking of maybe buying and HP Medai Center instead of starting from scratch:

Rough numbers to build from scratch

Case w/PS $60
Motherboard $100
CPU $150
2 Gig Ram $200
Windows Media Center $200
Tuner Card $50
Video Card $75
Hard Drive $150
DVD Drive $65
Misc parts $100

New out of the box $1000 so its only saving me $200 and I will have alot of aggravation I think. If I salvage anything from my old computer I have to buy a new one to replace my everyday computer anyway.

No cheap way out.

 

[Digger]

Does anyone think this would be a good start?




HP Media Center

 

[electron]

That's a nice box for sure, specs are very similar to my own HTPC, which seems to be almost overkill.

 

[IVB]

Not enough info - which mobo, which cpu, which tuner card, which video card, what the target resolution is going to be on your monitor (ie 1080p vs 480p).

Any one of those things sized wrong would make life hard.

 

[Digger]

It will be more of a server for sage. I want to put my DVD's on the machine and also stream video to other computers and to TV's with the sage extender boxes. In total up to 4 people viewing at once.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Are you guys considering an opensource free HTPC, in this case, linux+MythTV combo? You can put the $200 amount( was the MCE amount above) for a 2 tuner high definition card(Fusion Dvico HDTV 5 lite). I'm using it and am happy with the results.

I just don't know though if you would like to integrate it with other Window based application like your existing CQC.

 

[IVB]

It will be more of a server for sage. I want to put my DVD's on the machine and also stream video to other computers and to TV's with the sage extender boxes. In total up to 4 people viewing at once.

Knowing which mobo is still important as i've had massive issues with some chipsets (ie, my VIA one never worked quite right, with more than just SageTV)

Also, v1 is right - if it's just a server, why do you need MCE? XP Pro might be a better choice.