Sempron 64 3200+ vs Athlon 64 3400+

[iyzmi]

Actually my TV does have a VGA in so I can use it as a monitor with any computer. Does this make any difference for your recommendations?

My video card choices are (from cheapest to most expensive):
1. Radeon X1050
2. GeForce 7100GS
3. GeForce 7300LE
4. Radeon X1550

Should I just go with the cheapest one because I will be upgrading later either way?

This is the mobo I chose:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813185093
Will it's onboard video be enough or do I need a vid card anyway. How about sound?

 

[robmurphy]

The MSI 7184 MB in my HP machine uses the ATI RS482 chipset. The onboard video is more than adequate for the display of the TV live or captured. Its running with XP Home on 512Meg of memory, so if funds are tight then you can just use 512 Meg of memory. Hard disk space does get used quite quickly, so I would get at least 160 - 200 Gig storage. 1 hours recording on good quality uses about 1.4 Gig of disk space, so you can judge how much space you need for yourself. The disk in the HP is PATA not SATA so if you have a spare PATA drive you could use that as extra storage for the captured video.

If youre are getting a MB then check it will take at least 4 Gig of ram. Many of the cheaper motherboards only take 2 Gig. Often the ones that onlt take 2 gig only have 2 memory slots instead of 4.

As with the video the sound on my machine uses the onboard sound, and that gives stereo in good quality.

Not paying for the video card, and a sound card should save some money so I would use that to get a good motherboard, PSU, and case. You can add PCIE graphics, more memory, and a faster processor later.

Rob Murphy

 

[apache_lives]

with amd's dual cores (and single cores for that matter) so cheap why bother with single core! buy the cheapest dual core you can get

 

[impreza]

I understand costs are a factor, but I do have a suggestion....

AM2 will be the way to go since it gives you some flexibility for future 'upgrading' in my opinion.

Next, skip over the single core (though they are very cheap right now) and look into getting a dual core. AMD is dropping prices almost daily, and soon they will have a significant number of their dual core prices under 100 bucks. It would be worth the extra 30-50 bucks over a single core to go dual core..... my reason, over time cheaper HD DVD or Blu-Ray drives will appear, and it will be pretty straight forward so just add in a drive and get an HD DVD-Blu-Ray player out of your HTPC.... and in most cases, higher quality and cheaper than a set top box.

Finally, when putting together your system, look for video output that supports HDCP at the minimum, most all cards now support DVI which will make them DVI or HDMI compatible.... however, without the HDCP certification will not play on most HD TVs if this is in your future.

Jack

Will this work, if not what's the cheapest card I can get that to work with my 40" 1080p LCD?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127269

The PC will be mainly used for watching online videos and acting as a DVR for recording TV. I need the cheapest system I can get to do this. (hopefully around $300)

well my winfast 200xp uses about 30-50% of my 4200 x2 when recording tv @ 768 x 576 in divx @ 2mb/s or about 10% @ 352 x288 so if you want decent resolution a dual core is defently worth it in the log run. I know my old 3000+ xp used to pause every so often when recording video @ 768x576 I'm not sure how semprons compare

 

[apache_lives]

I understand costs are a factor, but I do have a suggestion....

AM2 will be the way to go since it gives you some flexibility for future 'upgrading' in my opinion.

Next, skip over the single core (though they are very cheap right now) and look into getting a dual core. AMD is dropping prices almost daily, and soon they will have a significant number of their dual core prices under 100 bucks. It would be worth the extra 30-50 bucks over a single core to go dual core..... my reason, over time cheaper HD DVD or Blu-Ray drives will appear, and it will be pretty straight forward so just add in a drive and get an HD DVD-Blu-Ray player out of your HTPC.... and in most cases, higher quality and cheaper than a set top box.

Finally, when putting together your system, look for video output that supports HDCP at the minimum, most all cards now support DVI which will make them DVI or HDMI compatible.... however, without the HDCP certification will not play on most HD TVs if this is in your future.

Jack

Will this work, if not what's the cheapest card I can get that to work with my 40" 1080p LCD?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127269

The PC will be mainly used for watching online videos and acting as a DVR for recording TV. I need the cheapest system I can get to do this. (hopefully around $300)

well my winfast 200xp uses about 30-50% of my 4200 x2 when recording tv @ 768 x 576 in divx @ 2mb/s or about 10% @ 352 x288 so if you want decent resolution a dual core is defently worth it in the log run. I know my old 3000+ xp used to pause every so often when recording video @ 768x576 I'm not sure how semprons compare

semperon's from the athlon 64 range are actually really decent, a 3000+ semperon will take out a 3ghz northwood b, and a P4 2600c and most of (if not all) the athlon xp's

 

[robmurphy]

My HP machine with the Hauppauge wintv150 card works fine with no dropouts. The cpu is a semperon 3400+ (S939) and the CPU occupancy is usulay about 10% when recording. This is recording broadcast TV, not video capture though. Compression to DivX may need more CPU bandwith than recording in MPG2.

Rob.