HTPC upgrade check

[Tanis143]

Ok, I have a Gateway E4300 SFF computer I use as my HTPC. Don't laugh, its not a bad little puter and I got it for free. The only change I've done was I bought a Zotec 8400 GS video card to give me HDMI output and use audio port mapping on my tv to get audio from another input. I plan on buying one of the new Ceton Mcard tv tuners when they come out and putting it in this little rig with some upgrades. Here are the current specs and what I plan to change:

Intell P4 3.4 ghz
1.5 gig (2x 512, 2x256) DDR2 800
80gig WD HD
Unknown DVDrom
Windows XP Home

Here is what I plan to upgrade:

Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EADS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

The onboard sound actually works decent and has a fiber audio connection which is a plus on such a small system. The only other thing I might upgrade is a blueray player. Wont need a burner as I have several other pc's on my network with good burners and have everything hardwired. With the cost of the Ceton card and upgrades I'm looking to spend about 800.00 for a DVR that can record up to 4 streams at once and stream to all my other pc's and 360. I would add two hard drives but sadly this case has space for only one drive. I'll probably replace the floppy disk drive with a media reader as well, but thats a side thought, not really that important as my tv reads media as well. Also, need to find an obscure 4 pin to 3pin cable to go from my onboard sound digital out to my vid card so I can get audio through HDMI, just haven't spent the time looking yet heh.

I know I would do better to replace the case and power supply to give me more options, but this is really all I need and the case is a perfect fit with how I have my tv setup. So, whatcha think?

 

[IntelOwnz]

80gb drive should be upgraded, any basic 250+gb drive is going to be easily twice as quick. win7 looks good, you may want to upgrade the processor at some point. a basic i3+mobo would be maybe $200 and would be lightyears ahead of any P4, i know for a fact that p4 can't stream 1080p unless the videocard has hardware acceleration (and your software supports it).

 

[Tanis143]

Yeah I know I should upgrade the mobo+cpu, but idk if I could find one that would fit this gateway case, and right now I don't have a tv that supports 1080p, nor is there any programing broadcasted in 1080p. It will do for now, when 1080p becomes a problem I will upgrade the mobo, cpu and ram.

 

[Schro]

I don't think you'll need to upgrade the RAM unless its to get over the 2GB minimum that is required by the Ceton card. The box in my sig can handle 4 HD and 2 SD streams recording and a separate one playing back on 1GB of ram and an Athlon X2 3800+ and still have spare time to take a jog around the living room. Given that you'll likely be moving to a DDR3 platform with the next upgrade, I dont' see the point in continued investment in DDR2 (unless you plan on it being a DDR2 based upgrade).

 

[Tanis143]

I don't think you'll need to upgrade the RAM unless its to get over the 2GB minimum that is required by the Ceton card. The box in my sig can handle 4 HD and 2 SD streams recording and a separate one playing back on 1GB of ram and an Athlon X2 3800+ and still have spare time to take a jog around the living room. Given that you'll likely be moving to a DDR3 platform with the next upgrade, I dont' see the point in continued investment in DDR2 (unless you plan on it being a DDR2 based upgrade).

The ram I have in there now is a mixed set of whatever gateway uses (2x256) and some kingston value memory (2x512). I do not know what the timings are on the gateway memory but the timings suck on the kingston. Right now the price difference between 2 gig and 4 gig is very small. I know I need to get over the 2gig required by the Ceton card, so might as well get over 4 gigs.