PizzaMan

Well, recording two channels is more of a perk. The main objective is getting him able to schedule recordings and watching as many channels as are offered by his cable service. After connecting the cable directly to the TV, I can tell that some channels are encyrpted. Are their tuner card available that will decrypt his channels.

ATM, his service is offering the SA 8300HD cable box if that helps.

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EvilGenius007

Pizza, you should check out the link Duckie provided--input your ZIP code, choose your cable provider & see which stations will be available with a "normal" clearQAM capable tuner. If it's not the stations that will work for your father, you'll be looking for OCUR mobo + cable card (+ some extra hoops).

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DuckYy

just a quick question, what kind of graphic card would you recommend using for a 52" tv? do you need like a 4850 or can a 3850 do the job?

also, for the proc, would a 5050e be enough?

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Shopping List: sata dvd drive, graphic card, fan controller
To Do: install fan grill, make divider, cable management

EvilGenius007

The size of the TV won't matter, just the resolution. A 1080p television will be 1920x1080 regardless of physical size. If you're not going to do gaming, a 4550 should be enough. For gaming I'd probably recommend a 4770 before a 4850, as you'll save a chunk of change and have less heat issues. If you can stretch your budget to 4770 crossfire you'll definitely not be GPU limited at 1920x1080 gaming.

For your proc, a 5050e should also be fine due to the fixed resolution.

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DuckieHo

A $20 HD3450 or onboard HD3200 has been shown to be enough for 1080p. It doesn't take much using new tech that has been explicitly designed for HD playback. A $20 new video card is better at playback than some much more powerful older video cards (like the 8800GTX).

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To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular

skieper

very nice guide, but how about cooling sugestions? I just threw in some 'old' parts in a small box and started from there with my build. The CPU Pentium D 3.0GHz can still handle most off the games atm but when pushed to 100% for a longer stretch, the fan also goes to 100% making the small almost inaudible box turn into a 737 at take-off. Since I'm planning to change the CPU to a quad Q8200 that's still lying here, im not planning on changing the cooling right now.
But for people having the same issue and that not have a 'cooler' spare CPU it might be interesting to know which coolers are recomended and which to stay clear from.
Especially with the limited airflow and space I think for many people a little help in choosing a good/great cooler would be very much appriciated.

EvilGenius007

I think that's a pretty good suggestion Skieper, but it's hard to verify the noise levels of a product without actually owning it. I can recommend the Cooler Master RR-CCH-P912-GP CPU Cooler and the Arctic Cooling ACF8PWM 80mm Case Fan as starting points, because I have experience with them.

I'll try to find some good resources for further reading on the topic, and perhaps some general guidelines as far as converting "dB" reported by manufacturers into acceptable & unacceptable noise ranges.

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PizzaMan

I ended up ordering this card. Took the cable connection, put a 2-way splitter on the end and made two connections to the tuner card. Installed software and now have my dad recording on two tuners. Ended up not needing the set-top box for his installation. Thanks for the help guys.

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EvilGenius007

Glad it's working out for you! The HVR-2250 actually gets two TV signals from 1 connection, though. The second connection is for FM Radio. If you're connecting cable and not an antenna I'd go ahead & disconnect it!

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PizzaMan

With only one cable connected it only set up one tuner. I had to connect a second cable to the one labeled as FM. The FM will work with a normal signal.

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GTL testing and tweaking for all 7 series nVidia boards