I need some input.
This is what I have in my computer right now.
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Asus A7V Motherboard with USB connections
Athlon 1GHz CPU
Micron 750MB of DDR Ram PC2100 Cas2.5
300GB Hard Drive - 2 Partitions - Primarly Empty - 7200RPM, Cache??
60GB Hard Drive - 2 Partitions - O/S (XP media) and programs - 7200RPM, Cache??
Creative Soundblaster Live Value Sound Card
Rage Fury Pro/Xpert 2000 Pro (One Card) Video Card
19" LCD
LG DVDRW (1 year old)
Plextor CDRW (4+ years old) 12/10/32A speeds
Enermax Powersupply 350W
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Some of the problems that I continually have are, when I have several internet windows open (3 to 5 windows open, with little to no video and sound in each internet window), then I open a PDF file to view online information, all while listening to MP3's, the sound just hangs-up, the sound skips back about a second and repeats itself until the computer is done whatever its trying to do. This happens very common when I open a PDF file, but even if I dont it still does the same thing. Is this because I have a cheap soundcard, or is it CPU, Ram problems. I use a p2p network for mp3 playing.
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I would like to hook up my system to the TV. TV has many connections available, including HDMI and various others. I know I need a PVR card, which one is best to buy? mid range. I have digital cable, not satellite. I would love to record TV shows onto my computers hard drive. Instead of recording them to DVDRW discs on my DVD recorder. An internet TV guide would be nice to have, but I am with Shaw in Canada. Should I spring for a new system, perhaps a 3GHz or more CPU. Should I stay AMD or go Intel? I heard that DuoCore is good to have. I would probably throw in 2GB ram. My TV and my desktop computer are 20' away, So I would have to go wireless.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I used to be into computers, but I am not up to date on the latest and greatest parts. I used to build my own computers. I was told to stay away from Dell and MDG, so I will figure what parts I need and get the computer parts store to put it together. I would probably stay ASUS motherboard, Intel CPU, and SATA Hard Drives.

 

Well for starters, I dunno who told you to stay away from Dell, but they need their head examined. EVERY computer company has issues, and from personal experience, not to mention I'm a Dell certified tech, Dell is about the best prebuilt system you can buy. Can you build one better? Sure...but do you have the cash?

There's two ways you can do this.....

1.) Buy/build a new system. Use this system for your daily work, games, and any other activity you so desire. This gives you piece of mind not only because your old system is fairly outdated, but also because it gives you new toys to play with.

Then take the old one and use it exclusively for recording your shows/hooking it up to your TV. Media PC's dont need to have a whole lot of power, just harddrive space and a decent video/sound card. You can pick up cheapo cards that'll do the job fairly easy.


2.) Max out your current system hardware wise. Basically, try to maximize the performance of your current machine. I dont generally recommend it when a system is as old as yours. Why? Because you're dropping more cash into something that's outdated and parts will become harder to find overtime. With option 1, you at least have a second PC on hand that's more then capable of doing this and whatever else.


Are there other possible options? Sure there are. Are they cheap? I really cant say. It all really depends on how you want this to go, and what you ultimately want to use it for.

As for hardware.....again, we'd need a better idea of what kind of spending limit you have to really break it down for ya....

 

i got a $50 Happauge Win-TV-Plus from newegg and it works pretty well. wouldn't recommend it for something that you want quality recording though. but for tv viewing its pretty nice. remote sucks though.

 

i agree with devilsreject...for what you're doing, i'd just get a new Dell rather than screw around trying to upgrade your's. you should be able to get one fairly reasonably....and get the TV card and plenty of processor speed and, more importantly, RAM to keep you running for a long time. Take the big hard disk out of your's and drop that in the new one for TV shows and you're set. Good luck.

 

I've been using Dell computers for about 6 or 7 years now and I have no complaints. My first computer I bought lasted6 years. It went from state of the art when purchased to still haning with the average computer when I finally retired her last year. Dell's customer service is second to none as well.

 

If you have a friend that's good with computers I'd recommend getting them to build you one over buying dell/hp/etc... By pricing out the right parts on Newegg and putting it together yourself or getting a friend to do it you can get almost twice the system for the money. I just built a system for a friend for about 2k that would cost in the high 3k's from dell or any other company to use for animation/rendering and gaming. Granted there's no blanket warranty there but many parts have their own warranties (for instance 5 years on seagate hard drives) and parts dying on you is actually pretty rare.

 

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