potential htpc build help

hey guys, its been a while since ive been around the forums, but ive decided that im going to build an htpc....this pc will serve as the brains for my whole home pretty soon so i will be running it 24/7 so i want it to consume as little power as possible. this is what ive come up with so far...also i dont want to spend much on this computer so this is what i hope to accomplish with this htpc...

currently i have two dvr's in my home and a bunch of cable boxes along with a computer in each room... what i want to do is take out all those cable boxes, and dvr's and replace it with one machine(htpc) that can record my tv and have the recording accesible from each room.i hope to downsize to only needing one cable box, maybe 2. i dont want to actually use the htpc to tune the channels, but rather just record the output from the cable box and to control the cable box(and use an ir balster to control the cable box, and change channels, order movies on demand etc.)

so far this is the setup i have in mind:
-VIA pc-1 Platform VIA C7-D 1.5GHz CPU + VIA CN700 motherboard(at most 20 watts)$60
-2 gigs of memory(probably around 50$)
-im still not sure if i need a tv tuner but if so i want a cheap hd one
-750 gig hard drive(later on, im gonna use an 80 gig i have lying around for now)
-dvdrw i have laying around(upgrade to bluray/hddvd combo drive later on)
-if i do need a graphics card which im not sure if i do, because i think i could use send out a 1280-720 signal to the reciever via a vga to component wire or directly to the projector via a vga to vga wire. im looking into a HIS Radeon X1550 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Low Profile Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161074) any other suggestions will work but i do need a pci card...
-any recommendations for a decently cheap sound card

i will be using this setup intially to power my 186" projection home theater, with 5.1 surround.

Front End: i much prefer a linux setup over a windows setup such as linuxMCE or mythTV, but i plan to get a windows media extender for each room, i want to somehow be able to use them with linux otherwise i guess ill be forced to use windows MCE or again if there are any other programs that are compatible with the media extenders

so basically i just want to know if i would be able to accomplish what i want to(use the cable box so i can still have my on demand, hbo, etc.) w/o a tv tuner or do i need one, and if i do which one would be ideal. also if i could use the media extenders with anything besides windows mce...and lastly just review the setup i have planned


thanks in advance for the help...

system is fine as long as you are viewing all SD stuff. CPU way too weak to run HD decoding.

do you know of anything comparable that will handle hd ?

urbanlegend786 said:

do you know of anything comparable that will handle hd ?

Click to expand...

I don't think that any VIA system can handle HD content. You need at least an AMD 3800+ X2.

Edit: never mind

hey illgiveumorality, you bumped a 4 month old thread