Building my first PVR

[Woggle]

Hi there,

I'm looking into options for building my first PVR here in the UK.

I'm doing this on a budget so not looking for anything fantastic but so far have bought / found the following bits:

Pentium 4 2.4Ghz CPU Processor
I've managed to get hold of an old Compaq Evo D500 Series Case and Motherboard (Small Form Factor) with 2 PCI slots on a riser (http://h18002.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10946_div/10946_div.HTML for spec and http://www.ciao.co.uk/Compaq_Evo_D500__5346893 for picture)
DVD Drive
Akasa AK675 Heatsink and Cooler

Which leaves me with the following:

3 x 512MB RAM
500GB Hard Drive (Seagate as I'm looking for this PVR to be very quiet)
Power Supply and additional fans
Digital Tuner

However, I need some thoughts about:

1. Casing: I can't say that the case is the most attractive I've ever seen. Is there anything else that might be suitable which would fit with the motherboard I have or would it be easiest to go with the same case as it has inbuilt sound as I only have 2 PCI slots (one of which will be taken up by the Digital Tuner).

2. Graphics Card: There is space for a half height AGP graphics card. Any thoughts? Would I be able to get HD from this spec or am I going to be pushing it?

4. Digital Tuner: I'm looking for something that allows me to watch live Freeview (UK) TV whilst recording another. Any thoughts?

I think I'm going to be loading Linux on here so I'll need it to be compatible with that.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

[Miller]

Silverstone has a lot of case options. Some are the shorter cases that use the riser and half-height cards.

www.silverstonetek.com

You can get HD out of AGP graphics. You'll want either a nVidia 6600 or a 7300 or higher card. Not sure which come in half-height, but I'm sure some do.

I don't know the specs for Freeview, but Hauppauge makes quite a few cards with digital tuners that work well. I'd go that route.

[Woggle]

Hiya,

Thanks for the advice. I've had a look at the GeForce 6200 which comes in AGP half height. Is this massively different from the 6600 or 7200?

[Miller]

Yes, I don't think the 6200 has the horsepower for HD. Sorry.