My New Toy

Thanks to my wife and my parents, I recieved the components I needed for Christmas to build a Multimedia DVR PC. My eventual goal is to be able to record and play HD programming, but this little guy is the first step.

First - I needed a good, compact mobo that incorporates as much as possible without sacrificing quality. I chose this MSI Micro ATX Mobo with the following specs:

•	4 DIMMs w/ DDR 400 upto 4 GB
•	1 PCI-E 16X; 3 PCI; 8 USB
•	6 Ch. Audio; 10/100 LAN; IEEE 1394; RAID; SATA; ATA133
•	ATI Radeon Integrated Graphics, 1 x S-Video port,1 x Composite TV-Out

The mobo supports the Socket 939, with the ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 Chipset, 128 meg onboard ATI graphics, dual channel ram (I put 2 one gig chips in). I chose the Athlon 64 3000+ CPU. I also chose a Western Digital 300 gig IDE drive for System files and storage, and a 80 gig SATA for video capture. I put in an ATI All-In-Wonder TV Tuner / Encoder card for testing, but this will only be temporary. I use the component out to route video through my amp to the LG 42 inch HD TV.

The next task was to find a nice, component sized case that blends well with my other audio components. For this - I chose the Enermax 100s MediaCenter. I found it from the fine folks at Extreme PC Gear.

The case has very good ventilation, with ultra quiet fans, and has front side USB and Firewire, with a 7 in 1 Card reader behind front sliding doors.

The LCD monitors and controls CPU and Case fan speed, CPU and Case Temperatures and drive activity.

I put a Philips 16 X Dual layer DVD burner in it to complete the setup.

The last decision to make was an OS - but there really wasn't any choice - XP Media Center was built just for this purpose. I am very impressed with it - once you have all your MP3's tagged properly, sorted your photos, and your video files arranged and cataloged, Media Center imports them. Using the internet connection, it automatically downloads cover art and pertinient info into a very sleek interface. See the screenshots below:




















The next endeavor will be to purchase an HD Video Card / Encoder / Output card. I'm about 90% sold on the MyHD MDP 130 card, with it's matching daughter card. This will allow me to encode and playback at up to 1080i resolution, and also provide an optical connection for 7.1 audio playback. I was all ready to pull the trigger on one, until I noticed that I need tires for the Touareg, so it'll have to wait a little while longer.