best PCI vid for games + TV

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris
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Chris

I have a cheap motherboard (VIA 1.3GHz) with 2 PCI slots on it. I want
to make this into a TV viewing/recording box. It would also be nice to
have it game capable so I can have an extra LAN for some games (not
new ones, i have my main box for that).

Looking around I have some options
1 - get a TV Wonder Pro + PCI video card (9200SE, or FX5200)
2 - get a AIW 9000
The advantage to option 1 being that I can also have the TV wonder Pro
if I upgrade anything.
Is there any better options, good/bad experiences with these
cards/setups.

My system is Syntax MB with Via 1.3 Ghz CPU. 128MB DDR (maybe could
get 256MB if needed). Everything else onboard.
 
(e-mail address removed) (Chris) wrote in @posting.google.com:
I have a cheap motherboard (VIA 1.3GHz) with 2 PCI slots on it. I want
to make this into a TV viewing/recording box. It would also be nice to
have it game capable so I can have an extra LAN for some games (not
new ones, i have my main box for that).

Looking around I have some options
1 - get a TV Wonder Pro + PCI video card (9200SE, or FX5200)
2 - get a AIW 9000
The advantage to option 1 being that I can also have the TV wonder Pro
if I upgrade anything.
Is there any better options, good/bad experiences with these
cards/setups.

My system is Syntax MB with Via 1.3 Ghz CPU. 128MB DDR (maybe could
get 256MB if needed). Everything else onboard.
Click to expand...

I don't know what OS you are running, but even Windows 2000 will be doing a
lot of swapping to disk with only 128MB of system ram. I'd run minimum
256MB, especially if you plan to go to Windows XP, but even if I stayed on
Windows 2000. If you are going to be capturing, recording, converting or
editing video, you can use the RAM.

As far as the video card goes, it depends what you expect to get out of
your system. If you want to get the most out of it, then I'd go with an
ATI 9800 AIW. This will offer the best performance in terms of accelerated
mpeg recording and playback, as well as better performance for games if you
still intend to play games on this system. It also comes with the TV
Wonder Remote control, which makes it easier to use as a TV.

If you just want the bare minimum to play TV, then you could get the
cheapest AIW card. OR you could go for a USB TV tuner which you can move to
any PC you want. The recording speeds / resolutions might not be as good
but it will be more portable than a PCI card, such that you could put it on
any newer PC or laptop.
 
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