Thanks for the info on those two motherboards, and for reminding me about cheapo legacy PCI Video Cards.
Based upon your suggestions, here's what I've come up with:
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Ultimate Couch Potato HTPC - Version 3.0
December 1'st, 2006
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$82.99 - Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128321
$146.99 - RAM
Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 Model KVR800D2N5K2/1G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134116
$179.99 - CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+(65W) Windsor 2.2GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO4200CUBOX - Retail
$89.99 - Video Card
JATON VIDEO-338PCI-DVI GeForce 6200 256MB DDR PCI Low profile Video Card with L-P Bracket - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814139010
$16.15
FedEx Express Saver Shipping
[$516.11] NewEgg TOTAL
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$799.95 for Five Cards ($159.99 each)
VISTAVIEW Saber 2020 Dual Analog PCIe MCE TV-FM Tuner Card
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4134106
$12.95
UPS Ground Shipping
[$812.70] J&R Music World TOTAL
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-$80.00 in Rebates
[$1,328.81] Combined Total Before Rebates
[
$1,248.81] Combined Total After Rebates
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I balanced cost with preformance to get the above plan.
I already have a Case, 550 watt Antec PSU, and many Hard Drives.
However, the combined total, even after rebates, is more than I was planning to spend on this particular project.
It'd eat up all of my Christmas Bonus, and then some!
I'm going to go ahead and try to get four Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE cards that can go in my existing server,
for
$614.05 (w/ tax & Shipping included) from the Snapstream Store.
I read in another thread that they have Type-A cards in stock this month, but if that turns out to not be the case,
I'm going to return them and go with the 'Ultimate Couch Potato HTPC - Version 3.0' plan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next stage of my plan (for the Summer of 2007) is to add up to four USB 2.0 OTA HDTV Tuners to whichever
10 SD Tuner BTV Server I wind up with, but that's another story.
