"ivan" wrote in message
...

"critcher" wrote in message
news:1109104679.dcf938bf9de8d23e44c21d17470303b3@t eranews...

"ivan" wrote in message
...
After toying with the idea of buying a DVD recorder, I decided that it
would
probably be more sensible to upgrade my computer and use that instead.

At the moment I'm running a K7S5A motherboard with a Duron 700 CPU,
250M
of
memory and I'm using an external Humax Freeview receiver connected to
a
Win
TV card via the S\video input.

I realise that this set-up pretty inadequate, so I'm looking for
something
that's a little more up to the job.

I only have around £250 max to spend and was looking for a Motherboard
with
CPU, memory, 80 gig hard drive and a Freeview card (with some decent
software).

However searching on the net, I hadn't realised just how many
different
motherboards, socket types and processors (many at around the same
price)
that there were available.

So it's difficult to know which is the most suitable for the kind of
work
I
want to do, and I didn't want to be wise after the event by being told
"That's the 'worst' possible set up you could have bought for what you
want
to do, you should have gone for XYZ instead".

Any pointers in the right direction would be more than appreciated,
thanks
in advance.

what do you intend to do? use it for recording tv or editing video



Preferably both, but with emphasis on recording, however I'm still a bit
confused, comparing two ready assembled similar priced motherboards within
my budget, I've noticed that one has a Celeron D processor rated at
2.8GHZ,
whilst the other has an AMD Sempron 2600 processor rated at only 1.83 GHZ
does this mean that the board with the Celeron will be superior due to the
extra 1GHZ processor speed?




Firstly, both the Celeron & Sempron are budget processors. The Celeron has
half the cache and a slower FSB which means it's not suited to video work.
The Sempron 2600 is a rebranded Athlon XP (Barton) with a slower clock speed
and higher price.

The Sempron 2800 (1.6GHz), L1 Cache 128KB, L2 Cache 256KB is a Athlon 64
with less cache and the 64 bit instructions disabled but it will run much
faster than the Celeron / Sempron 2600. It's a socket 754 processor so you
will need a compatible motherboard. Avoid VIA like the plague with video
work, NForce are good.

The processor comes in at around £64 with an Asus NForce motherboard comming
in at £50.

Socket 754 motherboard's have 3 ddr slots and do not support dual channel
operation. With this processor this is not a big issue.

Storage. MAXTOR 200GB, 7200 RPM, "8MB CACHE", SERIAL ATA, 3YR WARRANTY.
Comming in at £76 should see you right for quite a while.


Freeview: LIFEVIEW FLYDVB-T, RECEIVE, DECODE AND DISPLAY DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL
TV, PCI, RETAIL BOXED.
comes in at £48

or a Artec USB solution: ARTEC TV TUNER DVB-T, T1, USB2.0 RETAIL BOXED. at
£57

Hauppauge also make a USB Freeview box that you can connect to your pc via
USB and TV via SCART. Best feature is the ability to play your recordings
back from your PC through the SCART onto the TV

It's a Hauppauge DEC 2000t they retail at around £90.

You can buy everything but the Hauppage from this website www.dcs.uk.com

Hope this helps

Andy.