Mailing List Archive: HW configuration sanity check

I'm a longtime lurker who is finally getting ready to
take the plunge with .9. Before I start assembling
the pieces, I wanted to get a sanity check from the
group on my planned system.

It will be a combo front/back end box with a single
tuner. I would like to be able to do high resolution
captures, but would normally only do 640x480 captures.
I'm planning to run Debian.

Anyway, the specs for the system I'm building are:

Asus Pundit case, mobo, PS: $179 (newegg.com)
Celeron 1.7 Ghz.: $55 (pricewatch.com)
256 MB PC2100 RAM: $23 (pricewatch.com)
160 MB Maxtor DiamondMax 7200RPM: $70 (Staples.com)
Prolink Play TV Pro FM RC TV Tuner 64MB Model
TV-BT878P+FM/RC: $43 (newegg.com)

Total: $370 for a nice looking, reasonably quiet box
with plenty of disk space.

My biggest concern is that I have not seen many people
on the list using the Prolink Play TV Pro card even
though it is cheap and based on the bt878 chip. (and
includes remote) Has anyone had problems with this
card?

Any other gotcha's that I'm overlooking? Will the
Prolink card fit in the not quite full height PCI
slots in the Pundit?

Thanks for your help and thanks to everyone who has
contributed to the project. It's very impressive
achievement.

-Peter

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> 256 MB PC2100 RAM: $23 (pricewatch.com)

Kingston PC2100 256MB free after rebate at OfficeMax.

> Prolink Play TV Pro FM RC TV Tuner 64MB Model
> TV-BT878P+FM/RC: $43 (newegg.com)

> Any other gotcha's that I'm overlooking? Will the
> Prolink card fit in the not quite full height PCI
> slots in the Pundit?

If you look at the second photo on the Newegg page. See how the top
of the PC board is taller than the bracket? That means you're only
going to be able to fit the card into one of the two slots, and you
may need to move a cable clip out of the way. (It's one of those
that has a sticky pad and a little hook on it. I didn't have too
much trouble moving it out of the way.

The height of the card also means that you're going to need to bend
the case slightly when you're reinserting, and that when the PCI
extender/card carrier is put back in the case is going to be
_pushing_ on the top of that PCI card so that the card is being
pushed into the PCI bus slot. Essentialy, in a vertical
configuration the cards end up upside down.

If I can fit a PVR-250 into my Pundit, I'm sure you can fit the
Prolink.

Actually, once the CX2388? driver is better (if it's not already),
the Prolink Play TV PVR FM+TV Tuner/Video Capture Card Model
TV-CX883P+ Retail is going to fit _a lot_ better, since the card is
barely bigger than the tuner.

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