Hey,
I'm looking to upgrade my very old Tiny machine and I'm quite interested in some of the Dell deals. The main purpose of getting a new machine is to use my PC as a PVR to record TV (can't get Sky+ in my flat), if i can play a few games then great but I'm not a serious gamer.

I have already found some extra RAM from Crucial to take me from 1Gb to 2Gb but I am looking for some advice about the TV Card and Graphics card.

Dell offer a 256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro graphics card for an extra £70
and a coupe of different TV Cards: Integrated Analogue TV tuner PCI card and Dell™ (MCE/Premium/Ultimate) remote control (£41) or Integrated Hybrid (Analogue/Digital) TV tuner PCIe x1 card and Dell™ remote control (£105).

I reckon I could get something cheaper away from Dell but am not sure what to go for within the same (or lower) price range.
For the TV card I have found a KWorld PE 310 which I can get for about £60-70. I like the look of this one as I can have either digital or analogue inputs. Any opinions on this?

As for Graphics cards there are so many I have no idea where to start. I think 256Mb will be enough but what can you recommend for £50-£70?

The rough spec (subject to some haggling with CS) will be:

Intel® Viiv™ Core™ 2 Duo E6300 Processor (1.86GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB)
VIsta Home Premium
1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x512] Memory
160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurstâ„¢ cache
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000
Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability


Many Thanks,
Martin

Having no experience of tv cards i'm afraid i can't help you on that.

But regarding graphics cards, you (re the above) might want to be looking at ones with HDCP support and DVI connections. Most mid-range cards do tick both boxes, but do check. HDCP isn't a pre-requisite but future proofing is always a good thing.

Don't be swayed by how much ram a card has, especially for mid-range cards (i'm quoting mid-range as you say you're 'not much of a gamer'). The ram amount on a card, is (1) only useful for gaming at high resolutions (something mid-range cards, even heavily overclocked, struggle to do) and getting good frame rates and (2) good for textures. Bottom line, don't be swayed by a mid-range card quoting 512mb as it'll near as makes no difference not be any faster in a game as a 256mb version of the same card. And you'll be paying a lot more for the extra amount of ram.

You need to be looking at the gpu (graphics processing unit) speed in mhz and the ram speed, the greater the ram speed, the higher the bandwidth.

(I purposely havn't mentioned pixel-pipes, and ROPS's as i don't want to confuse you, also as you're not a gamer the two measures above will more than help you make an informed decision).

The absolute best mid-range card out there at the mo is the Connect 3d x1900gt, its around £100, and it pretty much slaughters any other comparatively priced card. I know its rather more than you quoted as your budget, but to be frank, i'd rather pay more money and get value for it, than pay less and not.

If you are constrained by your budget though, may i recommend the Gainward Bliss 7600gs at £68.00.

Both the cards i've quoted have dual dvi (digital) connections,but both come with converters so you can also attach an analogue (vga) connection.

Don't buy from Dell....please.... That X1300, is (1) a bag of crap, and (2) massively overpriced. To prove, ive found the same model for £55 online.

It's got about half the performance of the 7600gs i've quoted above.

These are pci-e (pci express) cards. As you don't quote whether your motherboard has an AGP or PCI-E socket i'm guessing as to the card connection type. Considering the cpu you're using though, i'm confident it does have a pci-e socket.

Hope this helps.

Best TV card out there atm (and the only PCI-express TV card i've come across so far, which is always a plus ;-) ) has to be this one by Terratec - Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT DVB-T TV Tuner (PCI-Express) - Retail

Roz

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