[confusedinMich]

I once had a Dell computer I thought I knew what I was looking for but technology has changed in a year ......

I am now going to ask people who know more than I do

I want to be able to watch, record, pause live TV. I don't know what kind of tv tuner I had before. Can anyone suggest a good one without going broke? I've seen Hauppauge HVR1250 Hybrid TV Tuner; ATI Theater 650 PRO Combo, and Asus/ViXS combo 210 NTSC/ATC. I would be using Direct tv with a set top box.

Then just when I thought I had it down about video cards I began to look and found I know jack! I found these

NVidia GeForce 7500LE 256MB (512 shared)
NVidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB DDR2 Video card dual DVI/TV
NVidia GeForce 8600GT 512MB dual DVI w/VGA adapter
NVidia GeForce 8800GTS w/320MB, dual DVI-I-Dual link TV Out (factory overclocked)
NVidia GeForce 8800GTX w/768MB,dual DVI-Dual link TV Out (factory overclocked)

Does the 250, 512 etc mean something? I want to have a crisp clear tv picture and photos and to be able to play Sims 2 - and Oblivion. Does the dual mean it would work if I had to connect to two different monitors?

Another question What is needed if I wanted to watch one channel while recording another?

One more question - how important is it to have 2 dvd rom drives?

Any help/suggestions will be appreciated.
Thank you for your time and help.

Edited by confusedinMich, 09 December 2007 - 01:56 PM.

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Hmmm, eight days and 52 readers later and still nothing.

[confusedinMich]

Hmmm, eight days and 52 readers later and still nothing.

[dsenette]

If its been 3 days or more, please post Here, with a link to your original topic.

If it hasnt been three days, try to remain calm, and remember we are all volunteers here, and we do have our own personal lives and responsibilities.There are hundreds of other uses also waiting for help as well

[fenzodahl512]

Hi, I know nothing about tv tuner but I'll help you on gaming part

I can see you want to play "Oblivion". That's one graphic-demanding game..

from your vga choices, simple rule is

8800Ultra > 8800GTX > 8800GTS (G92) -latest > 8800GT (512mb) > ATi HD3870 ~ ATi X2900XT > ATi 3850 ~ 8800GTS 768mb > 8800GT 256mb > A1900XTX 7900GTX > 8600GTS ~ 7950GT > 8600 GT ~ ATi X2600XT > 7600GT

and about 256mb and 512mb on graphic card..

IF the card is on the same series but with different memory eg: 8800GT 512mb and 8800GT 256mb, at large monitor (>21"), with high setting and high-resolution ( >1200x1024), the ones with more memory will perform better (more frame per second /fps) compared to the ones with lower memory...


personally, for best bang per buck solution, you might want to get Nvidia 8800GT 512mb or ATi HD3870 and you might want to avoid Nvidia 8800GT 256mb version and ATi HD3850 256mb version as the lower memory will hit your gaming performance directly at high-res and hi-setting (if Crysis you will suffer badly)

And also do remember, ATi3870 or higher will be bottlenecked by your processor if you use P4 or older you will notice the performance difference between Pentium4 and Core2 Duo

[zoneykid]

I have a 7600gt and i can play oblivion at med settings(i think) with 1280x1024 and it runs fine, although an 8800GTS (G92) would be the best choice if you want really good gaming for less.(I've heard the 8800GTS G92 rivals 8800 Ultra)

Also, you should double check whether you have AGP or PCI-Express slots for the video card, cause the newer cards use PCI-E.

Edited by zoneykid, 19 December 2007 - 06:50 PM.

[fenzodahl512]

yup, agreed with zoneykid and if you play games at medium setting at 1280x1024 resolution or below, a 7600GT/X1650XT would be just fine (more than enough).

[james_8970]

Do you watch HDTV? If so, there is no current TV tuner on the market that can display the picture in high definition as the data is encrypted.
If you want to play games and have a TV tuner, your going to require both.
Whats your budget?

It's not important to have 2 CD/DVD drives, just depends on how much you multi task.
James