Third Rebuild Time?? SSD Questions???

I actually don't think you need to rebuild. The stutters are likely due to the hard drive and not because your system is too slow. Heck, my Atom build has no issues dealing with OTA. My suggestion, get an SSD for your OS and reformat the WD and Seagate drives using 64K sectors.

I'll second the recommendation. I'd never try to record to a USB drive they're just to slow. You don't say what video card your using. but with anything fairly modern your system should be fine. The power supply is fine. Actually overpowered for a new system, but it will work. I'm not sure about Windows. I think it depends on your license version and if your retiring the old hardware.

A 60GB one would do but given the recent sales on 120GB drives (often just $10~20 more than 60GB), I'd go with the 120GB.

I say move the static movies/music to the Seagate Free Agent Pro 750GB and reformat the internal 500GB HDD using 64K sectors to minimize fragmentation issues (I think this may be what's causing all the stutters). Another thing, double check the connections on your HDHomeRun. For all you know, the stutters may not actually be due to hardware on your HTPC but may have been caused by poor signal due to loose connections on your TV tuner.

If you want to access the 750gb Seagate drive without going through the USB bottle neck, open up the casing and use the drive as an internal. It's actually not that hard, depending on the enclosure.

It uses normal SATA and SATA power connectors same as regular 3.5" SATA HDDs. It's the optical drives that use weird slimline SATA.

I had to wrestle with my Western Digital My Book Essential to remove the HDD from the enclosure (dead USB adapter, HDD still working). After that, I just started using a docking station.

Crucial m4 128GB SSD for $99.99 + free shipping
http://www.buy.com/prod/crucial-m4-128gb-2-5-sata-iii-solid-state-drive-ssd/221150373.html
Ends 6/27

NAYY.

There is essentially no difference among the various Sandforce controller-based SSDs (except for the Intel 520 and 330 models because Intel writes its own firmware). Each company tends to make models with various types of NAND (ONFI synchronous, ONFI asynchronous, and toggle) at various price points. The NAND difference makes measurable, but essentially unnoticeable in the real world, differences in speed.

The Mushkin Drives are fine. The Callistos are SATA II, the Chronos are SATA III. The "Deluxe" versions use faster toggle NAND. The Mushkin drives will perform essentially identically to Sandforce-based Corsairs with similar NAND. ( the Corsair Performance models have Marvell controllers, like the Plextor M2 and M3, and Crucial M4. Samsung makes its own controllers).

If you're shopping for an SSD, you should probably read Buy The SSD You Can Afford, Not The Fastest One and Best SSDs For The Money: May 2012

The Mushkin drives have been a good buy recently. I have been using a Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 120 for several months without incident. Works just fine. Although my personal favorites among my several SSDs are the Plextors and Samsungs.

As to installing them, the cleanest way to do it is with a clean install and W7 will do all the proper configuration for you. If you choose to clone, Acronis works great and I've done that several times succesfully, but then you do have to make a few schedule and registry mods to disable things like defragmentation and prefetch. Some brands, including Intel and Samsung, have great utiliites to download that do all that configuration for you. Most of the others don't.

Yep. Remember to set the SSD as the primary boot device. I usually disconnect secondary HDDs when I'm installing the OS.

Just a normal SATA cable. You know, typically red ones in color (although I've received them in a bunch of colors). Are you sure you don't have some stashed away in your motherboard's box or something? I've never had to buy SATA cables. I've got plenty extra from motherboard purchases.

Well, other than you need a SATA power connector instead of Molex, nothing really.

Nah. No special consideration needed.

I have already done this for you. Take a look at my hardware guide.

Looking at assassin's recommendations, I don't think speed was a big factor. I reckon those recommendations were based more on the price/GB and reliability. Besides, you won't really notice much of a difference in real world use with most SSDs, particularly for HTPC use. The big jump is going from HDD to SSD. SSD to faster SSD would be practically unnoticeable.

Yes. You nailed it.

What do the Signal Strength, Signal Quality (SNR), and Network look like? There should be a tool that came with the HDHomeRun drivers that shows you that.

Also, just for a quick test to eliminate the HDD as the possible issue, can you temporarily set the recording storage to the SSD and check if you still get stutters?

Also, what channels are the recordings from? Just looking out for possible 29/59 content problem here, which can often be fix with changes to your display driver settings...

Edit: Maybe not an issue now that I see this is OTA...
Edited by DeanM - 7/16/12 at 9:09am

I like the Asrock for value. Really good motherboards, really good features for really good prices.
On the highest end Asrock’s superior cousin Asus makes the absolute best and highest end motherboards for a little more of a premium.
I would look for a z77 Arock as a good start. They all have HDMI and also toslink digital audio, as well as the important USB3.0 and SATAIII.
Something like this for around $100 is a solid choice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157297
NOTE: does your AVR run HDMI so you can not worry about Toslink?
No not huge difference. Ivy is a bit better but the difference is small and there is plenty of Sandy out there that will more than do what you need. Often for a bit cheaper. It will come down to budget and value and the deals you find. Your good with either depending on the budget you have and the deals you find online. You can easily get away with a cheapo sandy for $50 that will be enough. On the higher end a $180 Ivy i5 is probably way more than you need. Anything in between will also work great.
You would be happy to know that a basic $50 Sandy CPU is more efficient and better than your current CPU.

Yup. Keep it. 520 watts is more than you need. If it’s good and you like it then no reason to buy a new one. I am assuming it has all the cables you need for the new build like SATA power and such. If not- adapters are pretty cheap anyhow from IDE power. Skipping buying a new PSU and using the old is perfectly fine IMO.
Really solid plan. I would clean install to a new SSD for OS and then just add back in your existing drive. All the data on that drive will still be there. Just delete the windows folders and program folders from it since it was your previous OS drive. In a perfect world you might want to back it up on external and format it clean then move it back- but just adding it back into your new system is perfectly fine. Deleting the stuff you don’t need will just free up space.
Yes. DDR3 @ 1600mhz minimum. I would go up to 8GB this time. You can find decent deals on 4x4GB kits and it will run dual channel on your new board. The newer better DDR3 and faster 1600mhz+ speeds really make the most difference compared to your older DDR2 800mhz system now. It’s why a CPU that is IVY or Sandy that is not really much faster or powerful in specs is going to blow away your system now.
Moving a partition or OS from an old drive to a new one is a major pain in the ass. I cringe every time I read someone suggest doing it or post they are going to try it. It’s simply not worth it IMO.
Nothing works as good or as fast as a clean installation of windows. You should clean install Windows 7 to your new SSD for your new system. If you have a keycode from your old system or you have a disc then yes you certainly can re-use that.
Otherwise you can download Windows 7 for free.
Just asking here someone would give you a link if you need it. It is legal to download, but you might have to buy a registration key code from Microsoft to register it as a legit copy unless you can re-use your old one.

Often time if you try your old one and it does not work and you explain what your doing MSFT might provide you one for free. Otherwise- they will sell it to you. You don’t have to go buy the expensive DVD unless you want to do that.
If your system has a real installation of full license Windows 7 you can re-use that license in a new build. Retail versions allow this.
If it was pre-installed by a MFG or “OEM” then you probably can not.
Hope that helps.
-Mike

Yes.

The Mushkin is a great drive. It's faster/better/cheaper than any of the recommended drives in Assasin guide.

it's the recommended drive at Tomshardware.

Don't be fooled away from it or into spending more money on a product that is not superior.

On the next tier up they say Samsung


http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-benchmark-review,3237-3.html

@M

You are behind here. He's already purchased the SSD...