I am setting up my sister with 7 HTPC.  She doesn't want any tv tuning capabilities, just movie boxes.  Well, I need 7 video cards with component video out.  Seeing as she's buying 7, I'd like to not have to pay a ton of money for them.  Any suggestions??

Get seven of the Gigabyte HD2600Pro cards.  Mine came with a breakout cable for component connection, plus you'll have HD acceleration (if needed) and the capability to go HDMI later.  They're also passively cooled, so completely silent.  It doesn't have any massive power requirements either.

Above all else, they're relatively cheap at about $75.

I don't even want to know what someone would need 7 HTPCs for.  Unless there's a bunch of kids, that seems rediculous.

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theHTPC.net

Thanks for the reply...she's building a 7500 sq ft house and has 8 kids.  It's the only way for them all to watch something different.  I think it's over the top, but it's her money, not mine. :)

Or a fanless Sapphire HD3450 for $50?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102724

 

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Deane G Win 7100 x32, 2x Hauppague 2250, HD3450 at 1080i to plasma, Intel D945GNTLR w/Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB, Seagate 300MB + Hitachi 1TB, Linksys DMA2100, Harmony 550, Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Keyboard 7000

Why not 8 boxes if she has 8 kids?  Someone loses!

Why not sagetv extenders instead of 7 computers? They stream movies just fine from what I read. Of course 7 from one cpu might be a stetch but still wouldn't think you would need more than two.

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Custom WHS quad core, 4gb of ram sagetv
Custom 7mc 3ghz,8gb ram 64bit w7mc
Panasonic pdp 50" xbox 360 &sage hd200
Panasonic pdp50 42" xbox 360 & sage hd200
dual hd homeruns 2 qam, 2 ota
2 r5000 modded boxes (sagetv)
Harmony 880 and 890 remote, 16tb

yeah I thought extenders would be the simplest  way to go in such a situation

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http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Vengence_IRL

Various Nvidia 8500GT models.  There are fanless models as well as models with fans.  Plus they will support HDTV under Vista.

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1: Dimension 9200 - Vista Ult, 2.4GHz Q6600 Core2Quad, 4GB RAM, 160GB, 750GB, 500GB USB, Nvidia 8300GS, PVR-150, HDTV Wonder, Vbox 3560, X360, DMA2100

2: HP m376n - MCE 2005, 2.6 P4 w/HT, 1GB RAM, 250GB, 400GB USB HD, Nvidia 6200, Emuzed MAUI, X360