X1300 + Theater 550, or AIW 2006 PCI-E

[Rav]

I need some opinions on this, I am building a new main non-gaming system to replace the one I have now, which currently has an AIW 9000 Pro. I watch TV exclusively on this PC and record shows often. I do video editing as well.

My new system is PCI-E, so here are my options:

For about $210 I can get an X1300 512MB and a PowerColor Theater 550 PCI-E tuner card.

For about $180 I can get the new AIW 2006 PCI-E (X1300, 256mb, Theater 200).

Should I stick with the simplicty of the AIW and its older theater 200 chip or go for a 2 card setup and get the features of the theater 550? The extra $30 isn't a big deal to me at this point, but I don't know alot about tuner add-in cards and specificaly the PowerColor card. Its very appealing with the 550, 16MB DDR onboard and PCI-E interface. I've been very happy with ATI and their MCC but I would be open to suggestions on other cards. Thanks.

-Rav

 

[Elif Tymes]

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2651

That's a good read on why the THeater 200 and a X1300 is the more reasonable alternative.

Apparently, ATI is working on allowing GPU acceleration for their Theater 200 AIW based cards. This means the 550's advantage will be irrelevant. Anyways, its youre choice