OKay, we're hooked. We have the front/back running on a small microATX box. Still need to tweak the video since it's not looking perfect yet. We want to rip the harddrive out of the frontend/backend box to make it diskless, and then setup a new master backend, which will double as the LAN file/print server.

Anyways, newegg has a sweet case (LINKY) that has a total of 11 bays and power supply for $64 and no shipping fees. Granted, I may buy a bigger/quieter power supply and recycle this PSU in another computer.

Anyways. Need mother board and MPEG2 hardware encoder advice. We'll be plugging two satellite recievers (haven't got them yet) into this. It'll have a SATA raid card with a few drives attached, so PCI-X is a plus. What is the best mobo for a relativly low price? I haven't been ATX shopping for quite some time, and need some suggestions on where to start. Brands to avoid/look for.

What is a good MP2 encoder card? Can it handle an audio stream like the PVR-250? Two PVR-250s seem overkill since I don't need a tuner with the Satellite tuners.

-Tazzy

I read somewhere on the forum that SATA is a little tricky to setup. I would say go with a proven board that everyone else uses.