# Whats the most useful PCI Cards??



## akashanksta (Jun 26, 2008)

hey guys i was wondering what everyone thought the most important PCI Cards are...
just leave a post on which ones are useful or which ones you have


lol kinda want some pci cards so i can fill up the back since it looks so naked


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## Kevin_Rudd (Sep 2, 2008)

USB, Video cards and modems are the most useful. Also networking can be useful if you want more than one RJ45 connection i.e. if your computer is the internet gateway for a small network.


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## akashanksta (Jun 26, 2008)

haha yea i have all of those but i was wondering if there were other more interesting ones just to be a little creative


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## Kevin_Rudd (Sep 2, 2008)

If you want to spasrk it up I just put 2 LED fans inside my case and it looks awesome! get them here Very nice fan very quiet.  Hope it is helpful


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

Unless you need their functionality, you should leave them out, since each card you put in has a processor overhead and draws additional power which will increase the operating cost of your machine.


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## Pauldo (Jun 22, 2008)

Hey, what about a tv tuner card? What could be better than watching tv, checking email, playing games, maybe designing a website and touching up photos all at once. 

By the way, can you really have enough video cards? I have three monitors on two graphics cards now, and I didn't think this when I bought them, but I need more.:grin:

Pauldo


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## akashanksta (Jun 26, 2008)

yea thats true im going to get a tv tuner card but the HD ones are so expensive rite now but i really want one. any suggestions?


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## Pauldo (Jun 22, 2008)

I quit using a tuner card in my pc when HD first came along since it was such a hassle to get everything working together (I just use the dvr from comcast and use my HTPC to play music and watch DVD's). Now a days its much better but the only real world experience that I have is with the Pinnacle HD Pro stick (~$100). It's a usb device and it gave a decent HD picture on a 19 inch monitor. Problem was that it never was able to produce a picture for the digital channels. I don't think I would recommend it unless you just wanted HD and you had a pretty fast processor since there is no hardware decoding.

I still check out the forums, though, and MissingRemote.com is recommending the HDHomeRun at $169 for the budget HTPC. 
The Hauppage HD PVR at $249 is their recommendation for the mid-level HTPC. Of course, that is HD only and you would need a second card to bring in any digital and and analog sources.

Pauldo


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