A few small changes.
I dropped the Audigy in favor of the SPDIF bracket for onboard digital out. I had to buy it from the AOPEN web site for $15:
http://store.myaopen.com/aosco.html
I also switched the very hot running, older model of the PVR-350 I had with the PVR-500 which not only runs cooler (no heatsinks on either encoder chip out of box) but also has dual tuners. So you can record one channel while watching another, etc:
http://www.directron.com/wintvpvr500mce.html
Power usage is now at 67w idle, 76w Prime95 Torture Test. Prior to this it was at 72w/81w.
Excellent PVR MPEG2 encoder card roundup: