Would This Be a Good System

[jwl48]

Would This Be a Good System??
I am building a video/audio system (as money permits) to do these things:
1)convert a lot of vhs vcr tapes to dvd (to best resolution and sound)
2)convert a lot of album’s (lp’s) to cd (to best sound)
3)be able to watch and record from satellite (direct tv) [on tv or monitor] (with best resolution and sound)
4)be able to hook-up to stereo receiver and speakers (home)
Now, this is only(for now) talking about hardware:
1) an Antec Solution Series super mid-tower(case)(tower form factor) with 11 drive capacity(6 external;5 internal) 350 watt atx 12 volt power supply
2) an Asus motherboard; either a P4PE with intel 845pe chipset or a P4T533 with intel 850e chipset
3) an Intel Pentium 4 2.4GhZ cpu chip or an Intel Pentium 4 2.66GhZ cpu chip
4) 512 Mb of ram memory (for now)
5) an ADS Pyro 1394DV firewire card (pci)
6) a Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD graphics card (agp)
7) a Canopus ADVC100 dv convertor
8) a Sigma Design Real Magic X-card mpeg decoder card (pci)
9) a Creative Soundblaster Audigy2 Platinum 6.1 sound card (pci)
10) 3 hard-drives(for now) [one hard-drive stickly for operating system,etc.(boot drive) other hard-drives strickly for video/audio data only
11) dvd-rom/cd-r-rw writer;dvd writer;floppy drive
Now, for some questions,
Built-in sound system(on motherboard) or plug-in card on pci slot
Raid controller built-in(on motherboard) or plug-in card on pci slot
Lan (Ethernet:gigabit or other) built-in(on motherboard) or plug-in card on pci slot
IEEE 1394 interface built-in(on motherboard) or plug-in card on pci slot
Of course, there are probably things that I should be asking (meaning more questions) but here goes.
Any help;comments;advice or questions would be greatly appreciated.
Also, enclosing my e-mail address for any of the above: jwl48@bayou.com
Thank You from John

[Nelson37]

Buy the cheapest case you can find and spend the extra money on faster processor. Case does absolutely nothing for you, anything over $50 is a waste of money. If a pretty case is what you want, fine, but are you buying this to look good or to go fast?

Advantage of PCI cards for peripherals over MOBO-based is easy upgradeability, with the old card available to turn into some cash. Built-in parts you are stuck with, though Raid, 1394 and some others may offer a cost savings. Most MOBO sound is inferior to add-on card. Nforce2 may be an exception to this.

No need for Mpeg-2 decoder on a fast machine, also most video cards have some Mpeg-2 acceleration built-in now.

[LanEvo7]

1)There are differences in cases. A well designed case will optimize airflow so your system will not overheat. From looking at all the components you have, you might want a full tower case since its bigger for better airflow. I'd suggest a more powerful PSU, 450w+ because insufficient power supplies causes rebooting and system hangs.

2)Asus generally makes good motherboards, but they do tend to be more expensive than the compeditors. If you need to save some money, do some research before buying. Also different chipsets support differnt types of memory, make sure you get correct type of memory for your motherboard.

3)If you're going Intel, get the 2.53ghz processor, its the best value right now. You might want to consider an AMD processor, the Barton 2500+ is only around $150.

4)If your motherboard doesn't include a firewire port, then get it(many high end motherboards include this standard).

5)Are you planning to play games? If not, you don't really need a Ti4600. A Ti4200 or a Radeon 8500 will be good enough. Or you can get an ATI AIW 9700Pro that will work as your capture card and your graphics card.

The rest seem like good choices. On-board sound is usually not good. Onboard everything else will work fine. Don't waste money on PCI cards that will do exactly the same thing.