capture Machine

[u8at711]

Well I'm looking to build a capturing machine, I'm going to build a PC because I have built them in the past. But this 1 gig processor is OLD.

I believe in True Intel processor, I stay away from AMD.
I'm looking for sudjestions on what Motherboard, Memory and Video card I should get,
I usually get the latest ATI card, but I'm considering getting an onboard video with a capture device..

I'm all ears for sudjestions just don't kill my wallet. I usually look for the best deal so the latest processor is not what I want maybe only a 2.4 with 800FSB is it worht the $ for the 800 fsb?

[Champion_R]

800fsb is worth the cash. You could get an i865 board to save money. I also have heard that onboard video isn't good for capturing, maybe a cheap GeForce4 would be a better option.

Plenty of Hard disk space is a good idea. I865 boards should have at least 2 SATA ports so SATA hard disks would be a smart idea.

[Will Hay]

All depends on your budget.
My recommendations would be as follows:
* Sis Chipset
* Second hard drive for capture (and nothing else, certainly not for part capture part storage) quick formatted before each capture.
* 512mb RAM
* NOT an onboard graphics card
Will

[pbhalerao]

For encodeing stuff, get the fastest CPU that you can afford, e.g. P3/3GHz+. The mobo should be 800Mhz FSB as suggested.

RAM - from 384MB to 512MB

Graphics Card: As Will suggested, not on-board card. Go in for a cheap 64MB 4x AGP card such as ATI Radeon.

Will Hay has already summed up the rest.

@ Will Hay, Hey Will, even I try to contibute in 'non Off Topic' when I can.

[FL350innh]

Well I'm looking to build a capturing machine, I'm going to build a PC because I have built them in the past. But this 1 gig processor is OLD.

I believe in True Intel processor, I stay away from AMD.
I'm looking for sudjestions on what Motherboard, Memory and Video card I should get,
I usually get the latest ATI card, but I'm considering getting an onboard video with a capture device..

I'm all ears for sudjestions just don't kill my wallet. I usually look for the best deal so the latest processor is not what I want maybe only a 2.4 with 800FSB is it worht the $ for the 800 fsb?

u8at711,
You hit the nail on the head with staying with the tried and true Intel product. Yes 800 is well worth it. You can have a 3ghz in a machine but if the bus is junk a 2.6 with a fast FSB will blow it away. I went fron 400FSB to 533FSB with the same MHZ processor and cut my encoding times down by at least 1/5th. ASUS is a good name in MB's Check out Http://www.tomshardware.com for some good MB reviews. Stay away from intergrated MB's that have sound, vid etc. They are more likely to give you bus I/O issues the building with addin cards. ATI is a good choice for video. 1Gig of ram is cheap now, get it...Don't get caught up in all the SATA hype... SATA is only 150mbps and is still pricey for the preformance. ATA 133 133mbps is not that much slower and a lot less $$$. If you want to you can always add SATA to your system, there are a few combo kits that are being sold with the controller card. One thing to keep in mind is SATA has yet to prove itself as a long term storage choice. Many folks forget the when the new ATA 66 WD 20gb hds that would go bad if you ran defrag on them, a lot of people where replacing them every 90 days until WD fixed the head problems... These are just some thoughts....

[u8at711]

well, thank you for the advise, I have been doing some checking on some barebones systems, this is what I might go with,,
Abit IC7 motherboard
Intel 2.4 P4 800mhz
Corseair 512 ddr 400
those things add up to about 450$us. with case
I already have a dvd-rw drive and 3 other Eide 7200 rpm hard drives, aprox 200 gb in harddrives
I also have the ati radeon with 64mb ddr
I always used asus motherboards, but my friend told me to try out an abit,
is it better to capture with the video card or a seperate capture devise. I'm considering getting a seperate devise for capturing altho the radeon can do it

[non-linear]

I built a new system not too long ago. One thing you should watch for is the type of AGP slot on the board and the slot on the video card. Most boards I've seen have 8x slots, while most of the video cards I've seen are 2/4x (I had to settle with an ASUS P4S533X). I had to compromise on the motherboard because the capture card I got (ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500) uses the 2/4x slot (the 8x is keyed differently).

You might want to also beef up the memory to a gig if you can.

[roynjen]

Even after all that you still might not be able to capture. I just built the perfect computer (see see below), and it does not capture anything ~ Dropped Frames everywhere.

ASUS Motherboard 533
2.4GHz PIV
1 GB of SDRAM
2 - 120 GB HD (1 Western Digital 7200 RPM/8MB Buffer ATA133 & the other is a Maxtor 7200 RPM/8MB Buffer ATA133)
ATI Radeon 9000
Running XP Professional ~ new install.

What else do you need? Used the guides from this site, and never got a good capture. BEWARE it may not work.

The Optimizt

[FL350innh]

Even after all that you still might not be able to capture. I just built the perfect computer (see see below), and it does not capture anything ~ Dropped Frames everywhere.

ASUS Motherboard 533
2.4GHz PIV
1 GB of SDRAM
2 - 120 GB HD (1 Western Digital 7200 RPM/8MB Buffer ATA133 & the other is a Maxtor 7200 RPM/8MB Buffer ATA133)
ATI Radeon 9000
Running XP Professional ~ new install.

What else do you need? Used the guides from this site, and never got a good capture. BEWARE it may not work.

The Optimizt

Hmmm, Sounds exactly like mine with the execption of the VID and the Maxtor. Mine (both machines) work flawlessly.

ASUS P4B533 motherboard
1Gig pc2700 ram
Nvidea GeForce 4 64mb
P4 2.53Ghz
2 X 120Gb ATA 133 WD 8mb cache hds
SB live 5.1
VIA IEEE firewire card
Pioneer A03 DVD-R FW burner
XP Pro SP1, fresh install
I use a DAC100 to capture with..

You have an I/O traffic issue if your dropping a lot of frames....

[pixel]

well, thank you for the advise, I have been doing some checking on some barebones systems, this is what I might go with,,
Abit IC7 motherboard
Intel 2.4 P4 800mhz
Corseair 512 ddr 400
those things add up to about 450$us. with case
I already have a dvd-rw drive and 3 other Eide 7200 rpm hard drives, aprox 200 gb in harddrives
I also have the ati radeon with 64mb ddr
I always used asus motherboards, but my friend told me to try out an abit,
is it better to capture with the video card or a seperate capture devise. I'm considering getting a seperate devise for capturing altho the radeon can do it

I have that Abit mobo. (I hope you mean the cheaper one, the GB LAN isn't worth it). My last 2 mobo's have been Abit and have never caused me problems. I actually never used Abit before then, but once I got my capture card it wouldn't work so I changed to Abit.

As for the capture card. If you are an avid gamer, or are big into 3D animation, buy a good AGP card and a PCI capture card. This means that you can easily upgrade your AGP card every few years.

If you could not care less about graphics just buy a combo AGP card and you will probably never need to upgrade it.

[u8at711]

the parts I listed above are ordered, I should have em in a week. I also ordered another hard drive and some fancy round cables and a fancy case, I was kinda tight on the extra 100$ for the memory, I'll order that once I know my video card will work properly, acording to the board specs I shouldn't have a problem, It says that It can take a 4 or 8 times agp,, I have the ati 64 ddr radeon,, only time will tell,,,

[arcorob]

Roy ...wrote
>>>>Even after all that you still might not be able to capture. I just built the perfect computer (see see below), and it does not capture anything ~ Dropped Frames everywhere. >>>>

Roy, that should work out PERFECT so you have to look elsewhere.

Check your drives in DEVICE manager and make sure they are DMA mode enabled and not STUCK in PIO mode (known XP issue)

Check fragmentation.

Are you capturing AVI or trying to go straight to mpeg ?

How many resources are you letting XP hog (autostarted items like support for wireless devices or IPOD and such...You would be surprised)

We'll have you running in notime...

[JimS46]

How did you order your 512MB of memory? If you ordered one stick of memory you will only get 400 MHz fsb. DDR requires that two sticks of memory be in place to get the full rated bus speed. If you ordered two 256mb sticks, you may have to pull them to put in two 512mb sticks.
Hope you ordered one 512mb stick and can other soon.

[Bondiablo]

You only need 2 sticks for Dual DDR not DDR.
If you do go with a Dual DDR board get at least 2 sticks of 256MB PC3200 RAM.
The video card is pretty much irrelevant for capturing unless it IS your capture card.
I'd still avoid onboard video like the plague.
Stick with Intel chipsets for Intel processors.
Unless you feel like wasting some money go with the 865PE chipset over the 875P.
If you really want to save some money the 845PE is still a very good choice but you won't get Dual DDR.
Albatron makes a really nice board PX865PE Pro or Pro II.
Fast processor is most important but the P4 2.4C can almost certainly be overclocked to at least 3ghz without increasing the voltage.
Big fast hard drive is a good idea, the new Samsung SP1213N and SP1614N are finally out and they perform on par with WD JB drives but are nearly silent.

[JimS46]

You are right about dual DDR. DDR actually transfers data on both clock edges as opposed to SDRAM. The FSB speed is calculated based on using two DDR sticks in the dual configuration. I was trying to point out that one stick of memory is insufficient to get the FSB speed that is advertised. Also, there are no issues using AMD processors currently. I have been running ASUS A7N8X with two 512MB DDR ram and have yet to drop a frame using both my ASUS TV tuner card and my ADVC 100. I used the difference in processor price on purchasing more memory and IMHO feel that while doing video capture more memory is a better choice than a specific brand of processor. I don't mean to to either endorse INTEL or AMD but just state how I arrived at a configuration . It also works and that is the most important thing

[arcorob]

Bondiablo said

If you really want to save some money the 845PE is still a very good choice but you won't get Dual DDR.

Why would you think that ? It does support DUAL DDR. I have it myself in the P4S800 Deluxe......and many other boards also

[pixel]

Bondiablo said

If you really want to save some money the 845PE is still a very good choice but you won't get Dual DDR.

Why would you think that ? It does support DUAL DDR. I have it myself in the P4S800 Deluxe......and many other boards also

The 845PE isn't a very good chipset, and definitely should not be used for video capturing machines.

For video editing, at the absolute limit, you should get the 865PE chipset, although the 875PE chipset is only really the best option for video editing when buying a new mobo.

It is a known fact though that the 865PE chipsets have the same PAT technology as the 875PE and all that it needs to be unlocked is a bios upgrade, so if you can get one of these mobo's (before Intel release the 865PE v2 which kills this opportunity of unlocking PAT) go for it!

[arcorob]

OOPS ! My mistake, I meant the 865PE which is what my ASUS is ...I gave the right asus board, wrong Intel Chipset number....By thway, the 845 is a good capture board, works fine, but I like the SIS chipset in the ASUS P4B400? Better Think its the SIS845 ...

The numbers all start to blur at 130mph...LOL

[xtreemkareem]

Isn't RDRAM still much faster than DDR (up to 4 memory channels, 1066mhz bus speed max). While you're on the topic of intel chipsets, I kinda didn't look at the chipset when I bought my motherboard. Someone plaese tell me if my specs are adequate for capturing or if I may need to upgrade some parts. Reasons as to why would also be helpful.

Aopen AX4T-II i850 mobo
P4 2.4 Ghz 400 mhz
512 mb (2 sticks) Samsung Non-Ecc PC 800 RDRAM
E-GeForce4 MX 440 128 DDR 2/4X AGP Video
MAxtor 5400 RPM 80 GB EIDE HDD
(Planned Capture Card) - KWorld MPEG-TV 878RF-Pro PCI

[ronnylov]

My capturing machine is built with an AMD CPU and it works very well. So there is no reason to stay away from AMD to get nice captures. Of course your encoding may be faster with the fastest 800 MHz fsb Intel CPU but it does not improve the actual capturing results. I can capture full resolution without frame drops. It's a SIS based motherboard ECS K7S5A and it serves me well. You can build 2 AMD computers for the same price as one Intel and use one for capturing and the other one for encoding or other tings.

[pixel]

Isn't RDRAM still much faster than DDR (up to 4 memory channels, 1066mhz bus speed max). While you're on the topic of intel chipsets, I kinda didn't look at the chipset when I bought my motherboard. Someone plaese tell me if my specs are adequate for capturing or if I may need to upgrade some parts. Reasons as to why would also be helpful.

Aopen AX4T-II i850 mobo
P4 2.4 Ghz 400 mhz
512 mb (2 sticks) Samsung Non-Ecc PC 800 RDRAM
E-GeForce4 MX 440 128 DDR 2/4X AGP Video
MAxtor 5400 RPM 80 GB EIDE HDD
(Planned Capture Card) - KWorld MPEG-TV 878RF-Pro PCI

I looked for info on your mobo, but couldn't find much, but I'm guessing its an 845 chipset, so there isn't any need to upgrade that.

Your P4 is fast enough for good AVI capture, but too slow for good MPEG captures. (Believe me, I have the slightly faster 533MHz version of your processor and it isn't good quality.)

Your memory is fine. 512MB is enough.

Video card is fine.

I don't know if you have only one hard drive, or if that is your capture drive. Anyway, it is slightly too slow for vid capping and can cause sync problems. (A 7,200rpm is best and use it as a dedicated capture drive and keep your 5,400rpm as your OS and editing drive.)

You seem to want to capture to MPEG straight away, not a good idea, as it means upgrading your P4 to at least a 2.53 800MHz and probably your motherboard along with it. I haven't looked around for info on your card, but at least you can start out capturing AVI's and build your system up to cope with MPEG's without having to buy another card.

Basically you just need a 7,200rpm drive to cope with capturing and capture in AVI because if you try to capture in MPEG the quality will be very degraded.

[pixel]

My capturing machine is built with an AMD CPU and it works very well. So there is no reason to stay away from AMD to get nice captures. Of course your encoding may be faster with the fastest 800 MHz fsb Intel CPU but it does not improve the actual capturing results. I can capture full resolution without frame drops. It's a SIS based motherboard ECS K7S5A and it serves me well. You can build 2 AMD computers for the same price as one Intel and use one for capturing and the other one for encoding or other tings.

That may be very well, but Intel's have better features (like hyper-threading and faster fsb rates).

I also read in another post that Intels have overheating safety built in to prevent damage to the processor, whilst AMD's do not so AMD's can melt after prolonged use.

Each to his own though, I guess it is better paying a slightly cheaper price for a processor so you don't have to break the bank to upgrade like you do with P4's. (Or buy 2 processors for the price of one so you have two dedicated systems in your case )

The new 64bit AMD's scheduled to come out soon are sounding good though.

[Bondiablo]

The 845PE isn't a very good chipset, and definitely should not be used for video capturing machines.

For video editing, at the absolute limit, you should get the 865PE chipset, although the 875PE chipset is only really the best option for video editing when buying a new mobo.

The 845PE is a good chipset, does work well for video capture and is now a fair amount cheaper than even the 865PE boards. Though 800mhz system bus, dual DDR 400, 8x AGP, serial ATA and Gigabyte LAN are all nice and certainly the way to go if you're building a new system and aren't concerned about saving a little money, they aren't necessary.

Unless you're building a server or have some other critical application where you would use ECC RAM, only someone completely obsessed with being able to say they bought the absolute fastest system available or unwilling to admit they spent way too much on their new board would suggest there's any real significant advantage to the 875P over the 865PE boards. You'll never notice the maybe 5% performance difference except on slightly higher scores in a some benchmark tests.

[pixel]

The 845PE isn't a very good chipset, and definitely should not be used for video capturing machines.

For video editing, at the absolute limit, you should get the 865PE chipset, although the 875PE chipset is only really the best option for video editing when buying a new mobo.

The 845PE is a good chipset, does work well for video capture and is now a fair amount cheaper than even the 865PE boards. Though 800mhz system bus, dual DDR 400, 8x AGP, serial ATA and Gigabyte LAN are all nice and certainly the way to go if you're building a new system and aren't concerned about saving a little money, they aren't necessary. Unless you're building a server or have some other critical application where you would use ECC RAM, only someone completely obsessed with being able to say they bought the absolute fastest system available or unwilling to admit they spent way too much on their new board would suggest there's any real significant advantage to the 875P over the 865PE boards. You'll never notice the maybe 5% performance difference except on slightly higher scores in a some benchmark tests.

I just built my system with the extras in so I could upgrade without having to splash on a new mobo. It means I can easily upgrade my P4 to a "C" version, or move to SATA when I feel the speeds are worth it.

This is the way I think because my computer is used for an array of tasks, but people like you like to get the best deal you can for your purposes because you know exactly what you will be using it for.

[Bondiablo]

Other than ECC RAM there are no extras for the 875P compared to the 865PE.

[pixel]

The only real extra was the *PAT* technology and you can imagine how pissed I was when I realised the Springdale (865PE) version of the mobo I got had a new bios to unlock the *PAT* technology, and it was £20 cheaper.