suggestions please: building new system for little brothers

[Celeste]

I'm building a capture/edit system for my little brothers for Christmas and it has:

Intel 815e board
PIII 800 mhz ?
512 MB ram (max allowed)
Windows 98 ( I could go Window 2000 )
Matrox G400 (or G450? I forget) dual out
Matrox g-series rainbow runner*
onboard sound (I think it's SB 128 ?)
80 GB hard drive (the first one came DOA and am waiting on replacement)
Pioneer 106D dvd writer
32x cd rom
*pkg software includes Ulead MSP 5.0 (I think I there is a free upgrade to 5.2)

I downloaded the highly recommeded free DVD burn software that I found in the "tools" section of this site. And, I think I have an old copy of Nero 5 (?)

They have an Xbox, 8mm camcorder and that's about it (besides an old VCR) They like to make camcorder movies and add titles and music.

I'd like to set up their system to use the matrox's 2nd out to play DVDs on their television (one little brother doesn't like the other little brothers using his xbox to play movies.) And, I'd like them to be able to edit their own camcorder movies, and to be able to transfer their VHS collection to DVD.

Can anyone think of anything I might be forgetting? Or have any suggestions to make this a super slick (and easy to use) little editing system? I'm running out of Christmas cash so I can't add anything too spendy at this point. Also, they don't have an internet connection so they won't be able to add new downloads on their own.

-Celeste

[jgandara]

the case + power supply, cables.

Why don't you try to build a mini pc, how much do you want to spend?

[Jimmykicker]

I would consider getting a better processor, like a P4 2.4 or above, or a Athlon 2500+ or above. The setup will hit some serious problems on editing and possibly burning with that processor...

[andkiich]

I'm with Jimmy on this. I think that you'll be better served with a faster processor and motherboard. I'd go with the AMD Athlon xp, and the money you'd save over the Intel, I'd use either on buying good software or getting the fastest CPU you can afford.

And if you really have a choice between Windows 98 and 2000, then there really is no choice, go with 2000 and make the file system NTFS.



Other than that everything else looks OK.

[Donny661]

I'm with the other posters in saying that you need to get a better motherboard and processor. If your price conscious definatly get an Athlon XP. I just ordered a 2600+ and motherboard that has sound, pc3200 ddr memory, integrated Serial ATA with RAID, and 1000Mbps ethernet for less than $200. You probably only need a good 1800+ for capturing, maybe a little less if you get them a Canopus ADVC-100, which converts wothout the cpu, or something like it. Don't worry about it editing and burning with the set up you have; my friend used a PII 400Mhz with Adobe Premiere and was fine the only thing that was a problem was capturing from the DV Camera, which would drop a few frames from time to time. Your brothers are lucky; I would never get my siblings something as expesive as a computer.

[Celeste]

Thanks everyone. The reason I'm using the PIII is because I already had it (didn't have to buy a new board and chip) so upgrading the cpu would be a bit out of budget at this point. (And already had the little Matrox G400 Max card too.)

I do have old copies of both Windows 2000 and 98 -- was thinking Windows 98 'cause it uses less resources (?) but I see the point in using the other file system (bigger file handling right?)

Suggestions for freeware would be very helpful (I only have one copy of MSP6.5 and I'm not giving that one up.)

Thanks again,
Celeste