Capturing System: Should I buy new one or use this one ?

[Rkermit]

Capturing System: Should I buy new one or use this one ?

Hi yall!
Here is my dilemma. I can't choose between either buying a new PC or

using my company lapto to do video editing. Now here's the scenario.
Please note that all money is in canadian funds!

Option #1: Buy the following hardware for video-editing and capture.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Natural Multimedia PS2/USB Keyboard....39.99$
ASUS P4P800 Delux Motherboard...................199.99$
Intel Pentium 4 (2.8GHZ 800FSB) S478 Process....320.00$
Alto Black Mid Tower Case (1) - 350 W GLC PS.....99.00$
1 GB DDR 400 mhz AZEN RAM or (512 corsair)......179.99$
32 MB Video Card (Geforce 1) (Already have).....000.00$
Sound Card (on board with mother board).........000.00$
Floppy drive.....................................19.00$
17" Monitor.....................................165.00 $
Wireless "G" network card.......................100.00$
2x (yes 2!) 120 GB WD SE 8MBC HD's (2x113.25=...226.50$ (Taxe Included)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: 1441.00$

Option #2: Buy some hardware and use other hardware.
----------------------------------------------------
BUY
---
40gb 5400rpm hard drive for laptop...............185.00$
1x 120 GB WD SE 8MB Cache HD.....................113.25$ (Taxe included)
External USB 2.0 DVD/CD/IDE HARD DRIVE CASE.......60.00$ (Taxe included)
Wireless "G" pcmcia card..........................80.00$
1x PCMCIA Card (2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x Firewire)....45.00$
--------------------------------------------------------
Total: 506.05$

To use on what I have (Dell LAPTOP Latitude C640)
-------------------------------------------------
512 MB RAM
20gig 4500rpm HD
P4 1.8 ghz
32 MB video card built-in


So? What do you think ? Should I go full bore and get the PC or safe money and go with bear minimum?

Please let me know!!

[snafu099]

consider this option. start with a usb hardware encoding capture device. This puts little strain on system as encoding is done in the box. They can be had for $100-us and up.

You need 2 or 3x free hdd space as file cap. to cap/edit/author/burn, depending on software/method used

An external usb hdd is excellent, portable and bypasses slow(?) system ide. As low as $30-us and hdd go for 7200rpm 8mb cashe(sp) available for 50 cents to $1-us/gb

dvd burner, same as hdd above, dual formats for $100-us

Going this route gives the hardware/software at minimum $ output to start yet can be utilized latter in an upgraded system either internal/external OR on any other system (drivers/software installed)

Whichever choise you make, you need to do some serious price shopping, unless money does not matter, as prices you list seem EXTREMLEY high, IMHO, then i'm in US and don't know exchane rate

I use the ADS usb Instant DVD-2 with excellent results from hardware and bundled software. $150-us

Look here for specs http://www.adstech.com

[Rkermit]

Thanks for your information. I should have specified that I bought the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 less than 2 weeks ago. I've only tried it a bit and I do like it alot. I meant on buying the Canopus ADVC-100 but finally bought the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 for 134 US brand new on ebay. I'm still planning on buying the Canopus cause of the reviews are absolutely amazing.

I guess the initial post was to ask if the second option was "a good enough machine" to do video editing and capture.

B.T.W to find out the prices in US simply do (PRICE / 1.3) (Devided by 1.3) gives an average. Maybe even less.)

[beamguy]

I personally would choose neither option...

Investing in equipment for your companies laptop can be money not well spent, especially when they upgrade your laptop to a new system next year. Will you ask for help from the IT department if your software messes up the OS and you need to reload it? Also - laptops are meant for portability, not performance. The performance of USB 2 hard drives will likely never be what a good EIDE device will give you, and external capture cards will always suffer a disadvantage too.

On the other hand, your configuration for the desktop is based on the purchase of really high end components. These carry quite a price margin to get just a few months ahead of the development curve. Any reasonable capture card manufacturer would be silly to aim their product at such a small fraction of the market. Most claim you will be quite satisfied with last year's technology, and I have found that to be true. You can put together a system with last year's technology for a small fraction of the cost that you listed there. What OS will you use?

[Rkermit]

Thanks for your information! I'm not worried about messing up my company's laptop configuration because that is the point of buying a 40 gig 5400 RPM laptop hard drive, so I can swap between the 2 configurations. For example: Friday night or any other night when I get home. Take 20 seconds to remove the company laptop’s hard drive and put in mine, presto, I have my OS, my applications my setup, settings and internet from anywhere in the house !

I’m planning on having XP installed on the computer. Many people just tell me to buy the DESKTOP but hey, for 1/3rd the price, I can have a decent system. If ever one day, my company wants to change the hardware and thus, take my laptop away, my 40 GB hard drive can still be of use because I currently have a USB 2.0 External laptop hard drive CASE. So I can slap that baby in and voila, 40GB USB2.0! (Which is handy when you do video editing / dvd movie copying etc….

Thanks for your advice! Anybody else want to post their 2 cents ?

Thank You,

[jgandara]

I think a laptop is not good for encoding and all the video editing stuff. I agree that you cannot reuse those components.

I think building your system is a good idea, but put more money towards your Videocard. Go to newegg.com and check prices. the components look good, but get advice in a computer related forum, they can give you better advice. I usually go to this forum:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/maxcommport/start

just ask about the best computer you can get for that money, and they will get you a list of good components.

[snafu099]

Since you already havde IDVD-2, I stick with org post reply. Use what you have. It should work just great as long as the hdd has a data read/write above the desired cap bitrate setting you will use.
4mb/s vbr will give just over 2hr cap at excellent playback

There may be some compatability between idvd-2 and some chipsets, but if you do not run into these, what you have will work fine

I have this unit and it works great

[lordsmurf]

Look at the TDK indiCAPTURE USB 2.0 if you want a new capture device. Supposedly, it works well. Have yet to see for myself.