Thanks

[canadateck]

Thanks

[redwudz]

Well, you'll probably get a lot of suggestions. Sure, dual processors are better, but I don't know that they will help much with capturing. You would have to use programs that take advantage of dual processors. Just a personal opinion, but I would go for a fast single processor and DDR memory, preferably 3200 or faster. Memory capacity, 512MB, dual channel for starts, more is good, but not necessary. A fast P4 is usually recommended here, but I use a AMD. If you are capturing, a good video card is what you need. No recommendations, I will leave that to others. I would explore Lord Smurf's site, though. (I use a ADVC-100) RAID0 is good, just use a seperate boot drive. I use an onboard RAID0 with no problems, along with a Promise TX2 controller for additional drives. Bottom line, do a lot a research before you commit to a final system, it will pay off in the end. One place I use for motherboard information:http://www.motherboards.org/

[rallynavvie]

Booo, didn't I just get finished authoring a huge thread regarding all this?

1. Dual processors are cool 8)
2. Raid 1 > RAID 0 (and not because of the numerical value)
3. Canopus' DV Storm 2 is cool
4. Memory is dependent on A) the CPUs FSB, and B) how your board utilizes it
5. Whatever CPU is on sale

I can quantify all those a bit more if needed...

[MrMungus]

Building your own computer is easy. I got the parts for my new one last week on Friday and by Friday night I was capturing video.

1- Motherboard, will dual Possessor be better then single? Any suggestions on a good board considering the questions below.

I'd go with a single. The extra cost of a dual proc motherboard and a second processor doesn't seem worth it to me. I'm doing video capture on a 3ghz CPU and it's running at only around 35%.

2- I want to build a raid array "0" I only want speed not to concerned with making sure everything is backed up , is an onboard Raid controller better? then a Pci controller?. Also with the raid 0, I only want to capture and edit, so is it possible to boot from another Drive that will hold my OS?

Why bother with a raid? Maybe I'm ignorant in this area. I'm using an old 120GB 7200 hard drive (I was going to get another, bigger, hard drive with the new computer but realized that I'm not going to use the space on the drive for very long since I'd be capping then burning to DVD so I'm going to just wait until I *need* a bigger drive because by then the prices will have dropped (even more). Somebody want to enlighten me on the benefits of a raid?
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3- Capture Card. Right now I have an ATI aiw 7500, with the computer I building, would it be better to get a new Capture card? I'm also not just set on Capture cards. anything that would be better I would like to get, Just want something that will do "VERY" good captures, I capture lots of TV and Laserdisc's, so I would like the best possible quality I can get.

For capture I have both a PVR-250 and a Sony DVMC-DA2 analog>firewire converter. The former only captures to MPEG. The latter only captures to DV AVI unless you have software like Ulead DVD MovieFactory that can do on-the-fly MPEG-2 software encoding (like I do now). Everyone will tell you that deciding what format to capture to depends on whether you'll be editing or not. If you don't plan on doing anything more than simple cuts and adding chapters, you can just capture to MPEG-2. But I'd go with Firewire capture and if I didn't already have an analog>firewire external capture device, that's what I'd get. Not only do you get the benefits of firewire capture (easy on the CPU) but you have a device you can use anywhere -- at home, at work, on someone else's computer, on another computer, etc. Also makes hooking up and removing sources easier. And if your computer is fast enough, it will be able to take the Firewire input and convert it to MPEG-2 on the fly.
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4- Memory,,,, I have no idea about the new stuff out there now, I have Pc 2700 and PC 133, running on my computers now, but my knowledge of the specs of memory is very minimal.

You'll want 3200 DDR ram. I only have 512 and I might go up to 1GB but haven't needed it yet.

5- Processor?

Just get the fastest processor you can afford. The good thing about this is that I think the prices on P4 processors just dropped because Intel is coming out with a new line. Not sure what to tell you about what the lower limit is as far as video capture.

All suggestion will be very appreciated!!!

One thing you left out is the motherboard, which is important since it will determine some of the limits of what kind of memory and processor you can use. The things that were imporatnt to me were 800Mhz FSB, DDR memory capability, and onboard Firewire ports. I got the 865PE NEO2-FIS2R.

Another thing to consider is the power supply. I have no idea what the real power requirements are for my setup but I opted for a 400W PS just in case.

Good luck and do your homework!