Bang for my buck with new computer bits for video processing

[weasyl]

Ok. I have a moderate amount of cash to blow and want to know where I should invest for the best return for video editing and capturing and the like. (I capture mostly from analog at the moment) Tmpeg takes a long long time, would processing speed help this ?

Here is what I have
Asus A7V266 Motherboard
AMD 1600XP CPU (overclocked just a bit)
512MB of DDR PC2100 Memory
ATI 9200 Pro Video Card
Leadtek Winfast TV Capture Card
80G HD dedicated to just storing video stuff if I need to.

Do I a) Get a new Asus Board with the monster AMD 3000 64 Processor ?
b) Get a new Pentium 3.0C and board ?
c) Get a new video card ?
d) Get a new capture card ?
e) Any combo of the above ?

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
I am trying to capture VHS and convert it to DVD's just to prevent the old tapes from dying and as soon as I try and filter at all I am looking at hours of the computer chewing on stuff. I have TMPEG, and also CCE, but CCE I haven't quite figured out yet.

Thanks again

Weasyl

[teegee420]

I say you go with option "A". Encoding is very CPU intensive so a new one would speed TMPGEnc up noticeably. Another hard drive wouldn't hurt either. 80gb can disappear pretty fast when capturing.

[redwudz]

Pretty much a faster processor, above 2GHZ, DDR 3200 memory or better, at least 512M, and a seperate video drive. If you plan to use a video card to capture, a fast video card. AMDXP or P4, if you have the extra cash to burn. Definately a newer MB to take advantage of your CPU. I went from a XP1800 to a XP2500 Barton with a newer board and faster memory and it made a lot of difference, much more than I expected.

[THE RIPPER]

Buy the asus dual board and get another mp or xp 1600, best bang for your buck.

[weasyl]

Rippah,

What is the model of dual ASUS board you reccomend ?
Might have a bit of a problem getting another AMD 1600XP
because they don't seem to make the dang things anymore.
Maybe Dual XP2500 Bartons ? That would be cool.

Oh, by the way, the drive I use for video is separate from my
system HD.

Thanks for your help

[THE RIPPER]

There's only one asus,its the A7M266-D. Tyan and msi also make dual boards. If you wanted to use a barton you would have to mod the cpu to make it work in dual mode. How old is your 1600 ? Depending ,there's a good possibilitty that your 1600 is mp capable, if so you can get a mp 1600 for 116$ .If yer good at modding ,I would get 2 xp 2400's and mod them.

http://www.2cpu.com/


http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?/html/workshop/pinmod/amd_pinmod.html

[SquirrelDip]

I think I'd hold off for a short while and see if there is any bennefit to the Athlon64 running on the 64 bit version of Windoze. So far I've seen only very limited info (anyone???).

I personally like the Intel HT processors but have to agree with THE RIPPER, a dual AMD system may prove to be more cost effective overall. Only needing a new MB and XP/MP CPU is pretty cheap - once you look into more current machines you'll need new RAM also.

You will not see any bennefit to a new video card - not with respect to encoding/capturing. A new capture card may improve quality but not speed.

[pijetro]

I'm sort of in the same pickle as you, but am not in a rush to buy one..I'll wait and see what the MOBO's are gonna be like in 6 months from now, and if any Apps are gonna jump on board to the 64bit speed..If the AMD became a serious contender, then perhaps the Pentium prices would drop in the next six months..

As far as the PC is concerned, i'd wait it out...

[weasyl]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I can't even find the Asus board with my vendors. Must be old
technology. Course if I could find it, I might be able to get it for a song.

I did find the MSI K7Master but it is bloody $284 big ones, which is
pricey for a motherboard considering I could get the state of the
art hoochie ASUS or MSI board that would support the AMD64 for
about $160ish. I suppose the difference would come in the price of
the processor ($116 vs $305) SAME PRICE IN THE END THOUGH.

How would I go about modding the XP's for multiple mode ?
I've already learned how to unlock my processor for overclocking.
Is multi-mode much more difficult ? I like fiddling.

Cheers,

Weasyl

[THE RIPPER]

The L5 bridge has to be connected for mp.Newer chips might be different,i'm not sure. Look on ebay,you can find the board and cpu.Dual might be over kill for you,but the performance is nice.One other thing to keep in mind is,most dual boards need ecc registered ram,the asus will use 2 sticks of unregistered,the tyans all need reg.

[weasyl]

Would a dual processor board be faster than just getting a new
sassy 64bit processor and new faster ram and mobo ?

Otherwise, perhaps I will just bite the bullet and spend some cash.
The difference is only about $100 give or take.

Weasyl