How to build the ultimate video conversion server?

[ppnews]

If I would like to have a computer dedicated to the purpose of video conversion all day, how do I build the most powerful one? Is it the CPU, ram, or does video card even matter?

[tedkunich]

If I would like to have a computer dedicated to the purpose of video conversion all day, how do I build the most powerful one? Is it the CPU, ram, or does video card even matter?

All three... depending on the software you use, but in general your order is spot on as most to least important....

T

[johns0]

The most important would be cpu,get the fastest you can afford and have at least 512 mb of ram and any video card would be ok,encoding has nothing to do with the video card.

[redwudz]

And don't forget lots of storage. At least two or more big harddrives. A motherboard with RAID is handy, not necessarily for the RAID, but for the controllers that allow you to run more drives without a add on card. Large, fast SATA drives are cheap now and many of the newer boards can use them.

A 400W or better power supply and a server size tower case are also handy.

[jimmalenko]

CPU is essentially the main factor, although RAM and Hard Drive speed have a lesser yet still significant impact. Video card has no impact whatsoever.

If we're talking hypotheticals regarding THE best system available ATM, obviously we're looking at a dual CPU-capable mobo with two P4 3.6's, 2GBs RAM (4 * 512MB sticks), and two SCSI or SATA Hard Drives (one for source, a different one for destination).

In the real world, this is probably taking it a bit too far for the home hobbyist IMO.