Questions about my computer system

[fallstar]

I need advice, here is my current system:

Abit KT7A Motherboard
AMD Duron 1.0GHz
Windows 2000 SP2
256MB PC-133 SDRAM
Maxtor 80GB 5400RPM HDD
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8160B
Samsung DVD-ROM SD-608
ATI Radeon 7200
ATI TV Wonder VE
Creative SoundBlaster Live!

Note: I realize the TV Wonder VE is not a great cap card.

Now for the questions:

1. I can currently cap at 480x480 with about 4 framedrops every 15 mins in VirtualDub. If I upgrade to a 7200RPM HDD would I be able to cap at 640x480 or even 720x480 with the same amount of framedrops? Or would I not notice much of a difference?

2. Would more RAM increase my cap performance?

If you have any other suggestions please tell me. Any help/input is appreciated.

[jeex]

here's a few tips..

first of all, get a seperate harddrive to do vidcaps too.. results are hardly ever very pretty whenever you cap to your primary master drive..

second, more ram never hurts.. its cheap enough, do that anyhow..

[mysticgohan17]

01. You need 512 Megs of ram
02. Probably a Pentium 3
03. I am way jealous of your graphics card (I have a nVidia TNT2)
04. You could upgrade to an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700, it will save some space and make your 7200 and TV Wonder obsolete
05. How fast is your CD-RW 52x? since you'll probably be burning your capture and DVD backups get at least a 52x.
06. You have Windows 2000 which is great for capturing
that's my two cents

[fallstar]

jeex - So I should just get a second 40-60GB 7200RPM drive? Will running a 5400 and a 7200 on the same IDE Controller cause problems?

mysticgohan17 - I have considered upgrading to an ATI All-In-Wonder but I don't feel it's necessary at the time. I'm on a limited budget. The CD-RW drive writes at 40X.

Thanks for the quick replys. Any more suggestions from anyone are very welcome. Thanks.

[jeex]

fallstar,

40-60gb should be good for capturing uncompressed avi data.. i capped a 90 minute movie and used about 30gb.. 5400/7200 should be fine, just make sure you dont buy a no-name drive..

and i would suggest buying a controller card to hook up your capture drive.. basically its a pci card with which you can hook up ide devices.. they're pretty cheap, about $20.. also if your motherboard does not support ata 100/133/166 the controller card (if indicated) will, meaning you can transfer data quicker, with less frame loss, and at higher resolution.

as for what 'mysticgohan17' said, i dont think you NEED a 52x cd-rw drive, if your current drive is fast enough for you, then sobeit.. because trust me, burning the disc will probably take the least time throughout the process.

so basically, you need a harddrive, controller card, & more memory..

harddrive - $75
controller card - $20
ram - $30 (depending on what type you use)

[zzyzzx]

Have you tired using something other than VirtualDub to capture? Virtual dub is great for editing but I'd never use for capture.

[fallstar]

I've tried iuVCR and Power VCR. Virtualdub gives me the best results. What would you reccomemnd?

[fallstar]

Also, would upgrading from the Duron 1.0GHz to an Athlon XP 2100+ increase my encoding time by a significant amount. Or would it be a waste of money?

[Craig Tucker]

Well I would be extremely pissed off if it increased my encoding time. That upgrade should see a significant reduction in encoding time. You may have to upgrade your motherboard and ram as well.

[fallstar]

I meant decrease. Sorry. I checked my motherboards website and I think it depends on if I have a new model KT7A or an old one. It never really tells how you're supposed to know if its old or new. But if it requires a new motherboard and different RAM I may not do it.

[fallstar]

Here's a link to my motherboards website. If anybody can help me out it would be much appreciated

[Craig Tucker]

From the link you gave

- AMD Socket A Duron (100MHz FSB) up to 950MHz
- AMD Socket A Athlon (100/133MHz FSB) up to 1.4GHz

So it does not look like that board would support an xp2100

[fallstar]

I also read that. However in the manual it says: Supports AMD Athlon 700MHz ~ 1.2GHz or future Socket A processors based on 200MHz/266MHz (100MHz/133MHz Double Data Rate). I'm not exactly sure what this means. I'm guessing the 200MHz/266MHz refers to bus speed?

[mrtristan]

Live with the frame drops. I have a system almost identical to yours, with the exception of more RAM and two hard drives. Both of my hard drives are 7,200RPM, but they run at ATA66.

I also use Virtualdub. I've tried various combinations of freeware and commercial software and I get the best results with Vdub.

I can tell you from experience that more RAM will not help. It makes a small difference when encoding video, but not much.

As for your board version, download Sandra. It's a diagnostic software thingamabob that will tell you which version of the board that you have. I have the older one, which seems to support 133FSB speed, but not officially. Getting an XP2100+ will speed up your encoding time a bit.

If you want to ask me any other specific questions, I'm more than willing to share my experience. You name it, I pretty much tried it. I don't know a great deal about other systems, but I've experimented with all kinds of hardware and software with this one.

Also, buying a name brand hard drive is a good idea. If you do a lot of capturing and encoding, there is a chance that you will burn out a drive. I killed a drive last year, but had it replaced under Maxtor's warranty program.

[mrtristan]

Oh yeah. You also might want to stay away from the latest set of drivers and Directx9. I had some problems with freezing during capture and I would lost seconds of video at a time.

I went back to the set of drivers two releases ago and everything runs smoothly.

[fallstar]

I can live with the framedrops. They're not noticiable, 4 drops in 15 mins. is OK I guess. I am, however thinking of rebuilding my system. A new motherboard that supports DDR RAM and a new processor. I think my HD is fine. When I have more time i'll post excatly what I'm getting. Comments on it are also appreciated.

[fallstar]

Ok, here's the new system I want to build. I'm gonna keep all of the PCI cards and stuff but here is the new stuff:

ASUS A7V333-X/L
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (266 FSB)
KINGMAX 512MB PC2700 DDR RAM

I'm gonna order the stuff from newegg. If you know of a better company please tell me. Thanks.

[jeex]

sounds shweet.. i'd still bump up the ram to 1gig, its so cheap, why not do it?

[Craig Tucker]

Ok, here's the new system I want to build. I'm gonna keep all of the PCI cards and stuff but here is the new stuff:

ASUS A7V333-X/L
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (266 FSB)
KINGMAX 512MB PC2700 DDR RAM

I'm gonna order the stuff from newegg. If you know of a better company please tell me. Thanks.

You have got a motherboard with a 333mhz fsb and 333 mhz ram but a 266mhz cpu. You would definately benefit from synchronizing your CPU with your other components. I would reccoment a 333mhz FSB athlon XP2600 or 2700 thoroughbred chip with 333mhz fsb. They are still a bit pricey at the moment but if you can hang on a bit the prices will soon fall.

[Will Hay]

I need advice, here is my current system:

Abit KT7A Motherboard; AMD Duron 1.0GHz; Windows 2000 SP2; 256MB PC-133 SDRAM; Maxtor 80GB 5400RPM HDD; HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8160B; Samsung DVD-ROM SD-608; ATI Radeon 7200; ATI TV Wonder VE
Creative SoundBlaster Live!

I had a very similar system (Duron 800, 512 PC133, ATI Radeon 64mb DDR ViVo). I added a seperate couple of Maxtor 80gb D740X HDD's on a RAID card but more importantly (and I don't think anyone's picked this up) I changed my KT7A which had just the most horrendous Via KT133 chipset.
I'm sure people will comment they have it and it's great (and good on those people), but it was an absolute nightmare for me. When I replaced just the motherbaord and added the hdd's (no processor) it was like a blessing.
I now have the Elite K7S5A which has the SiS chipset (I forget the model) and it's superb.
I went from the Matrox G400 with a NTSC Rainbow Runner Capture Card (long live Matrox!) to a £25 ATI Radeon and that was a tenfold increase too.
I did capture to my primary HDD with my K7S5A and the Duron 800 and as I say the resulst were far better with the new chipset, and then again tried with a seperate 160bg RAID HDD the quality of my captures were getting better and better.
I suppose what I'm saying is get a new motherboard first (the one I have is £40-ish in the UK now) - I did that and my Duron 800 was fine (until I found some more cash under the stairs).
Will

[mrtristan]

If you build that new system anytime soon, let us know how you like it. I have to agree with Silky31 about the KT133 chipset. It's a compatability nightmare.

I'm about to upgrade my computer as well, but I'm torn between a dual CPU and a single top of the line 333FSB CPU. I finally have some money to blow on a new box and I've always wanted to try a dual CPU setup. I'm waiting to see if AMD will release a 333FSB MP chip sometime soon. They'll probably eat up all the extra cash in my budget, but it will be one fast machine.

Anyhow, I narrowed my most recent problems down to Directx9.0. The latest VIA and ATI drivers had nothing to do with the frame drops. If you don't build a new machine anytime soon, stay away from Directx9. It's evil.