Building my dream machine - Looking for advice

[imjackd]

I'm an oldtimer who finds my Dell P200 is a bit outdated. I am in the process of building me a machine that will have a lot of the frills. I'm afraid I have a lot of catching up to do. Right off, I want to be able to capture Video from my VCR or from my Satellite receiver either one and be able to write to a DVD/RW Drive among other things.
Here is my plan for starters.
Motherboard: Asus P4T533 RAID i850E P4 Socket478 400 / 533 FSB
(The P4T533 uses an onboard C-Media audio controller)
Question = will I need a sound card as well? Recommendations if needed...
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHZ 2533MHz 533FSB Socket 478 512K
Video Board: GF4 Abit Siluro Ti 4200 128MB DDR AGP with DVI/TV-Out
Question = Does the Ti 4200 allow me to plug video input into it or do I need a TV card as well?
DVD Drive: HP DVD Writer DVD200i DVD+RW CD-RW Combo Drive.

 

[AdvancedRobotics]

"Question = will I need a sound card as well? Recommendations if needed..."

You don't necessarily need one, but using onboard sound does lower performance a bit. I would suggest just getting something cheap and good that will do the trick, unless you want to spend a lot of money. Maybe a sound blaster live, or if you want to spend more, get a nice Audigy. Hercules also has some good sound cards, and the Turtle Beach is nice as well.

I take it you are buying all this stuff off newegg? If you're not already, I would suggest that you do, they are the best!

 

[AnAndAustin]

CPU: Top of the range CPUs are a bad idea, they devalue VERY quickly, cost heaps and only perf slightly better than the more mid-range CPUs. P4B 2.4ghz 533FSB is about the best buy, the P4A 1.8ghz 400FSB is excellent if you don't mind o/c'ing and should give you 2.4ghz perf with a 533FSB pretty easily.

MOBO: All Skt478 mobos are very good, you should be sure to get USB2, other things like ATA133 and AGP8x are unecessary while RAID, LAN and sound are decent additons if you will make use of them. There is no need to get an Intel chipset, and in the case of RIMM RAM it is a good idea to avoid them.

RAM: RIMM-PC1066 is the fastest, but also very expensive and you are talking small margins (< 10%) over RIMM-PC800. DDR is a very wise decision as in short it will almost certainly become the dominent standard, DDR333/PC2700 is easily on par with RIMM-PC800 and a whole lot cheaper and more flexible. No mobo supports both so you need to decide from the off which RAM you'll go for. In terms of amount 512MB is the least you should aim for.

 

[AnAndAustin]

GFX: Get a 128MB card. GF4TI4200 are excellent and get to 4400 or 4600 speeds. 'Asus 4200 Deluxe' or 'Suma 4200 Special Edition' are the best buys at the moment. GF4TI4400 and 4600 aren't really fast enough to warrant the extra cost, if you want more then Radeon9700 seems by far the best performer but expect to pay $400 when it becomes available. Any gfx card with VIVO should handle output to TV/VCR etc and input for almost any source. If you want a more options and functionality you are better off with a dedicated TV card.

SOUND: SB Live's are pretty CPU hungry and known to be a bit problematic while Audigy are excellent but pricey. There are excellent alternatives like Hercules Fortissimo II, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and Philips Acoustic Edge (the Philips can produce 4point positional sound from a stereo source!). These cards all support 4.1/5.1 surround speakers as well as all the needed hw functions.

 

[AnAndAustin]

DVD Writer Drives: Are NOT a good idea at the moment. Drives are expensive and blank-media is both relatively scarce and expensive. Standards are still up in the air and incompatible. A bit like Beetamax vs VHS, you could be left in the cold. A CDRW Drive and its media are very cheap, flexible and you can convert DVDs to fit on 1 CD without losing any noticable quality by using DivX MPEG4 (DVDs use MPEG2). If you go DVD Writer then check the standards carefully to be sure it will do what you want.