I am looking at upgrading my motherboard/cpu. considering the main function of my computer is creating VCD's, CD-Rom's etc, does anyone have any suggestions on which options/functions are a must have? There are millions of choices and I want to get it right the first time. Thanks

-- derek sider (dereksider@home.com), February 20, 2001

Answers

Well, I am considering upgrading my system as well.

I currently have Pentium II - 266 Mhz with 64 MB RAM. I am creating VCD with this system and it worked well. I have 90GB (ninety Gigabytes) of hard disk space, this is great to capture more than 7 hours raw DV video before edit them (multiple videos) The only complain I have with this setup is the AVI to MPEG1 encoding takes forever to complete. I always batch encode overnight and let the system shut down when the task is complete.

This is what I plan to upgrade to: 1) at least 900Mhz Pentium (mainly to speed up the AVI to MPEG1 encoding process, it takes too long currently) 2) at least 128MB memory, 256MB preferred (I hope this also speed up the encoding even more).

Other stuff I already have and plan to re-use: 3) CD-ROM drive (32X) 4) CD-RW drive (2x/2x/16x) slow but it works great and reliable 5) 90GB hard drives (no need to upgrade) 6) PCI Firewire capture card (no need to upgrade)

Now, it all depend on your budget on how much to spend given that the out of date configuration I currently have DOES WORK WELL.

-- (ktnwin@excite.com), February 20, 2001.

Processor, Intel or AMD,...your choice. If you purchase Intel go with a MB with an Intel chip set such as the i850. For AMD there are a couple of stable options.

As for MB's a couple of features to watch for are 4xAGP, ATA-100 HD support, and with the price of memory dropping as it is, I would recommend that the MB support up to 1 Gig.

As for processor speed, my next full MB/Processos upgrade will be to a 1 Gig or higher and most likely an AMD on an AsusTeK. Why? Bragging rights!

-- me (snake_mountain@hotmail.com), February 21, 2001.

The other important thing to consider apart from speed and memory size, etc. is compatibility. You may have, for example, a capture card of some sort, analogue or otherwise; it's behooves you to find out from tech support of said hardware what motherboard/processor/settings work most comfortably with it. One fine example here is that of Pinnacle Systems, who make capture cards of varying levels of sophistication. Often, in the zealousness to buy, say, a DV500, checking whether or not it's compatible with the motherboard/graphics card of your choice is overlooked, resulting in a less-than-stellar set-up. It's scarcely Pinnacle's fault as it is the incompatibilities between h/w components. Matrox has avoided this in its RT2000 suite by including a full-fledged graphics card in the package, perfectly wed to the capture h/w. The same thing exists for s/w. If you plan to use, say, VideoPack4, note that it's a five-year old app that may or may not recognize some of your CD-R drives properly. Generally, it prefers using SCSI CD-R/RW drives.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), February 21, 2001.