A few quick thoughts....
Use two hard drives, one for the O/S and programs, and one for video
editing only. The big drive makers all have models specifically for this
application that has a less sophisticated error correction algorithm hence
less overhead and more data throughput. In other words, smoother video. I
like Asus boards, but EVERYBODY has their own opinion on that. Just buy a
top tier board from any of the reputable vendors and you'll do ok. If
you're not in a big hurry, the web is chock full of reviews on m/b's.
Although SATA has some compatibility problems, it is a faster interface. In
a year or so it will become mainstream. You can get m/b's with both
interfaces. If you're leery of it now, go with IDE (133 of course) and
upgrade if/when you need to. Better go with a gig of RAM if you are going
to do much video editing....maybe even more if you can afford it. ECC is
un-necessary. Buy a decent case...upwards of 75 bucks. Make sure the P/S is
at least 300 TRUE watts of power. It seems the P/S mfgs are starting to
play with specs like the audio mfgs do. Seasonic. Antec, and PC Power and
Cooling are 3 of the best.
SATA and RAID are different concepts. One is a way to attach a hard drive
to a computer (Serial ATA) and the other is a way to use multiple hard
drives for additional performance (RAID 0) or additional data integrity
(RAID 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) They are not mutually exclusive. You can have IDE RAID
(usually the least expensive form), SATA RAID (quickly becoming the second
cheapest form) and SCSI RAID (which can really set you back a bundle if you
got the desire to). An IDE RAID 0 would be a good application for the video
editing. 2 100 GIG drives in a RAID 0 configuration would have slightly
better performance than a single drive. I would suggest a little primer on
RAID before you settle on this technology. It's not difficult, but there
are some trade offs you should be aware of. Google "RAID" and you should
get plenty of info. Unless you are going to be passing lots of data between
computers on a LAN, the gigabit NIC is really not necessary. ON the other
hand, some m/b's already have this technology on board. It shouldn't be a
deal breaker though. All good m/b's have plenty of USB 2.0 and Firewire
ports onboard, a true necessity if you're dealing with video uploads. Last
but not least....you don't mention video capture cards. I'm not sure what
your situation is, but a lot of video editing requires one. As to the video
card, anything over a hundred bucks ought to work fine for you unless you
get into the nitty gritty of video editing.
Michael


At 05:54 PM 12/10/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi PCBUILDers,
>
>I am building a new machine for myself for the Holidays and I am looking
>for some input from those here "in the know".

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