In article < >,
says...
> I am involved in a project where in need to convert 30 or so VHS tapes
> to Digital. I have an AMD Athlon 1.1GZ, could find out more if I have
> to but that is what I know about it. The Mother board is a Socket "A"
> M810 with a bunch of on board stuff , some usable, some not and only 2
> PCI slots. The first two things I did when I got the system about 3
> years ago was to install a PCI Scsi card for my Film scanner and a
> sound card because the on board was pretty horrible, now the PCI sound
> card is also horrible, I bought a SoundBlaster USB sound thingme,
> should be here any day because the PCI sound card has gone south and I
> needed the slot for a USB 2.0 card that I bought so I can run an
> external DVD writer and a USB 2.0 video capture box. At the time it
> sounded like a reasonable way to get around the limited PCI slots. Of
> course I really wanted a PCI video capture board and I hate the USB
> capture device, I am sending it back. With that as background I have
> a bunch of questions.
>
> 1. Would I have been better off just buying another motherboard with
> more PCI slots, if so how do I insure it is going to work with what I
> have. I have found a couple very reasonable on Ebay, but they seem to
> have a different ram, mine is SDram and the ones I have found are
> DDR(I think), in any event they use a different memory, and I just
> upgraded the memory which cost me $150, so I really want to use what
> I have.
Check out the manual for your mb and see if you can't just put in a
faster Athlon. Don't have the manual? Google for it.
>
> 2. Since I did all of this I have learned that there are a couple of
> AGP cards that have video and a video capture system, ATI all in
> wonder is one that looks good to me. This gets me a badly needed
> video card and a nice video capture system and I don't need a PCI slot
> and I wouldn't have a crappy USB video capture device. As I look at
> what I need to do to install this I am a little confused. The bios
> has a shared memory setting the smallest shared setting is 16mb(I
> think it may be 8mb), if I use a real 64mb video card do I even need
> to share any memory? If not how do I set that to 0. There are two
> setting for video in the bios, PCI (and the documentation says this
> will also let you use the on board for two monitors one attached to
> each port at the same time, not sure why someone would want to do
> this) and the other setting is On board AGP. I don't think I want
> either, I want to get back all the resources I now use for video as in
> processor and memory steals for the video, how do I do that? A guy
> that is selling the card I am thinking of buying also said I need to
> tell my system it is a 64MB video card, I don't know how to do that.
The all in wonder will come with on board memory and you don't need to
play with the bios at all.
>
> 3. If I do option 2 above I will have a my Scsi PCI card, a 6 port
> USB 2.0 PCI card, a soundblaster USB device and a USB 2.0 DVD writer.
> The DVD writer isn't mine but is being purchased by the person I am
> doing the video editing for (the theory is we could share it) at this
> point I am not so crazy about USB devices although I do love my Flash
> disk. Does this sound like a reasonable approach or would I really be
> better off going with option #1 and try to find a motherboard with
> more PCI slots and put in an internal DVD writer (eventually I am
> going to want my own but I don't have another IDE cable, is that just
> a matter of buying another cable that has the ability to put more IDE
> devices on it?
I am not an expert on this, but I think you should buy an internal dvd
writer - they are cheap enough if you go the rebate route. I just got
one for $39.95 after rebate - haven't installed it yet though. Don't
forget to make sure that the one you buy can do both -r and +r unless
you already know which variant your dvd player can handle.
>
> 4. Is there a way to extend the number of PCI slots other than an
> expansion box(which cost more than buying a new computer with more
> card slots). I haven't been able to find anything, I doubt it is a
> practical solution, but just asking.
No.
>
> 5. I am not unhappy with the system other than it really would have
> been a lot better if it had more like 5 PCI slots. Is it feasible to
> just replace the mother board including the processor and memory with
> a better and faster processor and memory. If so could I sell this
> motherboard with a 1.1 Althon and a Gig of memory. What is your
> thought on what it is worth and what would I have to spend to upgrade
> to a similar but better system with a bunch of I/O slots and get what
> every you get in performance that I didn’t get 3 years ago. Of
> course if I do all of that, I might find the power supply is not
> adequate, oh what a web we weave.
To find out what it is worth, check eBay.
>
> You may have a better solution that makes all this chasing my tail
> needless, if so please let me know. Other wise pick an option and let
> me know what I can do to get out of this and not spend a fortune
> because frankly, I don't have all that much to spend and this whole
> project is not something I am getting cash for, just trading work for
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