Hello. I am dumb about hardware, cars, electricity, etc, its a miracle I can write all of this. I have a thread somewhere else if you are interested on details, but I think I am being more to the point here.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=147269
I want to record video from my videogame consoles or tv or future videocamera in lossless quality. That means a lot of space required and a lot of disk write speed required.
I currently own a computer, the seller designed it so I don't know if it was the best for its price or not, but it performs good. It has:
GA-EP43-DS3L motherboard <- not R, no raid, it has five sata 1 ports tho, pcie slots: one x16 and four x1, also two pci slots no idea what version, it also has an LPT header without a "connector".
E7200 Core 2 Duo processor
ASUS HD4850 video card (msinfo32 says EAH4850 series)
7200.10 250GB Seagate Barracuda SATAII hard drive, connected to one of the sata ports.
Corsair memory, 4GB PC2-6400 800Mhz XMS2 with DHX (is this good?)
RP-500-PCAR Power Supply 500WATTS
CPD 1006i Power Regulator 600WATTS (the pc, monitor and vg console (150WATTS) connect to it).
Windows XP
Back then I just wanted to upgrade my Pentium 3, but now I have a clear objective. What I want / require:
1. A computer where I can run at least all the games I can right now. If more its fine but not necessary, ie I can't run dx10 games I hear. So I got a solution: Keep current video card.
2. An LPT port available for an old device I got that uses it... Simple solution: Use an old computer I got that has it, then transfer files over network, etc, annoying but works. I'd rather have it on the main pc. Anyway...
3. Room for two cards, one uses pciex1 and the other pci v2.1. These are the video capture cards I'll use. Solution: Current motherboard has room for those.
4. Ability to write 350MBps of video data to disk, usually just for 30 minutes, but allowing at least two hours, and preferably four.
I get the value from 1280*1024 screen @60fps 32 bit color mode + possible audio.
Solution: I only see a RAID 0 with big disks could be the solution (the other to drop the idea )
5. Keep the OS and everyday files on a RAID-less disk, the RAID only for the video capture and temporary storage. Solution: just do that, it's possible right?
6. Keep all the devices with correct power and temperature so the stuff lasts.
So I cant solve number four, because my mobo doesn't support RAID. If I get a raid controller I only have three pciex1 slots, and I keep reading the max bandwidth for that is 250MBps. In another thread someone suggested this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151031 but then I read a review and it says it just gets up to ~180MBps while something on some Intel boards allows much more, but sounds like onboard so it will take processor cycles and I will mind if that means the pc games run slower if I try to record while playing.
Then on the topic of disks I just read on another topic that if you want certain time of recording at an x speed you need a raid with double the size. So I would be needing something like five 2TB disks for the 4 hours I wanted originally, if those can reach 350MBps on raid 0 of course. I read there aren't 7200rpm disks with 2TB, only 1.5TB and those had problems, leaving only 1TB drives to choose from, which means I'd ideally want ten 1TB drives, that sounds like it would need a very very expensive array controller, although the card on the example supports four so I could settle with 4TB and ~2 hours recordings, or wait until bigger drives are released and also drop in price I guess.
I see room for 4 drives on my case, and there's two bays that look like they can fit a drive to but have these plastic locks on the side, I don't what they are for, so if I wanted 10 drives what do I do , are there even bigger cases? Will that need double the fans too? Right now I got three fans, one on the video card, another on the processor and another on the back of the case, oh and the power supply also has one. The tool that is installed to check the video card temperature says 42 celsius.
So, I can upgrade the processor to C2Q if that's gonna help.
The memories are at the limit of Windows XP.
The disks I need at least 4TB, with 10TB prefered, but the rest I don't know.
I need to upgrade the motherboard, that's a given, but to what I'm not sure.
I might need to buy a RAID controller card, which, no idea.
The power supply, may need upgrade?
The regulator, may need upgade?
The case, how do I fit so many disks?
The fans, how do i keep the system temperature? is it a no-issue?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=147269
I want to record video from my videogame consoles or tv or future videocamera in lossless quality. That means a lot of space required and a lot of disk write speed required.
I currently own a computer, the seller designed it so I don't know if it was the best for its price or not, but it performs good. It has:
GA-EP43-DS3L motherboard <- not R, no raid, it has five sata 1 ports tho, pcie slots: one x16 and four x1, also two pci slots no idea what version, it also has an LPT header without a "connector".
E7200 Core 2 Duo processor
ASUS HD4850 video card (msinfo32 says EAH4850 series)
7200.10 250GB Seagate Barracuda SATAII hard drive, connected to one of the sata ports.
Corsair memory, 4GB PC2-6400 800Mhz XMS2 with DHX (is this good?)
RP-500-PCAR Power Supply 500WATTS
CPD 1006i Power Regulator 600WATTS (the pc, monitor and vg console (150WATTS) connect to it).
Windows XP
Back then I just wanted to upgrade my Pentium 3, but now I have a clear objective. What I want / require:
1. A computer where I can run at least all the games I can right now. If more its fine but not necessary, ie I can't run dx10 games I hear. So I got a solution: Keep current video card.
2. An LPT port available for an old device I got that uses it... Simple solution: Use an old computer I got that has it, then transfer files over network, etc, annoying but works. I'd rather have it on the main pc. Anyway...
3. Room for two cards, one uses pciex1 and the other pci v2.1. These are the video capture cards I'll use. Solution: Current motherboard has room for those.
4. Ability to write 350MBps of video data to disk, usually just for 30 minutes, but allowing at least two hours, and preferably four.
I get the value from 1280*1024 screen @60fps 32 bit color mode + possible audio.
Solution: I only see a RAID 0 with big disks could be the solution (the other to drop the idea )
5. Keep the OS and everyday files on a RAID-less disk, the RAID only for the video capture and temporary storage. Solution: just do that, it's possible right?
6. Keep all the devices with correct power and temperature so the stuff lasts.
So I cant solve number four, because my mobo doesn't support RAID. If I get a raid controller I only have three pciex1 slots, and I keep reading the max bandwidth for that is 250MBps. In another thread someone suggested this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151031 but then I read a review and it says it just gets up to ~180MBps while something on some Intel boards allows much more, but sounds like onboard so it will take processor cycles and I will mind if that means the pc games run slower if I try to record while playing.
Then on the topic of disks I just read on another topic that if you want certain time of recording at an x speed you need a raid with double the size. So I would be needing something like five 2TB disks for the 4 hours I wanted originally, if those can reach 350MBps on raid 0 of course. I read there aren't 7200rpm disks with 2TB, only 1.5TB and those had problems, leaving only 1TB drives to choose from, which means I'd ideally want ten 1TB drives, that sounds like it would need a very very expensive array controller, although the card on the example supports four so I could settle with 4TB and ~2 hours recordings, or wait until bigger drives are released and also drop in price I guess.
I see room for 4 drives on my case, and there's two bays that look like they can fit a drive to but have these plastic locks on the side, I don't what they are for, so if I wanted 10 drives what do I do , are there even bigger cases? Will that need double the fans too? Right now I got three fans, one on the video card, another on the processor and another on the back of the case, oh and the power supply also has one. The tool that is installed to check the video card temperature says 42 celsius.
So, I can upgrade the processor to C2Q if that's gonna help.
The memories are at the limit of Windows XP.
The disks I need at least 4TB, with 10TB prefered, but the rest I don't know.
I need to upgrade the motherboard, that's a given, but to what I'm not sure.
I might need to buy a RAID controller card, which, no idea.
The power supply, may need upgrade?
The regulator, may need upgade?
The case, how do I fit so many disks?
The fans, how do i keep the system temperature? is it a no-issue?
Any help is greatly appreciated.