Building great XP computer, capture system?

[DeePeeGee]

Dual SSD in RAID 0 works great for me on Win XP. No dropped frames and all new drives have Garbage Collection on the controller which is essentially TRIM. Def the 4CoreDual-SATA2/VSTA or the 775Dual-VSTA motherboard. Any dual core processor with 2Ghz+ should do. ATI AIW 7500 or 9000 series.

Some 9700 (i think? off memory) + 9800 have rf interference and the 9600's have the weird adapter to VGA no DVI, so if you're like me and want something quiet with DVI pick up a 9200 with DVI and no fan just heatsink. Most have just VGA but ones with DVI do exist! Or scoop up a 9000 w DVI and replace the fan with a heatsink.

If you wanna go stupid, get a core 2 x6800 because multiplier is unlocked and you can overclock it and combine it with a massive Thermalright 120 for cooling with low noise as you don't need to run the fans fast and probably dont even need to use a fan with it just proper exhaust out the back. I only overclock mine 10% because everything runs stable and cool, no need for higher and overkill for sure. Another cheaper alternative with high clock is the E6800 3.33Ghz. I will probably make my next build one of these.

I have never tried the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, have used a SB Audigy 2 for 20 years that seems to do the trick. If I ever need to replace it, i'll give the turtle beach a go. Added benefit of the Audigy 2 is the Firewire on the back for DV transfers so no additional Firewire card needed.

I also have a SCSI card with a Plextor PX-40tsi for EAC CD transfers as every now and then I come across a hella old CDr that isn't recognized on modern CD-Rom's / CD Players.

2GB RAM works no real need for more although old ram seem to have a high fault rate so if you start getting weird glitches or have problems installing Windows XP its probably your ram or you're overclocking too much...

Instead of USB 2.0 on these old MB builds, use the PCIe slot for a 1000Mbps Network card (which is closer to 266Mbps max speed or 300Mbps if you OC 10% but still much faster than the 10Mbps MB one or buying a 100Mbps for a PCI slot) and SMB transfer it to a RAID server is my favorite way to move the files.

Just my $0.02c. Not too much I CANT transfer on this baby. External Bluray drive for DVDs on my main modern system along with an SDI card for Betacam SP captures and HDMI input.

[lordsmurf]

Garbage collection isn't the same as TRIM.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...ed-trim-right/

I wish it were.

With no TRIM, we have to reduce the inevitable self-destruction of the drive performance, maybe even the drive itself. remember, this is just the OS install anyway, no data will be saved to it. Captured video files should be to non-SSDs only.

I found a guide online that tells you how preps an XP install to not overuse the drive, such as disabling swap files.
https://www.prime-expert.com/article...ased-netbooks/

I actually already know (or used to know) a lot of that, from the XP days or yore. Several of those optimizations were things we'd do to reduce system activity for capturing. So it's more an excellent checklist. I need to find my old 2000s capture system build checklist, as I know that guide is missing some.

What I'd long ago forgotten about the drive alignment issues (4K) that we started to face about 15 years ago. There is a lot of outdated info on this, where guides go to dead links. There's also too many Youtube idiots with crap advice.

This is recent video from 2022, and seems accurate to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdNG7YImRQQ

With a 250gb SSD now being $16, I'm willing to run it ragged for the XP OS install.
In general, I'm just tired of heat and noise from HDDs. When I finish other people's hardware/projects, I'll be swapping out old HDDs for SSDs, and then wiring a NAS in the next room when heat and noise are less of a concern.

There's really no need to overclock dual cores for any capture system. With the PCI AIW, I actually upgraded to newer CPU and motherboard, and run i3 with CM 212 EVO or Be Quiet cooler. But an i7-7700K is possible, though massive overkill, and doubles as a heater.

My system builds these days are way more advanced than in years past, and I want to document it for others when I get some time this year.

Audigy cards simply have reduced audio quality. If PCI in use, almost (availability) no reason not to get the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

Instead of 2.5/5/10gBe networking, or USB at all, get a desktop drive bay for direct SATA on both the capture and edit system. This is a change I'm currently making..
https://amzn.to/3oa2ZdX

[DeePeeGee]

While its not TRIM. GC its better than nothing and much more advanced on the newer drives than the ones on drives of past. Plus its on a machine i'm only doing captures on and nothing else. I'm sure the drive will last a long time for my purposes (with optimizations). I think I paid like $30 a drive. When they go they go and i'll switch to just using one for the main drive and saving captures to a 7200 SATA if its an issue. It will be a good test if nothing else.

My NAS is in the mechanical room in the basement. Out of sight, out of ear range. The hot swap bay is an interesting option but since everything's going to the NAS anyway id rather just move it over the network instead of physically removing and install drives in different machines, then moving it over to the NAS anyway. Just seems like one more step.

The overclock is not necessary and strictly for fun. I'm going to go back to regular clocks to ensure stability and remove the fan attached to the massive heatsink and see if that's enough for a nice quiet system. Aren't the PCI AIW cards crapola?

I messaged you regarding Virtual dub as using that new BV10 has lead to twitchy / shaky video overlay with the "ch 2" numbers a little blurry as well until I switch to preview mode and then it displays fine but uses ~55-65% CPU.... Not sure why overlay isn't working, any ideas? With the old 7600 -> TBC-1000 Overlay worked fine. 9800 -> BV10, have to use Preview...

The Turtle Beach Santa Cruz cards are noticeably better than the SB cards? I've never compared so i'll take your word and definitely grab one. SB always sounded good to me and that's as far as I went lol

[lordsmurf]

Part of the issue with NAS is that you really need to keep capture systems off the network, especially older OS that are easily defeated by modern malware. Unless the entire network is air gapped, not online. System activity, including network activity, is not good for capture system.

Those who have basements, or usable attics, are so lucky. Nothing like that can exist here. Jealous!

There is a single PCI AIW that is not crap, and it's rare. It's not something you'll find on eBay, etc. It took me years to acquire mine. In fact, I acquired more than I needed, and I've since sold off some of the spares. (I may still have a spare left.) It's not as simple as looking for the Theatre chips either.

TBSC is vastly better than anything Creative has ever made. The audio on all Creative cards is tinny, compressed sounding. It's not rich. And no, this is NOT from an audiophile perspective, those people are nuts. When you realize VHS audio is already degraded, it doesn't take much to make it vastly worse. So while some audio test pattern may be fine, or a music CD, or whatever, it's the actual VHS>digital usage that matters here.

I'm busy lately, getting to PMs as time allows.
Overlay mode has never been stable. If preview is fine, use preview. It's always been the safe mode. Some cards cannot use overlay at all, while others are indeed "twitchy". This can be repeated with lots of cards. I don't see how it's even possible to be caused by a TBC, though I'd not rule out other conflicts. It's why my workflows are tested as workflow, to remove as many external variables as possible. When you buy gear piece by piece, sometimes you'll notice oddities. When you baseline test gear, using AIW, use MMC for the preview. Fall back to VirtualDub later, for the actual use. VirtualDub can be a misbehaving variable at times. If you see issues in MMC as well, and know the item is fine (as is the case here), then infamous AIW drivers may be fluky. Upgrading drivers is actually rarely the fix, rolling back to stable is.

Overclocking for fun? Sure, why not. Go for it.
For me, the "fun" of playing wore off years ago, because I started to view them as just the dumb tools they are. My desktop is about as exciting as the toaster. Though I do enjoy my battery Greenworks leaf blower!

[DeePeeGee]

I have an entire NAS dedicated to the Capture system as a bit of a TEMP drive then it gets moved to another one that doesn't have SMBv1 enabled. I upgraded my NAS so its my old one repurposed. Its not even connected or mapped, I just run the command and SMB into it when needed. Theres no archives on the Capture system or anything. Barebones.

Yeah, I figured the PCI AIW that meets your specs would be a unicorn lol Is it a 9000 series?

I ordered up a TBSC, looking forward to the upgrade. I may just replace any music tapes with the CD / FLAC counterpart but that's harder to do with movies and Hi8 etc. I'm all for grabbing the best audio I can.

Ok perfect re: Overlay vs Preview. Its not like I need the CPU for anything but capture so as long as that's ok I will keep using that. Installing a new 9000 series AIW shortly from my trusty 7500, will retest when that comes in with a driver update. This BV10 is fun, another q I asked in PM was re: the comb filter. We had spoke on how it can provide some benefit over S-Video as well BUT in the documentation for VHS tapes it mentions that the comb filter is for better video signals and recommends using the Notch filter for VHS source. Any thoughts?

Yeah I already rolled back the overclock. System stability is more important and low heat. I basically built my dream XP system of 20 years ago for fun!

[PizzaTime]

Do you still only recommend SATA-II hard drives for an XP build? I've read that SATA-III is backwards compatible, but I thought I'd check here first.

[PizzaTime]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

Instead of 2.5/5/10gBe networking, or USB at all, get a desktop drive bay for direct SATA on both the capture and edit system. This is a change I'm currently making..
https://amzn.to/3oa2ZdX

I love this hot swappable idea! I might end up doing that. However, do you still only recommend SATA-II hard drives for an XP build? I've read that SATA-III is backwards compatible, but I thought I'd check here first. Would be far more efficient the use a SATA-III. Especially when transferring it to the newer system.

(P.S. sorry for the semi-repeat reply. I tried to delete it first but I don't think I can.)