Thanks for the input about Pinnacle vs Matrox vs Canopus.

One more question: If I'm doing the math right, it seems that to buy a turnkey system costs about $300 to $1000 more than buying a new system, say a comparably-equipped Dell, and adding a card and an extra hard drive. Any comments as to this being a "safe" approach, if you go with a "stable" card like Canopus DV Storm? Anyone ever do something similar?

Thanks again,

Eddie

We've been recommending Dell workstations for Pinnacle, Matrox & Canopus cards for years. They work very well and Dell gives very good support.

Gary
Videoguys.com

I have noticed this myself. Turnkey solutions for the PC run this 1000 dollar premium! I suppose if you are not computer savvy it would be a benefit, but jeez! All a DV editing workstation is, is a harddrive and a firewire card plugged into a PC. I just hate feeling the mark-up.

Thanks for the good input. I've lived through the days when installing something as simple as kids educational software took weeks to get it right, so I'm feeling pretty confident that compatability has progressed to the point this could be do-able. Can I run a system by videoguys for an analysis first to be sure?

Scanning the Dell and Gateway sites though, it does appear they dont exactly have the big expansive towers they used to, which might be a problem.

Im wondering if it would be better to add a DVD burner at Dell for example, or buy it along with the card.

Any more thoughts?

Thanks,

ya gotta ba a little careful. these days, the incompatabilities that exist are more between motherboards and video cards than anything. I would recommend staying away from VIA chipset based motherboards, since they are fairly problematic. there is also a lot of dishonesty among mobo manufacturers as to exactly what memory configurations their boards will accept. Just 'cuz it's got 4 DIMM slots, doesn't mean it will accept 4 sticks of RAM. Once you decide on a mobo & vid card, I would suggest hanging out at the appropriate forum website to read the experience of others with your combo.

Good luck.