Matrox RT2000 advice sought

[Hal]

Hi all,
I have taken an interest in trying out DTV, shooting weddings as a sideline to start. Seemed simple, but now it looks like I have to become a computer expert first (which I am not!).
Please help me.
Let me start out by saying that I am about to use terminology I don't fully understand, especially as relates to the 33/66/100 motherboard/bus speed concept.

So, I have decided to buy the Matrox RT2000 rather than the Pinnacle DV500 because of all the negative things I've read about the Pinnacle product. But when I look at the RT2000 sys specs recommended on the Matrox website, it mentions, among other things, a need for a PII 300Mhz with a 100Mhz front side bus (I assume that is the same as my IDE controller #1 on my motherboard), and Win98.

I have a home built PC (by a friend and I, but that was 1 1/2 - 2 years ago, and done by rote) with following specs (I'm just repeating what the ABIT manual said; not sure what is important for this conversation):
Motherboard - ABIT BH6 with a 440BX chipset and UDMA/33 IDE protocol, ATX form factor with two IDE controllers; slot 1 for a PII or Celeron; supporting external clock speeds of 66 and 100 MHz; Award BIOS
CPU - Celeron 300A chip overclocked to 450Mhz
Hard drive - Maxtor DiamondMax DMA33 HD, model #91008D7; 10 GB; 5400rpm
RAM - 64MB
Drives - 4 drives total, 2 on each IDE controller: the Maxtor HD and a Zip on one, and a CD-ROM and CD Rewriter on the other one, thus filling up my internal capabilities as far as I can tell from my motherboard manual.
OS - Windows 98 upgraded to ME

I really don't want to spend all my money upgrading my computer or buying another one; I just want to do the minimum necessary to make it function with DTV.
This is what I thought I'd do to keep it simple:
- add 64MB of RAM
- take out the CD-ROM (I was told the CDR could do all the CD-ROM functions; true?)
- add a 40 - 60GB internal HD, another Maxtor for consistency (ATA/100, I assume)
- reconfigure the 4 drives, IDE controller #1 with the Maxtor 10GB as master (for OS, etc.) and the Maxtor 40GB as slave (dedicated for video storage); IDE controller #2 with the ZIP and the CDR (Again, I'm told I don't really need to CD-ROM since the CDR can do it all for me.)

My questions now, after reading the sys reqmts at matrox.com, are:
1. With my ABIT BH6 motherboard, overclocked Celeron CPU, and existing Maxtor HD at 33Mhz, if I add a new HD at 100 Mhz is there a compatibility problem?
2. Since Maxtor suggests a front bus speed of 100, and I have 33 (yet manual says it supports 66?) and I add a new HD that is 100, am I OK, or is the new HD limited to the max of the motherboard?
3. If the HD's are different Mhz (33 and 100) are the controller cables I already have still useful; is it a simple matter as I think to delete the CD-ROM, add the new HD, and reconfigure?
4. With the upgrades I am considering, am I better off $$ and hassle wise just buying a new computer without a monitor (using mine for both)?
5. Maxtor's site also says I would need two open slots, PCI and AGP. I assume my only AGP is already filled. What does Maxtor do, provide as part of the RT2000 two cards, one to replace my existing AGP card (as I write this I'm not at home so I am assuming that my AGP slot is filled; is that where sound cards go?) What would the second Maxtor card be for?
6. With Win98ME as an upgrade, do I have other problems to look forward to that cannot be solved?
7. Is it worth it to buy a PII 450MHz chip to avoid current overclocking?
8. If I do as I am considering, will the RT2000 function properly?
9. Is there something else I am not considering? I don't mean to sound more computer-knowledgeable than I am.
Thx,
Hal

[cjyo~]

I'll just answer one question:

I had the RT2000 running just fine on my BH6 overclocked Cel300A. You don't need a p2-450. I can send you my slot order if you want.

[KRSESQ]

You are definitely on the right track as far as your system configuration is concerned.

Your CDRW will serve perfectly well for normal CD operations, although it may be a little slow compared to most read-only devices. Not enough so to worry about it unless you're the REALLY impatient type.

I installed my dedicated media drive as a master on the secondary IDE controller, with the CDRW slaved to it. My OS HDD is the master on Primary IDE channel. This is the configuration that worked on my system. You might have to do some experimenting here.

The front-side bus speed is a seperate thing from the IDE controller speed. Your manual says your system will support UDMA 33 and ATA 66, if I understood correctly. If you install an ATA 100 HDD, your system will only support it up to ATA 66. This should still be adequate for your purposes. If you add a seperate PCI ATA 100 controller like the Promise Fasttrack, You'll get full ATA 100 functionality and you'll be able to add a second 40 GB HDD later and your system will recognise the two 40 gigs as one big 80 GB drive. Sweet, huh?

P.S. ATA 66/100 drives usually ship with the appropriate cable supplied. It's a 40 pin, 80 wire cable. the data wires are seperated from each other by ground wires which guard against cross-talk and data corruption. These cables are backward compatible with standard 40 pin/40 wire IDE cables so you can hook up slave IDE devices without worry.

The AGP slot is strictly a video card slot. The RT2000 uses a G400 AGP card in conjunction with the PCI RT2000 card. If you already have an AGP card in your system then yes, it will have to go. If you're currently using a PCI video card, you MIGHT be able to make it work with the RT2000 combo, but it will almost certainly be more hassle than it's worth.

128 MB RAM is considered the nominal minimum for video editing, although I did Okay with 96 MB. Not sure what the system requirement for the RT2000 is. Anyway, more RAM rarely hurts.

"100 MHz frontside bus" refers to the speed at which the CPU, RAM, PCI controller, etc. communicate with each other. Older systems were limited to 66MHz FSB, and newer systems can run up to 200 MHz FSB. Your 100 MHz FSB should do just fine.

Anyone else with experience with this mobo feel free to jump in. Hal, did you see if your motherboard is on the RT2000 compatibility list? If it isn't, a query to Matrox tech support might be in order. Otherwise, the only thing you might have serious trouble with is running out of IRQs. That shouldn't be a problem unless you try to have a PCI ATA 100 controller, the internal IDE controllers, the RT2000 combo, another PCI video card, a soundcard, and modem all trying to coexist. Try to keep things as simple as possible (if the word "simple" applies to computers!)

Don't panic if things don't work right the first time. If things DO work right the first time, let us know how you did it!

Now for the rebuttals...

Kevin

[Hal]

Thanks to all.
It took me awhile to get back here, one just busy, and two, I plain forgot where I posted this.
Is there a way to mark your own posts or posts of interest you wish to track, without having to write down where you were. I get lost all the time when surfing and in forums.

CJYO - Yes, I'd appreciate your slot order.

Kevin - I guess my main two concerns are (1) how to load in the extra HD for NLE and keep what I've got, as I mentioned above; and (2) as you stated, running out of IRQ's. I don't really understand IRQ's. If I want to keep all I've got (I can't afford a dedicated machine just for NLE), I assume it's just a matter of experimenting with placement and luck, yes? Is there a good website to learn about IRQ ins and outs?

Oh, and I did check Matrox site, yes my Abit BH6 is compatible.

Re: my CDRW (Acer) as a D-ROM. When I tried this it caused much blue screen of death and odd happenings with both a music CD and a child's game, both of which worked just fine in the CD-ROM (36x) before and after. Is it a function of me or ???? My manual makes no mention of using it as a CD-ROM.

Thx,
Hal

[cjyo~]

AGP - G400
1 - DLINK 530TX
2 - RT2000
3 - Fasttrak100 raid controller
4 - Diamond MX300 soundcard
5 - open

[Elie]

Hi Guys,

I recommend at least a PIII 550 or better here's why..

In MVT 2.0 new awesome 3D effects were introduced, well those 3D effects require a bit of horse power to run in realtime, my PII 350 runs most of them but still a small number will require me to force render, So until I upgrade my machine to a pair of PIII 550's or 600's, I'll need to render aprox 4 transitions.

A Celeron 300a clocked to 450 still may do the trick, I personally have'nt tried it, but I guess in your case if it works hey all the better

Regards,
Elie

[cjyo~]

Just a note, I am actually running my RT2000 on an ASUS CUBX and a P3-800 now.

I primarily upgraded to improve AfterFX performance, but I was using the BH6/Cel300a@450 with MVT 1.0 sp3 with no problems.