Bogdan....
If you use the Gigabyte 8knxp you will have a Texas Instruments 1394 chip that is OHCI compliant. Vegas uses any OHCI compliant 1394 interface. Most people recommend the TI based chip.

I chose the Gigabyte because of reviews and all the onboard connections (true full duplex Gigabit Ethernet, firewire, usb2, 6 memory slots,raid...) that actually make it a pretty good bargain for a single chip mobo. Plus they have the dual power feature that protects all the components and a dual bios you can fall back to if you screw things up.

If you are referring to Canopus and their ACEDVio system, I don't know much about it, but if you need dv, plus analog to dv to analog capabilities, it sounds like a good bundle. And it looks like you get both the Vegas and Canopus codecs, but I'm not sure about that. Canopus has a deserved reputation for quality.

It that is what you want,you should try to see if you could get it for less from a third party retailer.

System:
MSI NForce2 mobo
1.5GB PC2700 DDR 300 RAM
Athlon 2000+ (OC'ed and watercooled)

Drives:
250GB WD HD, 7200RPM (System drive)
160GB WD HD w/ 8mb cache, 7200RPM (Backup Drive)
2 x 120GB WD HD w/ 8mb cache, 7200RPM (Running on RAID 0+1)
2x 80GB WD HD, 8MB cache, 7200RPM (Running RAID 0+1 -- Dedicated Video)
40GB Maxtor 5200RPM Drive (Music/Docs/Files/Whatever)

Graphics:
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9800Pro (Primary Monitor)
GeForceFX 5200 Ultra, PCI (2nd Monitor)
PNY GeForce2 MX (3rd Monitor)

Optical Drives:
Sony DRU-510A DVD Multi-Format Burner
Plextor Premium 52x CDR/RW Drive

OS:
winxp Pro SP1

P4 2.4c ghz 800mhz fsb
Intel RockLake BoxD865PERL (awesome & stable all bells & whist.)
1gig crucial DDR 400
128meg DDR TI4200 Gforce4
60gig maxtor 7200
Pioneer A06
Aopen 7in1 card reader
Antec SBX 1040 400watt server (lots of room & runs cool)
AC97 sound (better than I thought)
XP Pro
VV3 soon to be 4
Photoshop7 (I love mixing stills with video)
19" 955DF Samsung (not the best but was 189 bucks)
Artic silver ceramique & standard fan/sink ( 39 degrees cent.)

The first time I rendered in Vegas 3 it didn't render everything, program started to print to tape without completing render. re-installed everything same thing, found out it was rendering everything, 22 minute wedding rehearsal rendered and started to print to tape in less than 5 minutes. I was shocked!! Admittedly it had few transitions or effects but still, I spent 2 hours reinstalling because I was sure something was wrong!!

<<<-- Originally posted by Bogdan Vaglarov : I'm about to build an editing system on a low budget soon.

CPU – 2.4CGHz P4 HT
MB - MSI Neo2-LS 865PE (or Gigabyte GA-8PENXP – RAID, onboard IEE1394)
RAM – 2x256 MB PC3200 (DDR400)
HDD – OS, docs – IBM 40GB, 7200 rpm, 2MB
HDD video – Matrox 80 GB, 7200 rpm, 8MB
VGA – GeForce4 MX440 64MB, TV-out (or 128MB GeForce FX5200)
DVD-RW – Pioneer DVR-A06-J
OS – Windows XP Home (or Pro)
IEE 1394 board – Canopus DV Raptor RT Light

Sorry for the ignorance but do I really need Real Time IEE 1394 board for use with Vegas? I don’t see what Fire Wire cards others are using so recommendations are welcome!
Can I preview 2 pc monitors with the video cards listed above?
Is onboard sound sufficient?

Thanks in advance for the replay! -->>>
Your motherboard has a built-in firewire port does it not? You would not need a firewire card then. Those RT boards don't work with Vegas.

Thanks for the replays, Joe and Chan.

This is what I needed to know. I knew that Vegas is doing different way of real time (software with slightly lower quality while previewing). But the new real time boards all use scalable technology (they grow as the processor power grows) so in fact they are kind of software too.
A bit ugly explanation but corect me if it's not true.

Joe, Gigabyte GA-8PENXP is identiacal to GA-8KNXP in everything exept the chipset (865PE vs. 875). In toms hardware recent review it even performs slightly better for video encoding but the advantage is only the lower price.

I still wonder how do you get 2 PC monitors working together with TV monitor. Usually video boards have just one connector - do you need 2 video cards (like Bryan Gateb's setup for example)?

Cheers, Bogdan

Some/most video cards from Nvidia and ATI support dual monitors.

To hook up your NTSC monitor (or TV) you could hook it up to your deck (or camcorder acting as a deck). In Vegas you should click the firewire preview box.

Re: What are your Vegas editing machine stats?
 

first of all, misconceptions re: ht capable OSes:
http://www.intel.com/support/platform/ht/os.htm
google is your friend =D.

secondly, on with the games!
http://www.fongunlimited.com/htpc/htpc.jpg
http://www.fongunlimited.com/htpc/internal.jpg

lian li pc70 case
tyan S2466-4M tiger mpx v.4.05
ttgi 520w
generic 1gb ecc reg pc2700
wd 10krpm raptor
maxtor 40gb 5krpm
aiw 8500dv
promise SATA150 TX4
siig usb 2.0
live 5.1
52xsony cdrom
16xliteon dvd
52x24x52 litone cdrw
apple keyb
ms i3 mouse
Nokia 445Xpro 21" (19.8" viewable) can do 1880x1440x75hz =). still proud that i got it 3 years ago for under $400 =). now eyeing 1600x1200 18" lcd.

actually my dream computer doesn't exist yet. it's in excess of 5ghz both cpu speed and fsb. i hate that modern fsb speed is still so slow. *sigh*. but if i had to pick it'd be:
-Tyan k8w
-2 redundant 600+w psu
-dual 240
-16gb pc2100
-u320 raid 5
-radeon 9800pro
-any viaht24 chipset audio card.
-10x u320, 73gb hd 15krpm
-plasma for monitor
-100' front project for preview

dunno. haven't used vegas yet =D.

actually both nv+ati support dual monitors via software. let's say you have a video card installed on agp port. you can just install a pci version and voila, instant dual monitor. just have to d/l latest drivers =D

Don't need a second video card to do dual monitors. Just connect the second monitor via the DVI or Analog port and configure it in Nview (if your using an Nvidia card). Running two 17" NEC lcds now. Desktop is spanned across both @ 2560x1024. Works like a charm, all on one video card.

yesh there are vid cards that supply dual display on one card but i guess i was addressing the people that don't have that card yet.

I know as far as Nvidia is concerned all their cards from at least a year ago (maybe earlier) to present have this funtion built in. "Nview" is automatically an included feature of all detonator drivers, thus all cards support it.
The last time I saw an Nvida card that didn't support dual monitors was my old Gforce 2 from 3 years ago.

Glen wrote: <<Don't need a second video card to do dual monitors. Just connect the second monitor via the DVI or Analog port and configure it in Nview>>

OK, thanks for all details but what I'm missing is the physical connection of the monitors to the VGA slot. Where the first monitor connects?
Does the card have 2 connectors so you connect 2 monitors?
Otherwise I know most of the modern cards support this function.
Sorry for the ignorance.

Yes, modern Nvidia cards have two connections..one for analog (CRTs) and one DVI (for LCDs). I actually have two LCDs that, oddly enough, connect via an analog interface. Just plugged the first one into the analog port and the second into the DVI via a DVI to Analog adapter that was conveniently included with my videocard when I bought it. Once in windows right click go to Properties> Settings Tab> Advanced> Nview. Click the button that states "span desktop horizontally" and POOF your done. The newest Nvidia drivers auto detect the second monitor connected and automatically prompt you with a wizard to configure your second monitor.

Glen,
Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!