Last week, I spent almost a week just to try to figure it out how to make DVR cards work with my computer. Since I found that there are a lot of DVR cards (Digital Video Recorder cards???) available in the market. Most of them can only work with Pentium-4 computer system. The problem is that it's quite difficult to find a new computer that has Pentium-4 in it. I called many resellers just to ask them if their cards can work with newer computer system such as Celeron-D, Pentium-D, etc. One reseller said anything with Intel chipset motherboard and ATI display adapter will work. I then, questioned them more about technical thing like Chipset 945 or anything? The answer I got was the same, anything with Intel chipset and ATI will work. They also said they have done a lot in the past without any problem. So, I decided to go to them even though their price is pretty high. I just went out to buy a computer that had Intel 965 chipset and ATI Display adapter just for this purpose. Then, I went to them to buy from them.
Anyway, after trying to work with DVR cards, sometime it worked fine. Sometime it didn't work at all. A lot of time, the computer hanged just at the Windows boot up screen. Windows safe mode worked just fine. Trying to replace CPU from Pentium-D to Celeron-D didn't help. (Since I saw many people said that most DVR cards didn't work with dual core technology.) Trying to replace ATI display adapter to a lower model didn't help either. Tried to format harddrive and re-install Windows at least 4 times, didn't help. The symptom seems to be very strange. Once I could boot into Windows log-in screen. Everything worked just fine including video that capture with DVR cards. But, if I restarted my computer, there was nothing to guarantee that the computer will pass through that boot up screen to be able to work as it should be. I would say about 5% that the computer will boot up and works just fine.
I then, tried to install those cards into another computer with Intel 915 chipset. Did clean install of Windows XP. No luck also. No, I didn't give up yet. I then, tried again on a different motherboard that had Intel 945 chipset. I just changed the motherboard from Intel 965 to Intel 945. All else remained the same. This process was done by the reseller since I really want to know if the cards I got were bad or what. It seems like the system came to work pretty good after changed motherboard. I would say about 70% that the system will boot up and worked just fine. Still, that number was not what I'd expected. I needed to make it 100% and I had no idea how to make it after I already wasted my time for a week. The reseller agreed that the cards may not match to a new computer system and they had no idea how to fix it.
Finally, I had to move those cards into my old Pentium-4 system to really make it works correctly.
In my conclusion, Pentium-4 is the best for DVR cards available in the market nowadays. Well, I believe there is some card that can really work great with a new computer system but it's hard to find that though. Even I've called to check before I buy, there is no guarantee that it will work though.