I would like to capture from several different sources simultaneously.

Question

Is this realistic with one computer or would it be better to purchase additional units for capturing as well. And if I was using them primarily for the purpose of capturing as well as networking for the sake of speeding up compressor would any of the smaller systems be adequate?
(I could possibly need to capture from up to 4 devices at the same time)

Answer 1

What Randy and David say is true.
Here's my story.
For the last few summers, I pick one day to do a sunrise to sunset time lapse capture from the deck of my lake cottage. The camera looks out across the back lawn, to the dock, the lake and the hills on the far side - about 1/2 mile away. The sky is an enormous presence.
The first time I did this was a spur of the moment lark - a "wouldn't it be cool if" moment. I had a camera, a tripod, my laptop and software which could capture using time lapse. I hooked things up quickly, turned everything on and voilà. The video turned out wonderfully. Each year since, the production has gotten a a bit more involved.
Last year ...
I watched the weather reports daily. I went online tracking weather patterns moving across the continent. This was all undertaken to pinpoint the day when we would likely get the perfect combination of sky, light clouds, strong sun, wind and water.
It looked like the day was coming. The evening before I placed the camera on a weighted and braced tripod in a secure area on the back porch. It was under cover and secured to keep it from moving if there was a breeze. The area was cordoned to keep people from walking on that part of the deck to prevent vibrations. The laptop computer went inside the house on a very secure table. The camera and computer were both connected to house power but each had a fully charged battery attached if we lost power.
I ran a 3 meter Granite Digital firewire cable from the camera outside to the laptop computer in the house. All cables were taped down or routed so there was no possibility for someone to trip over them. The firewire cable was connected to the laptop via a PCMCIA firewire card and there was an external FW400 drive connected via the computer's OEM port to hold the captured material. The drive was bus powered so even if we lost power, the computer's battery would keep things going.
Before I went to bed, I insulated and covered the camera with a waterproof setup to keep it from getting wet from condensation or there was an unexpected thunderstorm during the night.
Up before dawn, I uncovered the camera and had the capture running when the first light showed in the eastern sky. It was a spectacular sunrise.
After breakfast, I checked on the setup. It was humming along so I went for a swim, ran errands in town, played a round of golf.
It was a beautiful day. The clouds were marching across the sky, the lake had small ripples as wind played on the surface. The sun was strong which generated sharp shadows marking the passage of time. The whole day I was thinking, "we nailed it, this is THE PERFECT day to capture".
Late afternoon, I came into the house and on my way upstairs to take a shower and change for dinner, I noticed the laptop. The cover was closed. I had left it open. With my heart racing, I opened the lid and the computer woke up ...
Someone - (no one ever admitted to touching the machine - even under threats of withholding all ice cream) - closed the lid and the machine went to sleep. There was no capture as the temp file ended up without an EOF marker. All that I had to show for the day was a several hundred MB unrecoverable file.
The next day dawned with a foggy rain that hung on for the last few days of vacation ...
good luck,
x