well, in that case... the power supply is worth it then. i have a prescott 3.0E with a 4 disk raid array in it being used as my PVR backend, powered by a 650W kingwin power supply.
i still wouldn't worry about the GPU. the video encoding will most likely be done by the tuner card, or by the CPU (software)...
edit: being AGP8x, it won't be as good as anything PCI-E can dish out... if you really need a card, i'd just use some 128mb piece of crap.
i've noticed a lot of dell lcd monitors would die in a way where it would not turn on even if it gets a signal. all you have to do is turn it off, turn it back on and then smack it. yeah, i know... but it works.
this obviously depends on if it's the monitor or the computer...
you mentioned that the drives didn't power up... did you get stuck in a storm recently? if you know what you're doing, pull everything except the cpu/ram/video card and see if it works then... hopefully your motherboard isn't toast.
actually, i was quite happy with that... it was a shame that the redbulls got past hulkenberg too, but what can you do... it's not like he intentionally held everyone up, his car is slow.
i find it rather interesting to see how "faster drivers" cope with slower cars.
i find it rather hypocritical that this study rates cannabis as worse than extasy. becoming an E-tard and flopping around on the dance floor like a fish out of water, dying, seems a lot worse than being a stoner.
in combination with what amp said, you'll have to set up multiple monitors, if you haven't already... (edit: and make sure lfs is on the default monitor to prevent fps losses)
i don't know what card you have, but i know my ati-based laptop clones the screen by default, and my nvidia-based pc does the same.