real-time monitoring/recording needed

Please build me a system ASAP--or point me to a good dedicated/stand-alone system!!!

It's very important that I have real-time monitoring/recording because I am expecting people with guns to be rushing my house--no kidding--the step daughter has hooked up with some bad drug dealers and my wife has pissed them off.
I need 4 cameras now but will need up to 8 in the future on this system.

I don't need HD quality survelance but I think color 720x480 would be nice.

I need 4 cameras now--and 3 of them need to pick up fairly long-range stuff--like 0-200+ feet away and they all need to be outdoor cameras.

There is a street light on my property in the center of this rural field 500'x500' property that provides some light toward the perimeter where 3 of the cameras will be pointing.

I have two old PCs with Windows XP on them and two monitors. Maybe I can use the PCs but I don't know what kind of internal video card slots they have--how can I tell?? I think I can save a lot of money if I use my own PC but if this isn't possible, I can use the monitor(s), right. I don't think the hard drives are very big so maybe I should just go with a dedicated DVR setup and use my PC monitor. I also have a big screen TV and would like to switch from a monitor to the TV to view if possible.

I don't need Internet access but it would be nice if the system would call me when movement is detected--then I could go to a PC and access the video to see what set it off to record. Can I do this with an I-Phone too??

I really don't want choppy video. Four-camera systems that record up to 120 FPS will give me 30 FPS recording for each camera, right? That's standard video quality, right? I must be able to catch and IDENTIFY the folks on my property in this video.

I have an UPS for my PC that I will use for this system too.

I have a wireless network and plan to get a 500 GB-1 TB hard drive and either hook it to a PC on the network or to the WIFI itself. Can I use this hard drive with this dedicated system as well as with my PCs for storage? I think a dedicated survelience system is best because I don't want to fill up a hard drive on one of my networked PCs--is this good thinking?

I will be installing this myself and have some common sense--but I'm no brainiac--and I have to get this system ASAP and take off work when it arrives to get it working NOW.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!

Also...I would also like to be able to see all four views at once on my monitor and be able to choose which one to make full-screen if I see someone approaching on a particular view/camera.

[scorpion]

You are best to hire a company that is local to you, and have them come out, and do a site survey. If you need to see at 200 feet then you need some serious consultation, and design.

There is a teeter totter effect with DVRs.

You can have choppy video, but the video will allow you to count every leaf on the tree, or you can have smooth motion video, but the video may be degraded some.

Several years ago when hard drives were expensive then the budget would set the hard drive size, and that would set up how the DVR would be "programmed".

If you have to install it your self the avoid the CCTV in a box, and everything is included.

They come with wide angle cameras, and there is a distance distortion beyond 20 from the camera. You are going to need an optical, and an electronic zoom camera to get up on 200 feet.

Perhaps a PTZ camera might be the right choice?

Good luck with your install!